Latest news with #TheTri-CityHerald
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Docs: WSP trooper's blood-alcohol level was 0.17% 6 hours after fatal crash
This story was originally published on Washington State Patrol (WSP) Trooper Sarah Clasen was driving her personal car on March 1 when investigators said she turned in front of a motorcycle, resulting in the death of the 20-year-old rider. According to court documents, she was drunk hours after the crash. The crash happened along State Route 240 (SR 240) and Village Parkway in Richland at 7:30 p.m. The motorcyclist, 20-year-old Jhoser Sanchez, died at Kadlec Regional Medical Center after Clasen collided into him in her Kia Telluride. He'd only ridden the motorcycle about three or four times before, police reported. She was driving at approximately 20 mph when the accident occurred. Now that more than a month has passed since, more details are being revealed about the fatal crash. The WSP Seattle Toxicology Laboratory found that Clasen's blood-alcohol level was 0.17%, nearly six hours after the crash—more than double the legal limit of 0.08%. Clasen also tried to leave the crime scene, but couldn't, according to the documents obtained by The Tri-City Herald. One witness reported she attempted to drive away before deciding against it, while another witness described Clasen as more like a nervous teenager than a seasoned police officer. According to witness testimony, it wasn't until other people approached her SUV that she began helping at the scene. She then assisted the team of firefighters who arrived at the scene in their attempts to save Sanchez's life. Both Spokane County prosecutors and her defense team are conducting their own investigations, as of this reporting. Clasen, a 13-year veteran with WSP, was at Moon Palace, a Chinese restaurant with 'stiff drinks' that she and her husband, Trent, regularly frequent, according to court documents obtained by The Tri-City Herald. Seen through security cameras, prosecutors determined she and her husband were there for approximately four hours, leaving the establishment after ordering a pizza from Domino's just 10 minutes before the fatal crash occurred. 'Up to this point, I was unaware that the Moon Palace was currently a functional business even though I was aware the building was at this location,' Richland Office Steve Heid wrote in his report, obtained by The Tri-City Herald. 'The years that I've worked for the city of Richland, I had presumed that it was an abandoned building that used to function as a Chinese restaurant.' There is no record of a bill or a bar tab from the Clasens that day. Police are investigating whether Moon Palace destroyed any evidence of the two of them being there. Clasen told officers that Sanchez was driving fast when he was struck, but police reports found he was driving less than the speed limit when the accident occurred. According to documents obtained by The Tri-City Herald, Sanchez was going two miles below the posted speed limit of 55 mph. Clasen agreed to provide a written statement detailing what happened, but declined to do a field sobriety or a breath test.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tri-City Herald honored for dogged public records work. ‘People want to know why things happen.'
The Tri-City Herald received the 2024 Toby Nixon Award for its long-standing commitment to using public records to shine a light on stories about crime, government, business and more by the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Laurie Williams, executive editor, accepted the honor at the coalition's annual annual Sunshine Breakfast, held March 14 in Bellevue. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown gave the keynote speech. The award is given in the name of Toby Nixon, a former Republican member of the Washington House of Representatives who recently stepped down from his Kirkland City Council seat. He is the coalition's longtime president. The Herald was lauded for its long commitment to defending the state's transparency laws on its editorial page and through its reporting despite significant cutbacks to staff and resources. 'The Herald fully embraces its role as an independent institution that monitors the government and informs the community,' the coalition said. The Tri-City Herald is one of five McClatchy Media-owned publications in the Pacific Northwest, along with the Tacoma News Tribune, the Idaho Statesman in Boise, the Bellingham Herald and Olympian. Williams said the newspaper and its staff press for public records because they help tell the stories beyond the initial headlines. Herald staffers routinely request documents under Washington's Public Records Act and scrutinize freely available documents produced for regular meetings of elected leaders of local school, city, county, port and other agencies conducting the public's business. 'People want to know why things happen,' Williams said. That was never more clear than in 2024, when Amber Rodriguez, a Tri-Cities paraeducator, was slain by her ex-husband in a shocking attack at West Richland's William Wiley Elementary School. Reporter Cameron Probert acquired and reviewed hundreds of pages of public documents that painted a picture of the troubling behavior of Elias Zuniga Huizar. The former Yakima police officer's behavior escalated before he murdered his former wife and his girlfriend before fleeing with his infant son. A 300-mile manhunt concluded when Huizar died by suicide on the side of an Oregon freeway. The infant was physically unharmed. The saga was shared by the Washington Court System. Just this month, a public records request yielded body camera footage from a Richland police officer who responded to a fatal motorcycle wreck involving an off-duty Washington State Patrol trooper. The four-hour video showed the arrest of WSP Trooper Sarah Clasen after she struck and killed a motorcyclist near Horn Rapids on March 1. The video traces the arrival of Richland officers to the scene, Clasen's refusal to submit to a portable breathalyzer test and her delivery to Kadlec Regional Medical Center after a judge approved a search warrant to have her blood drawn for testing. The trooper was arrested but has not been charged. Toxicology test results are pending. Cory McCoy, assistant editor, made extensive use of public records to share the inner workings of Franklin County government. McCoy relied on documents provided by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to explore a criminal investigation into allegations against several elected officials, including Commissioners Rocky Mullen and Clint Didier and Auditor Matt Beaton. McCoy and Probert teamed up to dive into the massage parlor scandal that prompted former Kennewick Mayor Bill McKay to abruptly resign in 2023. The city of Kennewick turned over interviews, documents, calendars and created timelines of its interactions with McKay, confirming he admitted to police that he paid for sexual services while conducting an unofficial investigation into local massage parlors. An independent prosecutor declined to file charges. Eric Rosane, the Herald's government accountability reporter, regularly uses public records to bring clarity to the politics beat. Last August, he requested Wenatchee Police Department records concerning allegations Semi Bird, a Tri-Citian running for Washington governor, threatened a fellow Republican at a party event. In a separate story about Bird's ultimately unsuccessful run for the governor's seat, Rosane relied on public records to show Bird was once so careless with a law enforcement-issued revolver that he didn't return it until he was arrested for felony gun theft. Public records not only shed light on crime and dispel rumors, they can help untangle knotty stories when official sources are scarce. That was the case when Costco Wholesale was contemplating a location in Richland for its second Tri-Cities store. A public records request to Richland turned up an email that referred to 'Costco' in connection with a traffic study involving an unnamed project in the Queensgate area. The state Department of Natural Resources acknowledged it was negotiating a lease with Costco and released its letter of intent, which outlined the proposed terms. The $25 million store is on schedule to open this summer. Also honored during Friday's Sunshine Breakfast: The James Andersen Award was presented to journalist Robert McClure, a coalition board member and chair of its government committee. InvestigateWest reporter Daniel Walters received the Kenneth F. Bunting Award for conducting a public records compliance audit by filing records requests with cities in Washington, Idaho and Oregon. The Ballard/Thompson Award, given to seven current and former lawmakers who pledged to not use 'legislative privilege' to withhold records from the public and their dedication to the cause of open government: Rep. and former House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-43rd), Reps. Paul Harris (R-17th), Tina Orwall (D-33rd) and Gerry Pollet (D-46th) and to Sens. Jamie Pedersen (D-43rd), Mark Mullet (D-5th) and Ron Muzzall (R-10th).
