Thurston County Defense Attorneys

NW today: Coastal towers will be tsunami safe havens

What’s news in the Northwest today:

ABERDEEN, Wash. — Twenty-nine towers, parking structures and elevated berms may be built on the Washington coast as emergency sites where people could ride out a tsunami. The “vertical elevation” sites would be able to withstand a 30-foot wave and would be available to residents and tourists with a 30-minute warning. The Daily World reports Project Safe Haven is a joint effort of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state Emergency Management Division. The University of Washington is helping run community meetings to decide where the towers would be placed. Twenty locations are planned at Ocean Shores and nine in the Westport area.

Former Evergreen professor fined nearly $120,000

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Executive Ethics Board today will announce its largest-ever penalty – a $119,578 fine against Jorge Gilbert, a former instructor at The Evergreen State College who did not account for at least $50,000 in student fees that he collected for a study-abroad program in Chile. The ethics board’s order fines Gilbert for multiple violations of the Ethics in Public Service Act. The $119,578 fine includes $9,900 that must be paid in restitution to the college. The ethics board’s investigation began in July 2009, after a referral from the state auditor. The referral alleged that Gilbert, while at Evergreen, “may have misappropriated public funds, entered into contracts on behalf of the college with a company owned by his family members, received financial gain from his position as a state employee and used state resources to benefit himself and his family members,” according to a news release from the Washington attorney general. The release says Gilbert may have used a family business to book travel for the students’ trips to Chile. Gilbert retired from his faculty position in November 2009 as part of a settlement with the college. As part of the settlement, Gilbert repaid Evergreen $23,579 that the college paid to 13 students who were reimbursed for some of their expenses for a 2008 trip to Chile.

Pasco murder trial begins in ‘onion fields’ case

PASCO, Wash. — A murder trial has begun in Pasco in the shooting death of a man described as an “onion kingpin” who arranged jobs each summer in the fields. Franklin County prosecutors say 31-year-old Ramon Garcia-Morales killed Alfredo Garcia and wounded his wife in December 2008 in Pasco because Garcia-Morales blamed him for his financial hardships. In opening arguments Thursday the defense lawyer said the shots were fired in self-defense after an argument over lack of work in the onion fields turned violent. The Tri-City Herald reports both men came from the same village in Mexico and were related through marriage.

Q&A: Does anyone know a good criminal defense lawyer in the Thurston

There is a Washington State Bar Association website – http://www.wsba.org in which you can search under the lawyer directory on the left side of the screen and plug in the area you want your attorney to be in as well as the type of law they practice, such as appeals. You could also select ‘criminal’ and that would probably bring up more names from which to choose.

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