The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 17

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW AND SPOKANE CHRONICLE THANK YOU Nine Mile residents came to Indian Trail Elementary on Friday to thank the school for help during the October firestorm. STORY, B2 SATURDAY. FEB 22, 1 992 PAGE B1 ALSO TODAY: REGIONAL DIGEST, B2 OBITUARIES, B3 Wheat farmer was murdered, sheriff says State Corrections Department, said Degeor-gio, a corrections officer. If a hearing next week finds he violated his parole, he could be sent back to prison for another year. Cunningham could also face a felony charge of escape for leaving Lincoln County last week.

As part of the homicide investigation, deputies are also investigating the cause of the fire. This week state Fire Marshal Don Bolin said the fire started suspiciously. He said Lincoln County authorities did not want him to release any more information. Cunningham had a small electronics shop in Dekings basement where he repaired televisions and small appliances. No homicide charge has been filed.

Berry did not return repeated telephone calls for information about the case. Deking is being held in Spokane County Jail for violating the terms of his release from prison. Deputies, arriving at Dekings farm nine miles outside Davenport, on Feb. 12 found the house gutted by fire. The deputies, with Cunninghams parole officer, had gone to the house to arrest the suspect for violating terms of his community release.

Corrections Officer Nannette DeGeorgio said the warrant was issued because Cunningham had failed a drug test. The deputies could not find either Cunningham or Deking and the farmers car was missing. A body was found in the houses basement the next day and on Feb. 14 it was identified as Deking. On the same day, Seattle police arrested Cunningham, who was driving Dekings car.

Cunningham faces five charges of community release violation with the Washington Cunningham moved into Dekings house last August where he planned to live during his community release from the Washington State Penitentiary. He served nearly two years in prison after being convicted for giving marijuana to minors. Ron Protsman, a friend of both men, said Deking liked to help people in need. Dick felt Mr. Cunningham got a bad deal, said Protsman.

He always seemed to be for the underdog. It was the idea that a man had paid his dues so Dick tried to help him, said Protsman. Now, I dont know what to think. By Kara Briggs Staff writer A Davenport wheat farmer, whose body was found in the smoldering debris of his house, was a homicide victim, the Lincoln County sheriff said. Sheriff Dan Berry said Friday in a prepared statement that an autopsy showed that Dick Deicing, 42, was slain.

He refused to reveal the cause of death or what led his office to determine it was a homicide. Berry said David Cunningham, 40, a parolee who worked on Dekings farm for room and board, is the prime suspect. City must pay attorney costs in couples suit Lawyer: Obtaining police files while also winning fees a first By Bill Morlin Staff writer The city of Spokane must pay John and Sue Evans $3,000 in attorney fees for a lawsuit they brought to obtain the police files about their sons death, Superior Court Judge Kathleen OConnor ruled Friday. The judge denied an additional $25-a-day penalty, which she could have assessed against the police department for each day it refused to release the files about the 1989 death of 13-year-old Russell Evans. OConnor said the city, through its attorneys and Police Chief Terry Mangan, acted in good faith by releasing the files shortly before the lawsuit went to trial.

But the judge didnt agree with the citys argument that the reports were released under a state law that doesnt permit the awarding of attorney fees. John and Sue Evans say they believe the reports will show that their son was the victim of gang violence, dying after a beating on the Thor-Ray hill in southeast Spokane. Police say the teenager died as the result of a hit-and-run accident. Well, we broke new ground, John Evans said after the ruling. Now, were just going to sit down and pore over the documents and see what we find before we make a decision as to what to do next.

Attorney Julie Harrington, who represents the Evanses, said she was pleased with the ruling, even though her attorney fee award was only about half what she sought. Harrington said she believes the couple are the first individuals in Spokane to obtain complete police reports under the state Open Records Act and also win attorney fees. The previous largest attorney fee award in the state was for $1,000, granted to someone who sued the city of Renton, Harrington said. Assistant City Attorney Sam Faggiano, who argued against the attorney fees, said he wasnt sure whether the city would appeal OConnors ruling. Faggiano said the files were released under the states Criminal Privacy Records Act, which gives police discretion to release non-conviction information to crime victims.

That law doesnt allow plaintiffs to seek attorney fees or penalties. Harrington said the documents show that police havent filed any new reports in the investigation since January 1990, seven months after Russell Evans was killed. Fair wants ticket, fee increases By Bruce Krasnow Staff writer Spokanes Interstate Fair is seven months away but County Parks Director Sam Angrove already is planning how to get people through the gates. Angove said he wants a bigger, more exciting fair and will ask county commissioners to increase exhibitor fees and single-ticket prices for adults as a way to pay for it. The costs will support about two dozen more booths and additional ground entertainment such as music, theater, comedy and circus acts that appeal to a wider audience, Angove said.

Angove also may have a new manager in place by the September opening as Ray Perry, who has had the job since 1985, is on medical disability from the position and may not return. In the meantime, Angove has taken over fair planning. One of his first tasks was to set uniform exhibit costs and establish a system by which vendors would be allowed to exhibit. How someone (a vendor) gets in and how they get out has been left up to personal discretion, Angove said. You can get criticized for that and were trying to avoid it.

Discounts for non-profit exhibitors such as churches also have been eliminated. Local government should not give some organizations a break because taxpayers end up paying one way or another, Angove said. With limited exhibit space there is a waiting list of 150 vendors, he added. Their rents are going up and theyre not going to be happy, Angove said. They may decide its not worth their time to come to the fair at these prices.

The new fee schedule varies by space and area and ranges from $2,000 for an outside exhibit of 3,200 square feet to an inside exhibit in the annex for $430. The new charges reflect costs for electrical hookups and liability insurance. The fees also reflect a profit of 5 percent that would be used for maintenance of grounds and replacement of equipment. In addition, Angove wants to raise adult fair admission 50 cents to $6. Commissioners have set a public hearing on the new fees for March 3.

The Fair Board still may ask county commissioners to place an $18.7 million improvement bond on the fall ballot. But regardless of that, the increases are needed to cover existing costs, Angove said. Also new this year are advance purchase deals that include admission and main-stage passes at package prices. Two adults and two children would pay $33 instead of the full $54 to attend the fair and main events for three days. The fair runs Sept.

1 1 to 20. The attendance goal this year is 450,000, up 50,000 from 1991 DOE help needed if Hanford reactor is to survive Associated Press year the prototype breeder reactor a reactor The Japanese need to know that FFTF is that country. But Breckel said that assistance wont bridge the financing gap, either. Washingtons congressional delegation has twice obtained funding that forestalled Energy Department plans to shut down the reactor. Getting support from other parts of the country might not be so easy this time, Tri-City Economic Development Council President Sam Volpentest said.

Backers of the proposal are clinging to the hope that other uses might be found to justify continued operation of the reactor, such as production of plutonium-238 as fuel for NASA space probes. that produces more plutonium than is needed to operate it would be closed if commercial and foreign investors didnt come up with about half the $100 million in annual operating costs by the end of March. Theres been no change in Watkins position, Energy Department spokesman Tom Bauman said Thursday from his Hanford office. The plan to use private and foreign funds to keep the reactor on line might work if the Energy Department were willing to relax its deadline and begin negotiating with the Japanese about future funding for their experiments, Breckel said. important to DOE, he said.

They understand that the United States isnt going to continue to subsidize the plant simply to run Japans experiments. The reactors marketing team plans to travel to Japan before the April deadline, Breckel said. Its not so much marketing now as it is negotiation. The parties have got to sit down at the table and get serious, he said. DOE has to say they are comfortable enough with Japans offer to continue to talk." Besides the Japanese money, Germany has offered surplus fuel and steam-generating equipment from a terminated nuclear plant in KENNEWICK A plan to use foreign money to keep a breeder reactor operating at the Hanford nuclear reservation has stalled and needs some U.S, Energy Department help to stay alive, a promoter says.

There is no chance of obtaining $50 million from private sources by the April 1 deadline set by the department, Jeff Breckel, a state official on the Fast Flux Test Facility marketing team, said Thursday. Japans Science and Technology Agency has pledged about $8 million toward the project, far short of what the DOE says is needed. Energy Secretary James Watkins said last More than empathy Cancer services chief lives her message Democratic candidates plan state stops before caucuses working, biking, weightlifting proof that people survive the disease. A devastating diagnosis of bone cancer 10 years ago left her with more than a little insight about sitting around doctors offices. She learned what its like not to have health insurance, to be overlooked as a job candidate, to be misdiagnosed.

She said she doesnt want to come off as a glib survivor flaunting her ability to bike 20 miles or attempt climbs on Mount Rainier. She just wants people to know that cancer patients can be cured, can get jobs, can ask for Please see CANCER: B3 By Julie Sullivan Staff writer The day after cancer patients leave Holy Family Hospital, a nurse calls to ask if theyre in pain, out of money, or need a doctor. Mary Duff knows what the call means. Not because shes the new director of cancer services who started the practice. But because as a cancer patient, she had those questions herself.

No one ever talked to me about finances or how I was doing," said the 44-ycar-old administrator. All those things I didnt get, these patients get. In her small office on the cancer ward, the 5-foot-3-inch Duff is By Jim Camden Stiff writer Democratic presidential candidates will court Washington state voters next week with visits to Spokane and Seattle. They all have the same goal, to capture the most delegates in the March 3 Washington state caucuses and prove they can win outside their home states. Its in everybodys best interest to do well in Washington state, said Jeff Smith, state Democratic Party executive director.

March 3 is a ter ribly crucial date." Hillary Clinton, wife of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, will be in Spokane Monday evening to meet and talk to voters before and during a buffet dinner, starting at 5:40 p.m. at the Rid-path Hotel. Meeting Clinton is free, but participants will pay for their own meals, campaign spokesman Dan Shecran said. Sen.

Bob Kerrey of Nebraska is expected in Spokane on either March 1 or 2. Sally Jackson, Eastern Washington coordinator for the Kerry campaign, said the schedule keeps changing, so times and locations aren't yet set. Kerrey is also expected to visit Seattle next weekend. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is tenta-Please see CANDIDATES: B3 Stall pholo Mary Duff talks about her job as cancer services chief at Holy Family Hospital and her own battle with the disease.

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