Law

President Joe Biden has made two more nominations for the federal bench in western Washington state: Seattle lawyers Jamal Whitehead and Kymberly Evanson.

A Seattle man arrested Saturday on suspicion of committing a hate crime against U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal has been released from jail. The investigation is ongoing.

A Portland Police Bureau investigation concluded that one of its officers did not violate professional conduct directives when he joined the Oath Keepers in 2018.

Amazon has provided Ring doorbell footage to law enforcement 11 times this year without the user’s permission. The disclosure came in a letter Amazon sent on July 1 and was made public on Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Edward Markey.

Modern day DNA sleuthing has solved two Washington rape cases from nearly two decades ago. Both cases had gone cold until local authorities received grants from the Attorney General’s office. That money allowed them to hire forensic genealogists to develop a list of potential suspects.

Prosecutors say a Seattle man was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal. A probable cause statement says Seattle police arrested the man outside Jayapal’s house Saturday night after she called 911 and reported someone outside using obscene language.

A judge has acquitted a caregiver in the accidental poisoning death of a developmentally disabled woman in Spokane in 2019.

A new state agency was mandated to start investigating police use of deadly force cases on July 1, but it appears it actually won’t be ready for months. Roger Rogoff, who was appointed by the governor to run the Office of Independent Investigations, says setting up a new office from nothing has been incredibly difficult.

An inquest jury has started deliberations into the actions of two Seattle police officers who fatally shot Charleena Lyles, a Black pregnant mother in her apartment. She was killed in 2017 after purportedly brandishing a knife at officers who responded to her report of a burglary. Officers Jason Anderson and Steven McNew, who are white, shot her seven times.

King County Executive Dow Constantine says the sheriff's office and other executive branch departments will not cooperate with out-of-state prosecutions of abortion providers or patients. The executive order signed Tuesday follows a similar one from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.