The Corleone is definitely worth a court challenge (Image: Honeyhole Sandwiches)
Pike/Pine dive bar and sandwich joint the Honeyhole is facing a legal battle over its very essence: its classic name.
Last month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board handed down its ruling affirming a decision rejecting Honeyhole’s application to trademark its 19-year-old Capitol Hill brand because of an existing claim on the name: Continue reading
The long standoff shut down several blocks around E Howell and Belmont
The off-duty King County Sheriff deputy who told police he had a shotgun and engaged in a 13-hour standoff with police inside his Capitol Hill apartment last week did, indeed, have a firearm in the unit.
Prosecutors say police found the weapon, ammunition, and a pepper spray canister inside the fourth-floor apartment of Berdon Parsons following the incident. The 30-year-old has been charged with three counts of third-degree assault for allegedly spraying pepper spray under a door as police officers attempted to contact him at the start of the Wednesday, May 30th standoff.
CHS reported last week on details from Seattle Police about the alleged domestic violence assault over a fight about groceries and sex that sparked the 13-hour standoff with the off-duty King County Sheriff’s deputy inside the Granada Apartments building. Continue reading
Berdon Parsons via Linkedin
Police say the 13-hour standoff with a King County Sheriff’s deputy at a Capitol Hill apartment building started with an alleged domestic violence assault over a fight about groceries and sex, according to court documents released Thursday.
Berdon Parsons faces charges over assaulting officers as Wednesday’s long standoff on the fourth floor of the Granada Apartments escalated after police say the deputy sprayed officers with pepper spray as they attempted to contact the 30-year-old from outside his apartment door early Wednesday morning.
“While officers were in the hallway they attempted to talk through the door with Parsons,” the report reads. “Suddenly, O/C Spray (aka Pepper Spray) started being sprayed from inside Parsons apartment along the seals of the door, therefore being sprayed out into the hallway where the 5 on-scene officers were.” The officers were forced to retreat and the standoff would then last through the morning and into the afternoon. Continue reading
One of the key elements in a legislative package of renter protections passed in Seattle in the summer of 2016 has been struck down in King County Superior Court.
The “first-in-time,” “First-Come, First-Served Screening Practice” legislation required landlords to, as it was described in the Seattle City Council’s press release that summer, “review applications one at a time, on a first-come, first-served basis” in order to prevent “housing providers from giving applicants with alternative sources of income a lower priority.”
Tuesday, a judge sided with a suit brought by the Rental Housing Association and a group of land owners agreeing that the law infringed on property and speech rights.
The City of Seattle is expected to appeal the ruling.
It will have more legal work on its hands defending other legislative efforts to give tenants greater protections in Seattle’s rough and tumble — and hugely profitable — rental market. A move-in fee cap championed by District 3 rep Kshama Sawant also faced nearly immediate legal challenge. And a recent decision to temporarily ban the use of rent bidding services in the city is also entangled in the “first-in-time” decision.
Lawyers are asking the King County Superior Court to reject a well-worn, dilapidated 120-year-old Capitol Hill mansion recently approved as a Seattle historic landmark.
Saying that the decision has “prejudiced” their client by “causing the loss of a sale” and “substantially destroying the economic value of the property,” lawyers for the estate that owns the Sullivan House at 15th Ave and E Olive St. filed the lawsuit last month after the old mansion became one of the city’s most unlikely properties to go forward in the designation process that sets up controls and incentives on certain properties deemed worthy of preservation by a city convened board.
In the suit, lawyers for Elaine Thorson, the retired schoolteacher they say moved from California and plunged her life’s savings into buying out other heirs to her deceased aunt’s unique Capitol Hill apartment property, are asking the court to reverse the land use decision on the house and send the mansion back to Seattle Landmarks Board with direction to “reject the landmark nomination based on the severe economic impact such a designation will have (and has had) on the petitioners.” Continue reading
Matt Hickey will spend most of the next three years behind bars.
The 41-year-old was sentenced Friday afternoon to 34 months in jail following his plea deal late last year to avoid trial. Hickey admitted guilt to one count of indecent liberties and three counts of assault with intent to commit indecent liberties. He had faced four separate counts of second degree rape. Prosecutors were looking for the maximum 30-month sentence. King County Jude Mary E. Roberts tacked on four more. Hickey has been jailed for more than a year awaiting trial.
Hickey, a former Capitol Hill regular, was arrested in Las Vegas in late 2016 after prosecutors and police said the Seattle writer and photographer had sexually assaulted incapacitated victims including preying on a woman he met in a Capitol Hill bar.
Prosecutors says Hickey’s assaults had been going on for years:
Women assaulted by Hickey read victim impact statements before Friday’s sentencing. The Stranger’s Sydney Brownstone, whose investigation of the fake porn “auditions” is credited with bringing Hickey to justice, reported here on the sentencing hearing.
The man who murdered Ingrid Lyne and disposed of parts of her body in recycling bins in a Central District neighborhood was sentenced to 28 years in jail Friday.
John Charlton, 39, reached a plea deal in the 2016 killing of the 40-year-old Swedish Medical Center nurse and mother inside her Renton home. Charlton then stole her car and dumped her remains in at least two Central District recycling bins. Continue reading
Capitol Hill skateboard shop 35th North is being sued by the City of Seattle over the summer construction of a guerrilla skate park on an island in the middle of Green Lake.
City Attorney Peter Holmes announced the lawsuit Wednesday.
“As stewards of Seattle’s public parkland, we were saddened to see the misuse and destruction of Duck Island,” Parks Superintendent Jesús Aguirre said in a statement announcing the suit. “We are thankful to our partners in the City Attorney’s Office for seeking to hold those responsible accountable for damage created.”
The complaint from the Holmes office blames E Pike’s 35th North and 20 John/Jane Does for construction of a skateboard feature on the island this summer as part of a contest sponsored by Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. At one point, the Seattle project was named a winner in the Nike-sponsored contest but video of the project has since been removed from the magazine’s site. Neither Nike or the magazine are named in the suit. Continue reading
In a Seattle Times op-ed, Seattle City Council president Bruce Harrell announced his decision that the City of Seattle should pay Kshama Sawant’s legal fees in a defamation lawsuit brought against her by the Seattle Police officers who shot Che Taylor.
As council president, it is Harrell’s duty to determine if Sawant’s statements came “within the course and scope of employment.”
“the job of a council member is broader than just legislative activities conducted in council chambers … A council member’s job includes stepping outside to speak with their constituents on policy matters important to them and addressing controversial matters where every word or sentence can be construed for political meaning … Sawant acted within the scope of her duties as a council member.”
The officers, Scott Miller and Michael Spaulding, claim Sawant used the fatal shooting while naming the officers to further her own administrative agenda and political platform. The lawsuit filing says the two “do not want one red cent of public money.” Their claim alleges Sawant called the officers murderers and stated their decision to shoot Taylor as a product of racial profiling before the two had their day in court.
Sawant’s defense contends the council member continued to speak out on the issue for advocacy and accountability.
Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant faces a defamation lawsuit from the Seattle Police Department officers who shot Che Taylor last year. Sawant filed for a motion to dismiss last week.
The officers, Scott Miller and Michael Spaulding, claim she used the fatal shooting while naming the officers to further her own administrative agenda and political platform. The lawsuit filing itself says the two “do not want one red cent of public money.” Their claim alleges Sawant called the officers murderers and stated their decision to shoot Taylor as a product of racial profiling before the two had their day in court. Continue reading
