Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
SPRAGUE — A child abduction case file will be sealed, but it won’t be vacated.
During a Tuesday, Sept. 24 hearing in Lincoln County Superior court, the case of James R. Stocker was sealed by the court.
Stocker, 25, now of Spokane, was convicted of second-degree kidnapping when he was a juvenile in 2015 in Sprague.
Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Adam Walser said the case was sealed in accordance with the law, as Stocker had met all the statutory requirements for the records to be closed to the public.
However, Walser argued the case was significant enough that it should not be vacated, which would have erased it from the court record.
The judge agreed.
Stocker’s request to seal and vacate the record stems from his guilty plea in an attempted kidnapping on March 8, 2015, in Sprague City Park.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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