Local briefs for August 11, 1999

Suspect arrested in mall crimes

Using undercover officers as bait, the Metro Police tourist safety unit last weekend caught a woman they believe is a chronic purse-snatcher who has been preying on shoppers at the Fashion Show mall.

Catherine Salinas, 38, of Glendale, Calif., was arrested Sunday after an attempt was made to steal the purse of an undercover Metro Police officer posing as a shopper, police said.

Salinas has been charged with four counts each of burglary, grand larceny, possession of stolen credit cards and one count of comprehensive theft.

Detectives had been investigating more than 20 purse-snatchings that occurred in two shoe stores at the mall over 45 days.

Man charged with attack on teen

Robbery detectives have arrested a man in connection with the violent robbery of a teen last month.

Edward Van Hutchison was charged with robbery with use of a deadly weapon, kidnapping and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

The teen was walking across a vacant lot on his way to a friend's house near the 4200 block of Las Vegas Boulevard North when he was confronted by a man who brandished a knife, placed it against the teen's throat and threatened to kill him if he didn't give up his money, police said. The man took the boy's wallet and $20 and fled, police said.

Dispute develops over hauling trash

A Montana corporation has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Silver State Disposal Service.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Silver State has refused to haul and dispose of waste material excavated from the Henderson Landfill by Morrison Knudsen Corp.

As a result, the lawsuit states, Morrison Knudsen has been forced to contract with independent truckers to haul waste materials at higher rates than what Silver State had agreed to.

Because Silver State has breached its contract with Morrison Knudsen, Morrison Knudsen has incurred damages of more than $275,000 and could end up incurring more than $1 million in damages, the lawsuit states.

Guilty plea entered in insurance case

Frank Dunlap, 57, of Las Vegas was fined $100 on his guilty plea to a gross misdemeanor for trying to cheat an insurance company out of $5,805 in a car theft case.

District Judge John McGroarty Tuesday imposed the light sentence because Dunlap is cooperating in the case against his estranged wife, Valerie Lou Dunlap.

The Dunlaps were paid by State Farm Insurance Co. after they reported the theft of her 1991 Mitsubishi from the driveway of their home in October 1997. An investigation discovered the car had been impounded three months earlier by Mexican customs officers while being driven into that country by Mrs. Dunlap's alleged boyfriend.

The fraud case against the wife is moving forward, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said.

For the record

Former Las Vegas nurse Marsha Bosworth, 43, has pleaded guilty to one gross misdemeanor count of striking an elderly resident at the Torrey Pines Care Center, the attorney general's office reported Tuesday. Bosworth will be sentenced Oct. 11 by District Court Judge Joseph Pavlikowski. The charge stems from a May 1998 incident in which Bosworth struck a 92-year-old woman at the center in an attempt to get her to leave the dining room.

The body of a 37-year-old man missing for two days was found in Lake Mead Tuesday floating not far from the Overton Beach Marina. The man, whose name was withheld until family can be notified, was last seen around the Overton marina Sunday. Rangers presume the man drowned, but the National Park Service is still investigating the incident.

Gov. Kenny Guinn was named chairman of the Natural Resources Committee of the National Governors Association at its closing session Tuesday in St. Louis. One duty of the chairman will be to lobby Congress on environmental issues. "There is no issue more important to Nevada than nuclear waste disposal," he said.

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