Diamond Parking must refund fee

SEATTLE — Thousands of people who were charged a collection fee along with their parking tickets at Diamond Parking lots across the state will receive refunds, according to a ruling yesterday by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly.

Zilly ordered Diamond to pay $1.8 million for the $30 fines the company tacked on to 57,000 parking fines from Oct. 23, 1997, to May 31, 2002, said attorney Harish Bharti, who represented Michelle Hansen of Seattle. Bharti will receive 15 percent of the settlement in attorney's fees.

Bharti said that when drivers had failed to pay or didn't pay enough for parking at Diamond lots, they were given "tickets" by the company. If the ticket wasn't paid within 15 days, the company sent a delinquency letter, asking for the original fine plus a collection fee.

Additional fees imposed by collection agencies must be authorized by statute, Bharti said.

Bharti is bringing a similar suit against the Spokane-based Ticket Track, which collects parking fines for eight parking companies.

Members of the class-action suit against Diamond must submit claims by April and refunds are expected to be issued in July. For more information, contact Bharti at 206-706-6400 or bharti@lawyer.com.

Earthquakes rattle western Oregon

PORTLAND — Western Oregon was rattled by a 5.5-magnitude earthquake last night.

The quake occurred at 5:07 p.m. and was centered 154 miles west of Portland, according to seismologists at the University of Washington.

Another group of earthquakes shook the ocean floor more than 100 miles west of Lincoln City. The two largest tremors were magnitude 5.5 and 5.3, not large enough to trigger a tsunami or tidal wave. "If an earthquake of this magnitude occurred on land, it would cause some damage," said Lou Clark, earth science information officer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

Opel lawyers try to suppress some evidence in murder trial

EVERETT — Some of the evidence against accused killer Barbara Opel shouldn't be admitted during her upcoming trial because police obtained it illegally from two vehicles, Opel's attorneys argue in documents they filed yesterday in court.

Opel, charged with aggravated first-degree murder, could face the death penalty if she is convicted. She is accused of bribing a group of teenagers, including her daughter, to kill her employer, Jerry Heimann, in April 2001.

The evidence in question was in a U-Haul and a Dodge truck police impounded and later searched. Opel rented the U-Haul after Heimann's death and moved out of his house. The Dodge truck belonged to Heimann.

Yesterday's filing says the Everett Police Department impounded the U-Haul and some contents of the truck without probable cause. All they knew when they took the moving truck was that Opel had rented it using someone else's credit card, court documents say. Police took a wheelbarrow, a jack and a spare tire from the back of the truck, court documents say.

New power line to go through King County water source

RENTON — The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has decided the best route for a new high-voltage transmission line near Snoqualmie is through the Cedar River Watershed.

BPA officials this week named the watershed route as the preferred path for the 500,000-volt power line.

The watershed is the primary source of water for most of King County's 1.7 million residents. Seattle city officials don't want the line running through the watershed, but alternative routes through Covington and Maple Valley also are opposed by residents who don't want the power lines and towers in their communities.

The BPA's preferred route would follow an existing transmission line that was built 25 years ago. Construction would require clear-cutting about 90 acres.

Opponents fear that erosion would pollute water and require the Seattle utility to build a $150 million filtration plant.

The BPA says the new line is needed to prevent brownouts.

Seattle Times staff and news services.