Youth detained on child-molestation warrants

Both Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee police officers last Wednesday were involved in the arrest near the Grand Coulee Post Office of a juvenile wanted in a series of warrants on five counts of first-degree child molestation and five counts of second-degree incest.

A Coulee Dam officer, Joe Lauseng, who was at the post office at the time, was approached by the youth’s grandfather, who told him that he had the 15-year-old in his SUV parked nearby.

Lauseng, because of the seriousness of the warrants, detained the juvenile and because of jurisdictional matters, informed Grand Coulee police of the incident and waited for the arrival of a local police officer.

When Grand Coulee officer Sean Cook arrived on the scene, the youth was turned over to him and he was taken to the Grant County juvenile facility on the warrants.