Here’s the “did you know” for the day: on June 13, 1966 — 41 years ago today — police adopted the use of “Miranda Rights,” they now read before any possible questioning of suspects.

Here’s an interesting tidbit of how it came about (courtesy of wikipedia). In 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested for kidnapping and rape. He gave a confession and was convicted, but it was overturned by the supreme court because he didn’t understand his rights not to incriminate himself.

He was later tried and — using witness testimony instead of the confession — convicted. However, he was later killed in a knife fight. And guess what? His killer invoked his Miranda rights and refused to talk to police.

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Local attorney Paul Fjelstad will give you scores of reasons why you should care about who’s sitting on the bench in Kitsap County, as well as in the rest of the state.

Fjelstad has created votingforjudges.org, a site devoted to giving you lots of information about the judicial branch of government, and why you be involved in selecting them.

Granted, this year’s judicial elections won’t include much locally (Clallam County’s adding one new superior court position, to be voted on this fall, though). But Paul provides an early start for educated voters who know that in 2008, every superior court judge in the state is up for election.

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Another roadside memorial was unveiled Thursday in Kent in honor of a Central Kitsap woman killed by a drunk driver.

Heather Lee Meadows was driving on I-5 near Kent when a drunk driver went the wrong way onto the freeway and hit her head on the night of March 13, 2005.

Her parents (pictured at the sign, courtesy of a photo by Marsha Masters), Greg and Leah were interviewed by Komo 4 in a story that aired last night.

In December, I wrote a Sunday story about roadside memorials that you can read here.

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Those familiar with our courts system know delays in cases — criminal or civil — are not uncommon.

It come as no surprise, then, that two notable cases discussed at length on this blog have been delayed, albeit for very different reasons.

We reported today that the trial of a Seabeck woman charged with the homicide by abuse of her adopted son has been delayed yet again, to August.

And I’ve just been informed that the sentencing of of Edward E. Scott, the Navy’s former command master chief who was arrested in an internet sex sting and has already pleaded guilty, has been put off one more week, to June 18.

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On Jan. 13, 2007, a Bremerton man was walking his dog outside his apartment when he slipped, fell on a patch of ice, and broke his wrist.

Lawyers on the man’s behalf have filed suit with the apartment complex’s owners as a result, stating in court documents filed May 31 that the “defendant had a duty to maintain its parking lot surface in a safe condition for its residents.”

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It was a month of involving an Amber Alert, a crosswalk sting (pictured), and even a meth lab bust.

For all the month’s crime and justice news on the peninsula, click below.

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I got a call today from a Bremerton woman who said she had to chuckle when she saw our Code 911 section in Monday’s paper.

The woman was a victim of a burglary over the weekend, in which the suspect left behind a bowel movement in her apartment (which we headlined “Insult to Injury”).

It turns out that the reason she wasn’t staying in the home in the first place was because her sewer pipes overflowed, and her housed had been filled an abundance of what a burglar would later leave behind.

“I was already forced out of my house by poop one time,” she told me.

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How many calls are your cops responding to each year? And how fast do they usually get there?

Inside the Port Orchard Police Department’s Annual Report for 2006 are some very interesting law enforcement statistics.

The stats include each county agency — Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Port Orchard, Bremerton and the county sheriff’s office — but not the tribal departments.

Let’s start with calls for service and average response time, both of which you can view by clicking the links.

As you can see from calls for service, the size of the agency — the sheriff’s office being the biggest — clearly dictates the amount of calls they get. With response time, though, the explanation is a little trickier.

Photo of the badge courtesy of the Port Orchard Police web site.

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