Archive for June, 2014

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Monday, June 30th, 2014

DOMESTIC ASSAULT

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports this morning a 39-year-old Vader woman was arrested for second-degree assault for allegedly trying to choke her husband on Saturday evening at the 500 block of A. Street in Vader. Tiffanie M. Russo was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown says Russo spit at the deputy and also kicked a rear passenger window out of a patrol car.

THEFT

• Someone broke into a shed on undeveloped vacation property at the end of Churchel Road in Randle and stole two five-gallon cans of gas and a saw, according to a report made to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office yesterday morning.

• A deputy took a report yesterday of three watches valued at $500 missing from a home on the 100 block of Enchanted Valley Drive near Vader and subsequently arrested the 33-year-old boyfriend of a niece who had been staying at the property. Richard N. Woodward turned over the watches and was booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree theft, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

STRANGER IN THE NIGHT

• Deputies were called to the 200 block of Birley Road near Mossyrock about 12:25 a.m. today after a resident who got up to use the bathroom saw a stranger on her back porch. The woman’s husband yelled out the front door and the man fled, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He was described as 6-feet 2-inches tall with shoulder length hair and a light blue shirt, according to the sheriff’s office.

VANDALISM

• Centralia police took a report just after 8 o’clock yesterday morning of a door kicked in at a building on the 300 block of North Tower Avenue.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, driving under the influence, driving with suspended license, driving without a license; responses for alarm, suspicious circumstances, misdemeanor assault, collision on city street, disorderly person at hospital … and more.

Marijuana trade: All eyes will be on Centralia with legal fight in federal court

Sunday, June 29th, 2014

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The nearly three dozen page lawsuit filed against the city of Centralia regarding its stance on marijuana businesses talks about many issues, but boils down to one thing: making the city make a decision.

“What we really want is to light a fire under their butts, essentially,” the petitioner’s attorney Elizabeth Hallock said.

Her client, Perry Nelson, would-be proprietor of a retail store RIU420, has been selected by the Washington State Liquor Control Board to receive a license, but he can’t move forward because the city won’t take any applications, Hallock said.

She called Nelson a law abiding citizen caught in the middle of a political game.

A hearing date was set for next month in Lewis County Superior Court, but the city this past week gave notice it would like the case to be heard in federal court.

Nelson’s lawyer’s reaction:

“The federal question has to be decided for the country one way or another,” Hallock said. “What happens in Centralia not only affects the state, now the entire country is watching.”

The lawsuit filed on June 10 is the second in the state regarding local governments and their positions on recreational marijuana businesses. The Wenatchee lawsuit focuses on the federal law issue, Hallock said, and Centralia’s is more about state law.

Centralia’s City Attorney Shannon Murphy-Olson said like every other jurisdiction, Centralia has been studying the issue.

The city put a moratorium in place in November and renewed it in April. The hold on marijuana businesses runs into October, she said.

City planners created a zoning ordinance that was tentatively approved by the city council, which then turned around and re-enacted the moratorium, she said.

“If you look at the votes, the council is split.” Murphy-Olson said. “It’s a very difficult issue.”

Nelson filed the complaint asking a judge for for declaratory, injunctive and mandamus relief regarding what it calls the city’s prohibition.

The court documents say he is a resident of Lewis County, but also give a “Tulalup” address for him. Hallock said she doesn’t know much about her client, but noted he had also put in an application in Everett, so he may have been jurisdiction shopping.

He turned to Hallock, who practices in Clark and Klickitat counties, because he knew she was very dedicated to the issue, she said. She currently running for District Court judge in Klickitat.

She’s already been involved in one marijuana battle in Cowlitz County Superior Court, she said.

Voters passed Initiative 502 in 2012, legalizing possession of small amounts for those 21 and over, and the Washington State Liquor Control Board has been issuing licenses to grow, process and sell.

But her client can’t move forward.

“He has also spent countless hours preparing his operating plans, business plans, employee handbook, filling out applications, and paying licensing fees,” Hallock wrote in the complaint. “Without permission to operate or even do construction on his site from the city, all of his time, money, and efforts will have been and will continue to be wasted.”

The suit claims the city has mis-used moratorium law – a land use decision-making tool –  saying the city’s rolling moratorium is essentially a permanent ban and a pretext for assuaging community opposition.

Nelson argues doing so based on the criminal illegality of marijuana at the federal level is wrong.

“The fear of federal enforcement of federal criminal law against a tightly-controlled, state-regulated recreational marijuana system is unfounded,” Hallock writes.

The lawyer goes into a great amount of detail about how the city’s ban encourages a black market, in contradiction to the Department of Justice directives which prefer a tightly regulated state controlled system.

Finally, she speaks of I-502 as exclusively a matter of state concern.

The state attorney general issued an opinion that local jurisdictions have implied power to zone out marijuana businesses, since that wasn’t addressed in I-502, Hallock said.

But they don’t, she claims.

It’s clear based what’s called a “pregnant silence,” according to Hallock.

“The law did not address the role of cities because it did not intend for cities to be able to ban it,” she said.

Murphy-Olson has filed a notice of appearance on behalf of the city. Olympia attorney Jeffrey Myers has filed a notice of association with the city.

Hallock and attorney Jerrie Paine have filed notices of appearance on behalf of Nelson.

Hallock said she’s charging non-profit rates, because the issue is that important to her.

“They can spend all the tax dollars they want,” Hallock said. “We think the best thing is the city should just adopt the ordinance that allows the state law to proceed.”

The city has not yet filed an answer to the lawsuit, something it had 20 days to do. Instead, on Thursday, it filed the notice the case is removed to U.S. District Court.
•••

Read the initial filing in the lawsuit here

Stolen burrito leads to fatal shooting in Centralia

Sunday, June 29th, 2014
2014.0629.cpdshooting.first6579 copy

A 43-year-old Centralia man lays dead in the Anchor Bank parking lot this morning.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Centralia police officer shot and killed a man suspected of shoplifting a burrito from a gas station this morning as the subject reportedly reached for a handgun as he was being detained.

Police say an officer and his K-9 partner caught up with the suspect in the parking lot across the street and a fight ensued, during which the police dog grabbed the suspect’s arm preventing him from pulling his hand out of his pocket, but then briefly released his hold and the officer saw a firearm.

“The officer then drew his duty weapon and fired at least one round striking the suspect,” Centralia Police Department spokesperson Officer John Panco said.

A clerk at the Chevron service station on the corner of South Tower Avenue and East Cherry Street said she heard one gunshot and peeked outside to see someone laying on the ground outside Anchor Bank.

“The dog was still on him,” Rosie Lopez said.

The call to to the shoplifting incident at the Chevron mini mart came at 9:58 a.m. Firefighters arriving at 10:14 a.m. concluded the patient was deceased; he had a gunshot wound in the center of his chest, according to Riverside Fire Authority.

Across Tower Avenue, a clerk at the Shell station said she had gone out the door when she was told by a customer someone was getting arrested. Nicole Escalante said she watched as the officer struggled to handcuff a man.

“I called 911 cause I thought oh my God, he can’t get this guy under control,” Escalante said. “The guy kept getting back up, the guy was all over the place.”

It seemed like a long 10 minutes, Escalante said.

“He was telling the guy to stop, he kept screaming stop,” she said. “(The officer) reached and pulled his gun and ‘boom’, that was it.”

The dead man is a 43-year-old with a Centralia address, according to police. Escalante said she recognized him as someone who sometimes panhandles outside her store.

The officer, whose name has not been released, has been with the department 15 years.

A group of detectives from outside police agencies arrived to investigate the shooting. Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer and his chief criminal deputy prosecutor joined Police Chief Bob Berg at the scene.

The perimeter of the bank was blocked off with yellow police tape. Yellow markers were set next to items of interest, including on two patrol cars.

A blue tarp portable tent was in place before noon, to conceal the body from passersby.

Panco said the subject was belligerent from the start, when the officer exited his patrol car and that the officer called for backup as they fought.

He described the final moments as the police dog biting onto the man’s arm after the man pulled the handgun from his pocket. Panco said he was told the firearm was multi-colored, as in perhaps black and silver or “blue” and silver.

2014.0629.cpdshootingteam.6603

A team of detectives begins its investigation into an officer involved shooting in Centralia.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Sunday, June 29th, 2014

MAN IN BLACK HOLDS UP CENTRALIA STORE

• Police are looking for a skinny white male in his 50s after an armed robbery at a convenience store yesterday evening at the 800 block of West First Street in Centralia. Officers summoned by an alarm learned the man came into the business brandishing a silver handgun and demanded cash, according to police. The 28-year-old clerk gave it to him and was unhurt, Sgt. Kurt Reichert said. The subject has a gray mustache and wore dark sunglasses with a black bandana around his neck, according to police. He also wore a dark hooded sweatshirt, police said.

FIGHT AT PEPPERTREE

• A 28-year-old man was punched several times when an acquaintance took his cell phone yesterday morning at the Peppertree Motel and RV Park in Centralia. Officers called about 10:45 a.m. subsequently arrested Gregory S. Schroeder, 28, from Chehalis, for second-degree robbery and booked him into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

FIGHT AT PEPPERTREE

• A 50-year-old Raymond man was thrown to the ground and struck with something sharp during a dispute at the Peppertree Motel in Centralia on Friday afternoon and police are looking for his assailant in order to arrest him for second-degree assault. Officers responding about 2 p.m. to the 1200 block of Alder Street don’t know if the cut above the eye was caused by a knife or perhaps a piece of glass, according to the Centralia Police Department.

OOPS

• Centralia police were called about 9 p.m. yesterday after a male reportedly stole the product known as Spice from behind the counter at the Shell gas station on the 600 block of South Tower Avenue. Officers are looking for a 28-year-old Centralia man as he left his driver’s license on the counter, according to the Centralia Police Department.

TRICKERY

• Centralia police called to Providence Centralia Hospital last night about a DUI because a patient had driven away after being given narcotics learned the individual had been treated under two different names, one of them belonging to a deceased person. The male currently known as John Doe faces possible arrest for forgery, according to the Centralia Police Department.

VANDALISM

• Someone broke a window on a porch at the 1100 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, according to a report made to police yesterday morning.

• Police took a report about 2:20 a.m. today regarding the back window smashed out of a car at the 300 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia.

DO-IT-YOURSELF FIREFIGHTING MISSES THE MARK

• Firefighters were called about 3:15 a.m. today to the 200 block of West Oakview Avenue in Centralia where a fire was smoldering in an attic following a small kitchen fire hours earlier. “He had a grease fire about 10:30 p.m. and had already repainted everything,” Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Tim Adolphsen said. “And he felt there was a problem in the ceiling, and there was.” Adolphsen said the man’s wife came home and pointed out the new paint was turning brown, and they could feel the heat on the sheetrock. Crews tore out the ceiling and discovered the earlier fire must have traveled up the stove vent duct and burned an approximately 10 foot by 10 foot area of the attic space, including blown in insulation, he said. The damage was estimated at about $9,000. “Luckily it all was slow,” Adolphsen said.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, misdemeanor assault, driving under the influence; responses for misdemeanor theft, collision on city street … and more.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, June 27th, 2014

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

• A Vancouver woman was arrested overnight after she allegedly walked into a Centralia convenience store cracked open a beer and threatened to cut the clerk with a knife when she was told she couldn’t do that, according to police. It happened about 2:40 a.m. at the Chevron on the 1200 block of Mellen Street, according to the Centralia Police Department. The clerk backed off and called 911, and the suspect was found over at the nearby motel, police said. A spilled large container of the malt liquor beverage 4Loko was found in her room, Sgt. Kurt Reichert said. Michelle M. Milligan was booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree robbery, he said. Prosecutors declined to file that charge.

• An 18-year-old driver and his 13-year-old relative were both intoxicated when a deputy pulled over a truck after watching it spin out, drive through a grassy area at the exit 72 interchange and speed north onto Interstate 5 into Chehalis overnight, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It was about 3 o’clock this morning. The deputy followed and caught up with the truck that blew the stop sign at the 13th Street exit which finally stopped along the 600 block of Southwest Cascade Avenue, Cmdr. Steve Aust said. Isaac R. Kennedy said he’d been drinking moonshine, Aust said. He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County jail for driving under the influence and reckless endangerment, according to Aust. The girl was taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center and booked for minor in possession or consumption of alcohol.

COMPUTER STOLEN FROM SCHOOL

• Someone broke into a building at the Onalaska school and stole an Apple MacBook laptop computer and two Sony camcorders, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy responding to the 500 block of Carlisle Avenue yesterday morning learned it happened around 2:15 a.m., sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said. The loss is estimated at $1,200.

HEAVY DUTY SHOPLIFTING

• Two individual were arrested for organized retail theft yesterday evening after they were caught allegedly stealing items from multiple stores in the 1300 block of Lum Road in Centralia. Booked into the Lewis County Jail were Jade N. Vanauken, 18 of Centralia and Aonoauaalofagia Vagatai, 20 of Hawaii, according to the Centralia Police Department.

DRUGS

• Four teenagers were arrested yesterday afternoon after they were discovered allegedly smoking marijuana inside a vehicle at Fort Borst Park in Centralia. The underage individuals, ages 18, 17 and 16, were arrested and then released, according to the Centralia Police Department.

OTHER THEFT

• Police were called about 6:20 p.m. yesterday to the 1500 block of Delaware Avenue in Centralia regarding parts taken from a vehicle.

VANDALISM

• Two windows were broken out of a business at the 200 block of West Main Street in Centralia, and discovered during the night.

• A window was broken out of a parked car at the 100 block of South Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 6:15 a.m. today.

• Chehalis police took a report yesterday of the outside portions of three large double-paned windows being broken at Thorbekes on Southwest Chehalis Avenue. It happened last weekend and  caused $1,600 damage, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

WRECK

• A 23-year-old Oakville resident was injured when he fell asleep while driving along state Route 8 just outside McCleary last night. Troopers called about 8:50 p.m. determined Trenton G. Darnell was westbound and gradually left the roadway, entering a ditch and then striking a fence and a road sign before rolling, according to the Washington State Patrol. The 1989 Oldsmobile Cutless came to rest on its top and was described as totaled. Darnell was transported by aid to Summit Pacific Medical Center, according to the state patrol. He had been seat belted in and no alcohol or drugs are suspected, the state patrol reports.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, violation of protection order, third-degree possession of stolen property, misdemeanor assault; responses for alarms, shoplifting, suspicious circumstances, collision on city street … and more.

Stranger with knife walks into rural Centralia home

Friday, June 27th, 2014

Updated at 7:23 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A rural Centralia man grabbed his shotgun and pushed an intruder out the door this morning and held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was called about 7:30 a.m. to a home near the far end of Little Hanaford Road, roughly 10 miles east of town. They learned the residents, a man and woman, were sitting in their house when a stranger walked in with a serrated steak knife in his hand, according to Cmdr. Steve Aust.

The 62-year-old man grabbed his gun and shoved the stranger outside, and then pushed him a little farther out, Aust said.

“He held him at gunpoint until our guys arrived; he didn’t offer any resistance at that point,” Aust said.

The only injury was the intruder had to get a couple of stitches in his head because the resident hit him at some point with the butt end of the gun, Aust said.

The man, Sean M. Ferrel, 43, from Bremerton, was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and then was to be booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree burglary, Aust said.

Aust said it’s not clear what he would have been doing in the area, or why he entered someone else’s house.

“The guy’s not local either,” he said. “It sounds like one of these high on drugs (things).”

Aust said that at some point there also may have been a machete involved, but further details weren’t yet available.

Judge: No crime for founder of House of The Rising Son

Thursday, June 26th, 2014
2014.0626.judy.chafin.closeup6549

Judy Chafin hears a judge proclaim her not guilty in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Chehalis woman accused of wrongly collecting more than $90,000 in benefits – supposedly working while receiving payments for a 2006 on-the-job injury was found not guilty today.

Judy Chafin, 62, wiped tears from her face as the judge announced his decision.

Prosecutors said the operator of controversial halfway houses performed landlord-like services for the newly released prisoners who lived in the various residences, part of her House of the Rising Son organization. Her attorney said the activities didn’t meet the definition of work from the state Department of Labor and Industries which paid out the funds.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler said the case came down to whether it was work and if she intended to commit theft.

“The witnesses were all over the board as to what work meant in this case,” Lawler said. “I simply cannot find that has been proven here.”

The trial that began on Monday was decided by the judge; there was no jury.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg had suggested that a 2010 investigation into her activities that went nowhere and her subsequent expansion of the number of homes indicated she must have known what she was doing was work.

Judge Lawler said defense attorney Sam Groberg’s argument was more reasonable, that Chafin continued what she was doing after L&I had knowledge of the House of the Rising Son.

Chafin’s benefits were stopped and then reinstated, he said.

“To put criminal liability on that once that question has already come up, does not make sense to me,” Lawler said.

Chafin was acquitted of 30 counts of forgery and two counts of first-degree theft; one count of theft was related to Social Security disability payments.

She was visibly relived and thanked the judge.

“I’m not guilty, and I never was,” she said outside the courtroom. “So I’m very happy about the decision that shows God is standing there.”

The Chehalis woman suffered an on-the-job injury in September 2006, while working as a certified nursing assistant at  Tiffin House in Centralia. She founded the organization  between 2006 and 2007.

At its height, there were as many as 10 similar homes.

Chafin began to get a lot of attention from law enforcement and then city and county officials beginning about two years ago when residents on a rural Chehalis road complained they didn’t want multiple felons, especially registered sex offenders, living together under one roof in their neighborhood. Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield vowed to do everything he could to shut her down.

Earlier this year, she said she chose not to fight the various zoning actions and found places for her various tenants to live.

Attorney Groberg said it was a different kind of case, that no one alleged his client didn’t have a real injury, his client didn’t hide what she was doing, and she didn’t earn any money doing it. She lost money, he said.

“Judy’s a good person, trying to do good things,” he said.

He said the case was political in some aspects.

“Not on Eric’s (the deputy prosecuting attorney) part,” he said. “But with Brad Reynolds, the neighbor and another neighbor was Chehalis’ code enforcement officer.”

And he noted the politics in Olympia with a push for L&I to privatize, that the agency is looking harder to find fraud to justify such a change.

“And one example of trying to find fraud, Judy’s an example of that,” he said.

The L&I investigator who handled the case said he couldn’t say who made the initial complaint. It was anonymous, he said.

•••

For background, read:

• “Discord on Nix Road: Newest arrivals unwelcome” from Saturday March 3, 2012, here

• “The backstory: Intelligence gathering, possible fines and code enforcement tools “not normally used” from Sunday March 4, 2012, here

• “The sun sets on House of the Rising Son” from Thursday March 20, 2014, here