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Prosecutor Meyer recovering from surgery, illness

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has been sick, spending 13 days in the hospital during four separate stays since October.

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Jonathan Meyer, Lewis County Prosecutor

He was in the office today and says he anticipates being back full time next week.

Meyer, 41, said only that he has had “intestinal issues.”

He said he has not been in the office on a daily basis, but hasn’t stopped working.

“We’ve had manager’s meetings in my hospital room and they would come over to my house,” he said.

And he’s had his iPad with him, he said today.

The elected prosecutor is just now starting the third year of a four-year term. Unlike some previous prosecutors, Meyer fairly regularly handles criminal cases himself.

He is prosecuting Ricky Riffe, the former Lewis County resident brought back here from his home in Alaska this summer to face murder, kidnapping and robbery charges in the 1985 double slaying of Ed and Wilhelmina Maurin, an elderly Ethel couple. Riffe’s trial is scheduled for May.

Meyer said he had an infection in October and surgery last month.

He’s working his way back to eating solid foods. His illness has caused him to drop 85 pounds, he said.

“I have to get my strength back,” he said.