Centralia Outlet pepper spray melee defendant disputes police accounts

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Tamala J. Summerhill, right, waits while defense attorney Bob Schroeter confers with a deputy prosecutor during her court appearance.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Tacoma woman accused of letting loose with her pepper spray at the Centralia Outlets over the weekend says news reporters got the story all wrong.

Tamala J. Summerhill, 53, bailed out of jail but returned to go before a Lewis County Superior Court judge yesterday afternoon.

Police said they were called to the shopping center on Saturday because a female used pepper spray to break up a brawl between her grown son and another man outside the Nike Factory Outlet then chased the subject, spraying him and two boys who were with him.

Summerhill is charged with two counts of third-degree child assault and one count of fourth-degree assault.

“I want to tell it, and I will let my lawyer do that,” Summerhill said after her court hearing.

Centralia police said after a disagreement inside the store between 22-year-old Jesse Summerhill and a 38-year-old Tumwater man, the pair ended up in a fight once they got outside.

The 38-year-old Tumwater man had the younger Summerhill on the ground when the mother sprayed him, according to the police version.

Police arrested Jesse Summerhill, also of Tacoma, for misdemeanor assault

How and why the scuffle started and what happened after are not very clear.

Both men told police the other one initiated the rudeness inside the store – over a cashier being ready to take the next customer in line – and once outside challenged the other one to fight, according to charging documents.

The documents allege the following information:

Corey Leneker said he had begun to walk to his car with his two 8-year-old boys but the mother and son followed him calling him names.

“He ordered the two boys to get in the front seat of their vehicle, which they did,” charging documents state.

The two men fought. After Leneker was sprayed he ran and they chased him, Leneker told police. She was spraying as they were running, he said.

Leneker reached his vehicle when the woman sprayed him again and the two boys, charging documents state.

It was streaming spray and not the fog type, according to police.

An independent witness told police Leneker was trying to shield the kids when she sprayed all three of them.

Officers checked the children who both had red and inflamed faces and trouble seeing because of the irritant in their eyes; symptoms of having been pepper sprayed.

Tamala Summerhill told police she sprayed Leneker to get him off her son. When confronted with the information from the witness, she made no comment.

“The boys, I don’t know why they’re an issue,” defense attorney Bob Schroeter said outside the courtroom. “The father said he put them inside the vehicle.”

During the brief court appearance yesterday afternoon, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said he had no problem with setting bail with a $10,000 signature bond.

Judge Richard Brosey pointed out it was already set at $20,000 and she posted bail, so he wouldn’t change it.

Schroeter, who represented Tamala Summerhill just for that appearance, said her income qualified her for a court appointed attorney.

Tamala Summerhill works at Joint Base Lewis McChord in child care and family services, Schroeter said.

Her arraignment was scheduled for June 6.

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15 Responses to “Centralia Outlet pepper spray melee defendant disputes police accounts”

  1. lewiscountysocietysucks says:

    OOOOPPPSSSSSS!!!!!! I failed to read the full story. I see she did assault 2-8 year olds, and she works at McChord in Family Services and Child Care. This is very disturbing!!!!!!!! I hope she loses her job, at least the position she currently holds, obviously she is not cut out for a job concerning children.

  2. lewiscountysocietysucks says:

    I want to know how LC can charge her with a Child Assault when in fact the youngest person involved was 22 years of age. Man, Lewis County really draws straws, not just on drugs but on everything just to try to get a conviction, they don’t care whether it is correct or with in the Laws, they just want a conviction. This is very sad, to think that we can not even trust LE to do their job correctly.

  3. Guilty Bystander says:

    Agreed. We’ve devolved into a society in which people do whatever they want without any thought of others while assigning responsibility for their own actions elsewhere. This woman may really think she did nothing wrong because she has no concept of how her actions affected those two little boys. And she WORKS WITH CHILDREN…that may be the most chilling part of this whole scenario. God help any child under her “care.”

  4. What now? says:

    Bobby, that IS too much – to say sorry? Take responsibility? That’s a big word in itself. Besides, when baby killers can plead “no contest” or the alford plea or whatever, what reason does a “normal” person have to do the right thing? When the Green River killer only got life instead of death, it really set the bar for what deserves the death penalty, in this state and in the US. When a mother ignores her child’s wounds for her own sake gets the same, if not lighter, sentence than the mother that allowed her child to inhale second-hand pot smoke (and we all know that theirs was not the first family to do so) then where is the bar now? The standard of measurement should have a hard foundation, and yet in this day and age it floats like waves on the sea.

  5. BobbyinLC says:

    I understand that in our CJ system everyone has the right to have the prosecution prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Lawyers really do not like clients saying they did something. In this case if you did it just stand up say I did it and looking back I realize it was wrong. I AM SORRY. Wow taking responsibility for one’s own actions…I guess I am asking too much.

  6. crazee says:

    How dare that bitch do something like that. It makes me just want to puke to even think about it. She took something cool from those boys and replaced it with a shitty memory that they will no doubt never forget. Kids need all the good memories they can make these days. They make life a little easier on down the road sometimes.
    God, what a demented bitch she is to do that. She and her kid both just need the dog shit kicked outa both of them.

  7. blah says:

    they young guy is very lucky the other guy was not a cpl holder….

  8. motherofboy says:

    I, too, am grateful that independent witnesses are willing to speak up. There are THREE sides to every story…yours, mine, and the TRUTH. What I know is, MY little boy went to Nike with his friend and his friend’s dad, and both boys got caught up in something that was out of their control…there will be NO excuse that HORRIBLE woman can EVER give to explain what she did. SHE was trying to defend her GROWN son????? I only WISH I would have had the opportunity to do the same for my LITTLE BOY! I hope she knows what an AWFUL human being she is…

  9. Other says:

    No matter what, the children were attacked. If they were not attacked they would not have the red eyes of a pepper spray attack. That was bad enough, then to find out that she works with children is awful!

    I know Leneker, and he is a very good guy (and the kids aren’t giants, so not like you’ve got to be scared of two little 8 year olds!). I would guess (because I haven’t spoken with anyone about it) that if there was a dispute at the register, the 22 year old kid said something that Leneker found inappropriate to say in front of kids and asked him to watch his mouth, which offended the kid. When the kid waited outside and asked Leneker to a fight, Leneker probably was just defending himself and tried to stop the incident. Mom couldn’t handle that her kid was a punk and got schooled, like someone else on here said. She obviously needs something (anger management, definite job loss) if she waited outside with pepper spray to harass a man that was trying to protect his kids over an exchange of words, and felt that she was protecting her wittle boy when he lost a fight that he started. Just my guess of the situation.
    The scary thing is that this incident could happen to any one of us – punk picks a fight and out comes the pepper spray. We are not even able to protect ourselves any more. Someone can be inappropriate and we can either ask them not to be rude to us and face their reaction, or let them walk all over us for the sake of peace.

    I’m glad that the kids are alright!! Sad to consider that the punk and his punk mother won’t learn anything. “Reporters got it wrong” oh boo hoo, quit chasing children!!

  10. Guilty Bystander says:

    That’s what I thought, too, Bobby. Guess we know how she takes care of children under her care who act up.

  11. Mesayst says:

    Of course she is going to dispute the charges, her job may depend on it. Frankly she needs a course in anger management, as do the men involved.

  12. BobbyinLC says:

    She works in child care and services? Yikes!

  13. Gotta love an independent EYE witness says:

    Thank God for people who speak up and are an independent eye witnesses. Pretty hard to dispute when you have a Good Samaritan who is willing to tell the truth about what happen. And to think this woman works in child care and family services. I think she needs a career change. All she did was traumatize two young boys. Thanks for coming into our county and putting on a public display of disgusting behavior. Stay in Tacoma next time.

  14. sandy says:

    What a piece of work

  15. ANY VOTES? says:

    oopsie booboo for somebody