[1]Daniel L. Norby waits at the defense table as court documents are signed setting his bail for criminal impersonation and theft charges.
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – What would you do if you’re taking the driver’s test to get your license and the examiner in the passenger seat directed you to a casino?
If he suggested you come inside to with him meet a girl that he knew? And then asked to borrow $20?
Like one recent applicant, you might start to get suspicious.
Centralia police say that’s exactly what happened to an individual who went to the Washington Department of Licensing on Kresky Avenue.
After checking in with a woman at the counter, and being told to wait outside where the examiner would be right out, a man who said his name was Dave got into the vehicle, and what followed weren’t the usual requests for showing one knows the rules of the road.
Authorities say “Dave” was really a 47-year-old Chehalis man posing as an employee from the state agency. He happened to be in line behind the applicant last Thursday.
Daniel L. Norby was arrested yesterday for first-degree criminal impersonation and charged with the same in Lewis County Superior Court.
Police and prosecutors offer no explanation for why he, allegedly, pretended he was giving a driving test.
Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke this afternoon told a judge her temporary client has been a law abiding citizen for the past five years, resides with his girlfriend on Brown Road outside Chehalis and also has three children, as she made her case for how low his bail should be.
Judge R.W. Buzzard wasn’t persuaded, noting that during two of those last five years Norby was incarcerated. Buzzard set bail at $25,000.
According to charging documents, the odd set of circumstances began when Edward Jerns went in to take his driving test.
Jerns described to a police officer what happened and how after a period of time at the Lucky Eagle Casino, he became skeptical and called the Department of Licensing to tell them, they were still at the casino.
He was told to notify security, and he did, the documents relate.
Jerns told Officer Doug Lowrey that also “Dave” had traded coats with him while at the Rochester establishment, and when he got his coat back, some $1,000 to $1,200 was missing from the inside pocket. He had just cashed his social security check, he said.
An employee at the Kresky Avenue licensing office told Lowrey she spoke to the man who walked in right behind Jerns, and that he was asking about how to get his license, according to court documents. She said she watched him walk out and get into Jerns’ vehicle.
Yesterday, the DOL employee and Jerns picked Norby out of a police photo montage, according to the court documents.
Lowrey said when Norby was contacted at a Centralia motel, he declined to be interviewed by arresting officers, but said the alleged deed last week that got him a lift to the casino seemed to be just an impromptu event.
Norby was also charged with second-degree theft.
He qualified for a court-appointed lawyer and is scheduled for arraignment a week from tomorrow.
Presumably the driver’s license applicant gets a do-over on the test.