By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Authorities recently announced two sex offenders have moved to Lewis County and registered their addresses with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
One moved to Chehalis and the other to Ethel and both are designated level three, meaning they present a clear risk to the community, according to the sheriff’s office.
Neither is wanted by law enforcement, but notification to the community is meant enhance public safety, according to the sheriff’s office.
[1]Rodney M. Matlock
Rodney M. Matlock, 59, just got out of prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for a February 2000 conviction in Lewis County Superior Court for first-degree rape of a child in which the victim was a 9-year-old boy he knew, according to sheriff’s detective Jamey McGinty.
Before that, he served a five-year sentence for a 1991 conviction of first-degree sexual abuse of a 6-year-old female relative in Clatsop County, Oregon, according to McGinty.
Matlock resides on the 600 block of Northeast Franklin Avenue in Chehalis.
He is described as 5-feet 9-inches feet tall and weighing 200 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes.
Matlock will be supervised by the state Department of Corrections for three years, according to McGinty.
[2]James M. Keith
A 68-year-old man who has been out of prison since 2010 notified the sheriff’s office at the end of March he would be living on the 100 block of Best Drive in Ethel.
James M. Keith is described as 5-feet 6-inches tall and weighing 190 pounds has gray hair and blue eyes.
Keith was convicted in King County in 1986 of first-degree statutory rape for ongoing forced sexual contact with two girls to whom he was related, ages 6 and 3, according to McGinty.
He was sentenced to not more than 20 years, transferred to work release in 1988 and escaped the day after arrival, McGinty stated.
The following year while on the lam, he stayed with friends and one day followed their 11-year-old daughter to her room where he struck her twice in the head with a large rubber mallet, according to McGinty. Keith began to put tape over her mouth, began to choke her but when he saw she was bleeding called 911 and her mother, according to the sheriff’s office.
He told the girl he was going to choke her, rape her and then kill her, according to McGinty. Keith was charged in 1990 in King County with first-degree assault, convicted and then given a 20-year sentence which ran concurrent to the first case, according to McGinty.
Keith has other convictions including theft, motor vehicle theft, driving under the influence and AWOL.
He is no longer on probation.
Anyone with questions may contact McGinty or Field Operations Chief Bruce Kimsey at 360-748-9286. Visit the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office web site to look up registered sex offenders, here [3]