[1]Jonathan, left, and his father Ron Reynolds enter a Chehalis courtroom this morning
Updated at 6:10 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Lawyers and the sheriff arranged for Ron and Jonathan Reynolds to go before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court within less than two hours of their warrants being re-issued this morning.
After hearing briefly from the prosecutor, Judge James Lawler ordered the two men to be released immediately.
“The matter is over unless and until the prosecutor decides to file criminal charges, and none are pending at this time,” Lawler said.
Chehalis attorney Joe Mano had no comment about his client, Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds.
Olympia attorney Rick Cordes, representing Jonathan Reynolds, called it a travesty.
This may or may not be the final turn in the case of Ronda Reynolds, a 33-year-old former trooper found shot to death in a closet of the Toledo home she shared with her new husband and his sons in December 1998.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod issued the arrest warrants based on his inquest jury’s unanimous finding last week the pair were responsible for the homicide of Ronda Reynolds.
While the coroner said he was fulfilling his statutory obligation, elected Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer told the judge this morning the same as he announced to the press yesterday:
There is not enough admissible evidence to prosecute them criminally.
The inquest jury only had to make its finding based on a preponderance of evidence, but much of what they heard would not be allowed in a court of law, Meyer said.
Following the very brief hearing in the Chehalis courthouse, Cordes spoke publicly for the first time on the matter.
The process he called a waste of time and money has torn up Ron and Jonathan Reynolds, he said.
“It’s devastating. Ron is in the process of losing his job and Jonathan can’t get a job,” Cordes said.
The two “absolutely” believe Ronda Reynolds committed suicide, and he’s not sure they can ever clear their names, he said.
“The paper has now come out and accused them basically of murder, something they didn’t do, something they had no involvement in,” Cordes said. “And that’s been hanging over them for 13 years.”
Cordes said they are considering holding a press conference of their own sometime next week, and another thought is the possibility of a lawsuit against the county and the coroner, “among others.”
The lawyer said he doesn’t agree the coroner ought to have had them arrested, after knowing the prosecutor would not file charges
The statute was originally adopted around 1850, he said, and was designed for the coroner to act when the sheriff was unavailable, he said.
The influence that Barb Thompson and Ann Rule have had on the community has led to something that’s ruined many lives in the Reynolds’ family, he said.
“People know who they are so they associate some terrible thing that they had nothing to do with, with them,” he said.
Jonathan Reynolds was 17 at the time of Ronda Reynolds’ death.
Ron Reynolds remains on administrative leave from his job as a school principal in Toledo.
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Read this morning’s news when the coroner reversed his decision from the night before to quash the warrants, here [2]
Read Prosecutor Meyer’s announcement from yesterday on why he isn’t filing criminal charges, here [3]
Read about the coroner’s inquest, and find links to the stories filed each day during the proceedings, here [4]
[5]Judge James Lawler's courtroom is full when Ron and Jonathan Reynolds appear briefly
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[6]Barb Thompson, mother of Ronda Reynolds, waits for the appearance of Ron and Jonathan Reynolds