Read about pension spiking for firefighters, police costs the state millions …

April 7th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An Associated Press investigation has found numerous instances of questionable temporary salary boosts for retiring fire and police officials, carefully crafted to inflate pensions in a practice that may end up draining the taxpayer funded, state-run pension plan of million of dollars.

News reporter Mike Baker writing in the Yakima Herald-Republic gives an example of veteran managers at Lakewood Fire District 2 whose annual salaries jumped by $20,000 days before retirement to nearly $200,000, a move that increased their lifetime retirement payments by more than $1,000 per month.

So-called “pension spiking” is prohibited under rules adopted by the Department of Retirement Systems, but the LEOFF-1 – Law Enforcement Officers’ and Firefighters’ Retirement System Plan – operates with some unique provisions, according to Baker.

Read about it here

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

April 5th, 2013

ATTEMPTED BREAK-IN INTERRUPTED

• A 60-year-old Centralia woman called 911 just before 8 a.m. yesterday after she spotted a male on her back patio at the 2400 block of Seminary Hill Road. She told a deputy the trespasser fled when he realized he was seen, ran down her driveway and got into an older small black car with a loud muffler, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Two of her window screens had been removed, according to the sheriff’s office.

WOMAN’S SCOOTER STOLEN

• Chehalis police were called yesterday morning to the Vintage Apartments on the 1500 block of North National Avenue where a resident said someone stole her black with red trim motorized scooter the day before. She had parked it where she usually does when she leaves in a car with someone, according to police. The loss, to an elderly woman who needs it, in dollars is $3,000, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

BUSINESS OFFICE BURGLED

• Someone crawled through a window at an Onalaska business and stole a camera, a Toshiba laptop computer, two credit cards and five W-2 forms, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy called yesterday morning to Butteville Lumber Co. on the 1600 block of state Route 508 discovered it occurred between 8 p.m. the night before and 6 a.m., according to sheriff’s office. The window had been left partially open, the sheriff’s office said.

DOG-NAPPED

• An individual called 911 yesterday after discovering his Pit Bull mix was stolen from his yard on the 200 block of East Van Buren Street in Centralia during the night. He had placed some bricks against the gate and they were moved and the dog was gone, according to the Centralia Police Department.

PATRONS CONFRONT SHOPLIFTER

• Centralia police arrested two people about 2:30 p.m. yesterday after one of them allegedly walked out of a pawn shop on Main Street with a Wii game console she didn’t pay for and was stopped by other customers. Jennifer N. Hedgecock, 26, from Idaho, was arrested for theft, according to police. The name given by the man with her who had been driving came back with a suspended license so he was arrested for that, however the officer didn’t believe it was really him, so the man was booked into the Lewis County Jail until he can be identified, according to police.

FRAUD

• An Idaho resident called Centralia police yesterday after getting a bill from a medical facility on the 900 block of South Scheuber Road for treatment he never received. The issue is being investigated as an identity theft, as the victim said he’s never been to Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A female who discovered her wallet was stolen while shopping in Centralia called police yesterday, and said when she cancelled the card, she was told it had already been used to purchase items online, according to the Centralia Police Department.

POLICE: EMPLOYEE STOLE MERCHANDISE, RESOLD IT

• Chehalis police are in the process of contacting individuals who purchased phones reportedly stolen by an employee at Verizon Wireless on Northwest Louisiana Avenue. An officer called on Wednesday to the business is referring the case against the 24-year-old Yelm man to prosecutors for a charge of first-degree theft, according to the Chehalis Police Department. It appears 18 phones plus accessories totaling more than $11,000 were stolen and sold on eBay and Craigslist, according to police. Officer Linda Bailey said the buyers will have to return the merchandise. They may have recourse through whatever payment plan they used, such as PayPal, Bailey said.

ASSAULT

• A caregiver called Chehalis police on Wednesday after she was punched in the face by a male she takes care of. She told police she didn’t want to them to pursue charges, but would no longer be taking care of him, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

WRECK

• A 20-year-old Centralia driver escaped with just minor cuts to his face when he swerved to miss a deer and ended up flipping his car into a utility pole on the 200 block of Big Hanaford Road outside Centralia just before 2 o’clock this morning. The Honda Accord was totaled and the driver cited for speed too fast and no insurance, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, misdemeanor assaults; responses for non-injury accident, shoplifting complaint, suspected fraud, intoxicated disorderly woman breaking things at a relatives home, intoxicated homeless guy laying on a sidewalk … and more.

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Jewelry store burglary suspect, alleged getaway driver awaiting May trial

April 4th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The suspected Centralia jewelry store thief who was shot pleaded not guilty today in Lewis County Superior Court.

Justin D. McPherson, 29, remains held on $100,000 bail.

McPherson is believed to be one of two subjects who fled Salewsky’s Jewelry shop on North Tower Avenue on the morning of March 20, escaping through an opening cut into the wall of an adjacent vacant business after the shop owner’s son awakened by noise, came downstairs and fired one round.

McPherson is charged with one count of second-degree burglary as well as residential burglary because the upstairs apartment where Jeremy Salewsky was sleeping is connected to the showroom by an open stairway.

Police say McPherson is from Auburn; an address in his court file shows he lives in Federal Way.

Centralia police arrested McPherson last week as he was getting released from a Tacoma hospital. His girlfriend and mother of his two children was arrested days before when she went to visit him at the hospital. Jennifer Nordyke, 30, who is suspected of being one of two female getaway drivers, is also being held in the Lewis County Jail.

Police have said they don’t know how the burglars knew how the shop shared an inside wall with an unoccupied business.

Charging documents in the case offer a few new details about the break-in. The following are some of them:

Detectives retrieved a two-foot crowbar from the scene, and believe it was used to break through the drywall.

The younger Salewsky told police when he went downstairs, he was startled by a male in a blue hooded sweatshirt he saw grabbing merchandise from an open showcase next to the hole in the wall. He fired at the subject with a Colt .45 pistol, but didn’t know if he hit him.

Salewski stated the male then left through the hole.

A witness smoking a cigarette behind the Olympic Club at about 6:45 a.m., told police he saw two masked males who were running and got into two cars parked in the south lot of the railroad station.

The male who got into a red Mercedes was holding his stomach as he ran, the witness said.

Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald previously said McPherson was shot in the lower back, at the belt line. The thieves left a trail of dropped jewelry, according to Fitzgerald.

Charging documents continue, to indicate that police got a break in the case when an off-duty detective spoke a few days later with an off-duty Tacoma police officer and learned a male with a gunshot wound was dropped off at a Tacoma hospital by a female in a red Mercedes the morning of the burglary.

Surveillance video confirmed that, and showed McPherson being escorted into the hospital by a male. Detectives confirmed Nordyke as the registered owner of a red Mercedes.

When police contacted Nordyke at the hospital on March 22, a bag she had with her was searched; the jewelry inside it was taken as evidence. She said she’d recently found it.

McPherson has a 2006 conviction for possession of stolen property, as well as three three eluding convictions. He is represented by Chehalis attorney Ken Johnson.

Their trials are set for the week of May 20.
•••

For background, read “Breaking news: Centralia jewelry shop burglary interrupted with gunshot” from Wednesday March 20, 2013 at 10:27 a.m., here

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Close up view of the hole cut in the drywall between Salewsky’s Jewelry and neighboring business. / Courtesy photo by Centralia Police Department

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

April 4th, 2013

Updated at 5:11 p.m.

FROM THE COURTHOUSE

• Centralia murder defendant Weston G. Miller pleaded guilty yesterday to four firearms charges to “clear up some issues” before his upcoming trial in the death of 43-year-old David Wayne Carson, according to Miller’s attorney. Miller, 30, remains charged with first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled in Lewis County Superior Court for the week of April 15. On March 13 of last year, Miller allegedly used a 9 mm pistol to shoot his house guest, who died at the scene. When detectives searched his home on B Street, they found a silencer, a laser site for a gun, a bullet-proof vest, a Walter 9 mm pistol, a Walter .22 caliber pistol, a Rohm revolver, a MAC-10 semi-automatic and a Winchester model 275 .22 caliber long rifle, according to charging documents. He is prohibited from owning firearms because of conviction two years earlier for  domestic fourth-degree assault. Prosecutors dropped one of the gun charges because police were afraid to test fire one of the guns in order to prove it was functional. In a very brief hearing yesterday afternoon, Miller pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The standard sentencing range for the offense is one to three months in jail. Neither attorney nor the judge made any mention of when he would be sentenced.

STOLEN STUFF

• A 59-year-old man from Eatonville contacted the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office yesterday after finding someone had broken into his weekend home (trailer) at the 100 block of Fairview Drive in Ashford since Monday and left with food, a microwave, a heater, a bandsaw and a propane tank.

• A Vader property owner called the sheriff’s office yesterday after she returned from her home in Nevada to discover someone had stolen numerous tools from a shed and items from her house during the past year while she has been away, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A family member currently lives at the home on the 200 block of Tara Lane, but an acquaintance is suspected of taking the items, according to the sheriff’s office.

• Chehalis police were contacted yesterday morning by a business on Northwest Louisiana Avenue about an employee allegedly stealing thousands of dollars by committing fraudulent refund transactions. The case is under investigation, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Centralia police took a report of an attempted vehicle prowl about 7:45 p.m.. yesterday at the 1000 block of North Scheuber Road. Someone damaged a lock to the car’s door but didn’t get inside, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WRECK

• A 17-year-old girl escaped serious injury but totaled her car early this morning when she missed a curve and collided with a concrete bridge barrier west of Chehalis. A deputy dispatched around 4:40 a.m. to the 100 block of Chandler Road learned the Centralia motorist suffered a possible injury from her seatbelt according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. She was cited for speed too fast as well as being behind the wheel between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in violation of her intermediate license, according to the sheriff’s office.

ONE OF MEDICS FROM ADNA CRASH HEALING FROM CONCUSSION

• Lewis County Fire District 6 Firefighter-Paramedic Matt McCoy was off work for a couple of days after he and an AMR medic were tossed around inside the back of an ambulance during a rollover wreck early Friday morning in Adna. They were caring for a patient when the AMR ambulance left the roadway and rolled down an embankment on Twin Oaks and Cousins roads. District 6 Chief Tim Kinder this morning said McCoy got a slight concussion and also bruises on his lower extremities. He’s due to return back to work in a few days, Kinder said. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, with the help of the state patrol, is investigating the crash. A spokesperson for AMR said he believed the vehicle hit a soft spot at a curve and that while their two employees suffered minor injuries, the patient  was strapped in tight, so suffered no injuries.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting; calls about domestic dispute, misdemeanor assault, suspicious circumstances, found bicycle; report of stolen garbage can … and more.

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News brief: Mossyrock hit with a batch of black and white anonymous messages

April 3rd, 2013
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Police want to find out who left this message imprinted around town. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Mossyrock Police Chief Jeremy Stamper was hoping to get a closer look today of video footage of the subjects who left numerous instances of graffiti at the middle school, on at least one church and around town over the weekend.

The black and white stencil and spray paint image was repeated on street signs, businesses and the back door of the Mossyrock Assemblies of God Church on Williams Street, according to Stamper.

The block letters accompanied by some sort of coat of arms claim “We are anonymous, we are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us,” according to Stamper.

He said he did some research and it appears to be associated with something like Internet hackers. A recent popular documentary may have given someone the idea, he said.

“The school was by far the worst, with 21 spots on windows, doors, well, all over the place for the most part,” Stamper said.

Surveillance images show two people at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday leaving the markings at the school, he said. It was discovered on Saturday morning and a quick review of the video suggests they might be high school-aged, he said.

Stamper said he may not recognize the culprits, but someone will.

“Hopefully we can enhance it,” he said.

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News brief: Kravetz guilty of assaults, disarming deputy in Montesano courthouse

April 3rd, 2013
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Steven Daniel Kravetz, right, stands with attorney David Arcuri to hear the verdicts in his case.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Steven Daniel Kravetz today was found not guilty of second-degree attempted murder but guilty of first-degree assault regarding last year’s attack on Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Polly Daven inside the courthouse in Montesano when he fired twice at her with her duty weapon.

A Lewis County jury deliberated about 11 hours over two days before coming to their conclusion.

The jury also found Kravetz not guilty of first-degree assault against Grays Harbor Superior Court Judge David L. Edwards, but guilty of second-degree assault for stabbing him in the back of the neck during the same incident.

Kravetz, 35, will remain held in the Lewis County Jail for now. Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey said he wants to conduct sentencing in Grays Harbor, for the benefit of those who work in the courthouse and experienced the traumatic events of March 9 of last year.

Brosey heard the case because judges in Grays Harbor recused themselves. The trial was held in Chehalis to avoid jurors passing through the scene of the crime.

Kravetz was additionally found guilty of disarming a law enforcement officer and various aggravating factors such as being armed with a firearm and another deadly weapon, a knife, during commission of the crimes.

Grays Harbor County Prosecutor H. Steward Menefee said he’s yet to calculate the possible sentence or decide what to recommend.

Menefee said he was, to some extent, disappointed in the jury’s decision. However, as a whole, the jury understood the seriousness, he said.

Centralia defense attorney David Arcuri had told the jurors in the beginning the prosecutors would not be able to prove the intent they were suggesting.
•••

For background, read “Montesano courthouse shooting victim tells of looking up at her own gun” from  Tuesday March 26, 2013 at 8:50 p.m., here

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

April 3rd, 2013
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Courtesy photo by Trena Gravatt Krause

OOPS

• A motorist searching for her phone while traveling northbound on Southwest Interstate Avenue in Chehalis left the roadway, plowed through a fence and launched into a truck for sale at a car lot yesterday afternoon. The 33-year-old Chehalis woman escaped with mostly scrapes from her car’s airbag and was not hospitalized, according to the Chehalis Fire Department. She actually traveled under the cyclone fence, according to fire Capt. Kevin Curfman who said two trucks were damaged and nearly a third one. Chehalis Police Department detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said she broadsided the 2004 Ford F350 crew cab, which was shoved into another truck. It happened about 1:35 p.m. at Uhlmann Motors. Wilson said he didn’t expect her to be ticketed, but noted she will have her insurance company to deal with.

OUCH

• Chehalis police were called to the area near Wal-Mart about 10:15 a.m. yesterday after a pedestrian allegedly punched the hood of a Chrysler Town Car he said was in the crosswalk while he was. It left a knuckle-sized dent, according to police. The “puncher” was not found, police said.

THEFT IN SILVER CREEK

• Someone stole a spool of quarter-inch copper wire after cutting through a fence at he 2800 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Silver Creek. A deputy called yesterday learned the theft occurred sometime since March 24, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The loss is estimated at $1,900, according to the sheriff’s office.

MISSING VEHICLE

• Police were called about 10:30 a.m. yesterday to the 600 block of Marsh Avenue in Centralia to take a report of a vehicle stolen; police were told the owner left it with someone more than a year ago to get it fixed and hadn’t been able to track that person down, according to the Centralia Police Department. An officer located the 1970 Chevrolet and it will be returned to him, police said this morning.

LAPTOP LIFTED FROM DOZING LIBRARY PATRON

• Centralia police took a report yesterday of a laptop computer that was stolen from the library on South Silver Street on Sunday. It’s owner, a 49-year-old Rochester man, said it was plugged in next to him, he fell asleep and when he woke up, it was gone, according to the Centralia Police Department.

VEHICLE PROWL

• An estimated $1,000 worth of stereo equipment was stolen from a car over the weekend at the park and ride lot on the 800 block of West Main Street in Chehalis, according to a report made to police on Monday. The victim found it unlocked, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

VANDALISM

• Police were called just before 8 a.m. yesterday about graffiti that appeared overnight on a building at the 100 block of Virginia Drive in Centralia. The words “Solve One” were left in black spray paint, according to police.

OUCH

• A customer at the Lewis County garbage transfer station in  Centralia was whacked in the back of the head by a pipe being moved by an employee operating the stationary excavator yesterday morning. Riverside Fire Authority was called about 9:30 a.m. to the 1400 block of South Tower Avenue. The victim, a LeMay driver, was bandaged up and transported to the hospital, according to authorities.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving with a suspended license, DUIs; report of protection order violations, misdemeanor thefts; and complaint of loud partying neighbors … and more.

Posted in Sharyn's sirens roundup | 9 Comments »

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