Lewis County Sirens.com

Dale R. Brotherton waits to be returned to the jail following his appearance in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Dale R. Brotherton was free on $10,000 bail as his case related to allegedly producing hash oil in the basement of a Centralia home unfolds, but he was arrested yesterday for allegedly tampering with evidence and prosecutors say the case is compromised.

Centralia police seized the 52-year-old Centralia man’s fifth-wheel trailer in which they thought he may live in as well as a car belonging to Brotherton when they arrested him last week.

It was May 28, the same day the department’s special anti-crime team dismantled what they said was an a potential explosive hash oil making operation in the basement of a rental home 800 block of West Pear Street.

Yesterday, not long after he failed to show up for a meeting at the Centralia Police Department’s impound facility in which Sgt. Jim Shannon was going to assist him in retrieving some belongings, Brotherton allegedly cut a hole in the chain link fence and broke into his recreational vehicle.

“Now we will not be able to establish what may or may not have been in the car, because Mr. Brotherton altered that,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg asked a judge this afternoon when Brotherton appeared in court to revoke the bail in the original case and set a new, much higher bail amount.

Eisenberg indicated police had a search warrant but had not yet conducted their search.

He spoke of the car, at the bail hearing, but charging documents filed by another deputy prosecutor describe the vehicle entered as the fifth-wheel trailer.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge it was quite possible there was confusion about the meeting time and a potential alternative version of events, when he suggested to the judge bail need not be so high.

The impound lot on the  2600 block of Reynolds Avenue is surrounded by an 8-foot high fence with barbed wire.

According to charging documents, just before the 3:30 expected meeting, Sgt. Shannon checked the recreational vehicle which was secured, and then locked the gate behind himself when Brotherton didn’t show up.

Charging documents give the following account: A short time later Shannon got word Brotherton was there, and another officer arriving first observed Brotherton standing inside the doorway to the RV. The other officer also spoke with Zachary Brotherton who was standing next to a truck parked outside the fenced area, who stated, “I can’t believe he did that.”

Shannon found the RV’s lock had been forced open and a wooden panel which covered a void space beneath the refrigerator torn off.

He suspected Brotherton went inside to either find and hide or destroy items stored in the RV.

Brotherton initially denied being inside the facility, but subsequently admitted he entered the fifth-wheel trailer to get some of his property.

Police found a hole cut in the fence which was large enough for someone of Brotherton’s size to get through.

Brotherton’s new charges in Lewis County Superior Court, filed today, are second-degree burglary, third-degree malicious mischief and tampering with evidence.

The first offense has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The other offenses are gross misdemeanors, with maximum penalties of up to 364 days in jail, according to Schroeter.

In his other case, he is charged with manufacturing marijuana.

Centralia police said when they searched the house last week which a friend allowed him to use, they found  more than 140 pounds of marijuana trimmings and various items such as glass tubes and large glass surfaces used in the hash oil process. They also found a jar of the suspected substance in the kitchen freezer.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt today wasn’t buying Schroeter’s alternative possibilities regarding the visit to the impound facility.

“It looks pretty bad to me,” Hunt said.

Hunt set bail in the first case at $50,000 and in the new case at $20,000.

Brotherton qualifies for a court-appointed lawyer, but is attempting to hire his own. Hunt appointed David Arcuri.

He is scheduled to return to court next Thursday.
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For background, read “Centralia police uncover hash oil processing lab in residence near college” from Friday May 30, 2014, here

Jimmie R. Jemison, left, is represented temporarily on Friday by defense attorney Bob Schroeter in his dog breeding case.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A plea of not guilty was entered yesterday in the case of the Centralia man who was arrested when authorities came to his property and seized 17 puppies and 21 other dogs they found living in filthy conditions in a motorhome.

Jimmie R. Jemison, 49, was in court yesterday afternoon, charged not with animal cruelty as the sheriff’s office expected back on May 1, but with a violation of state law related to dog breeding. And also with obstructing a law enforcement officer.

Both are gross misdemeanors, with maximum penalties of up to a year in jail.

Jemison also asked the court in writing to make the county return his animals. They are being held at the Lewis County Animal Shelter.

Lewis County District Court Judge Michael Roewe denied the petition, based on numerous issued raised by prosecutors indicating the filing was flawed.

The Centralia man leaned on his walker and asked the judge: “What does that mean, do I lose my dogs?”

Judge Roewe told him he needed to ask his attorney that question.

“Can I ask a question? What happens to my dogs,” Jemison said.

“I don’t have the answer,” Roewe replied.

Jemsion told the judge he plans to hire a lawyer.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge he’d instructed the shelter to hold onto the animals, because they are evidence.

Jemison clearly distressed, put his face in his hands as he sat on a bench outside the courtroom following the hearing.

“My dogs mean everything,” he said, stifling sobs. “I spent seven years coming up with those colors.”

“I’ve lost my family, all I have are my dogs.”

Jemison lives on a $700 a month disability check, he said, on rural property he shares with his brother on the 1600 block of Little Hanaford Road.

Photographs shared by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office after the May 1 visit by deputies, code enforcement and humane officers show a 30-foot motorhome and various outbuildings.

Inside the roughly 30-foot long recreational vehicle, the pictures showed numerous portable kennels, some stacked on top of each other; the sheriff’s office said the animals were were sleeping and eating in their own waste.

Thirty-eight dogs were removed from the motorhome. Jemison says he has a new motorhome, but hadn’t yet gotten it set up.

Other animals on the property – such as chickens, a goat and seven dogs – which were living in clean cages and spaces were left behind.

The allegation was he was breeding puppies in unsanitary conditions.

The animal offense he is charged with is not part of the state criminal code, but part of the state code related to dog breeding, and the requirements that if the animals are kept in an enclosure the majority of the day, certain minimum standards of cleanliness, care and protection must be provided. RCW 16.52.310(2)(c)

Jemison said he spends $170 each month for dog food and doesn’t smoke or drink and suffers from social phobia.

His days are spent, he said, sitting outside in his chair watching his dogs play with the goat.

Every six or seven months when he gets a new litter to sell, he can buy a used car, that will hopefully keep running until the next litter, he said.

“I take care of my dogs, and then they take care of me,” he said.

His friend Ken Smith who drove him to the courthouse in Chehalis agreed Jemison is devoted to his animals, and said he lives in a way that maybe not others would live.

“He takes care of his dogs before himself,” Smith said. “It just happens that four or five dogs all had puppies at the same time.”

Jemison said the reason the deputies found the motorhome’s interior in the condition it was in was because he spent nine days holed up inside, fearing they were coming to take his animals.

The sheriff’s office described Jemison as uncooperative on numerous occasions as attempts were made to investigate the situation, which led to the search warrant.

Jemison said when they arrived that afternoon, he opened his door and was zapped with a Taser and while he was laying on the ground in the mud, his boxer dog got wound up with all the commotion and bit him on the leg.

“They treated me like I killed somebody,” he said.

He wasn’t booked into jail, he was taken to the hospital, where he spent almost 25 days being treated for two wounds he fears may cause him to lose his leg.

Jemison said he was released from Harborview Medical Center on Sunday, and has to visit a wound care doctor daily. It’s painful, he said.

“Because I wouldn’t show them my dogs in the barn,” he said. “That’s why they did the search warrant.”

Jemison’s property on Little Hanaford Road, on May 1, 2014 / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

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Inside Jemison’s motorhome on Little Hanaford Road, on May 1, 2014 / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

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For background, read “RV serving as home, doghouse for nearly 40 canines found near Centralia” from Friday May 2, 2014, here

Updated at 11:18 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The body of the 5-year-old Tacoma boy was retrieved from the Cispus River tonight, four days after he went into the water on his motorcycle.

The child was camping with his family over the weekend about 10 and a half miles south of Randle, along Forest Service Road 120, off Forest Service Road 23.

The sheriff’s office said little Drake J. Ostenson was wearing full riding gear and a helmet, and it appeared he got too close to the river bank and went in while his parents backs were turned on Monday.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said his body was recovered about 8 p.m. by deputies with the swift water rescue team.

The water had dropped enough his body was visible, lodged in the same log jam in the middle of the river where they suspected he was, according to the sheriff’s office.

It was his parents that were out walking the banks of the river who spotted him, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

“They came back before dark to check once again, saw the red and called us,” she said.

The recovery effort took about two hours, according to Brown.

Search and rescue teams looked for Drake all day Tuesday and much of Wednesday before concluding his body may very well have been tangled in a log jam and they would need to wait until the river level dropped to make the recovery.

On Thursday, the sheriff’s office announced they’d formulated a plan to try to get a helicopter to help them take another look from above next week and until then, would check the area frequently and monitor the water gauges.

Today, Sheriff Steve Mansfield said he was concerned when he heard numerous people were planning to search on their own this weekend, and said he’d secured some assistance from outside the county to conduct another search tomorrow.

Members of Lewis County Fire District 14, Packwood Search and Rescue and the Department of Fish and Wildlife all assisted in the recovery, according to Brown.

The Centralia Police Department’s special anti-crime team found four plastic bins plus some garbage bags filled with marijuana they say was to be made into hash oil. / Courtesy photo by Centralia Police Department

Updated at 11:03 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia police dismantled a potentially explosive hash oil making operation in the basement of a rental home across the street from Centralia College.

The setup they found was using butane and situated next to a hot water heater, according to the Centralia Police Department.

Hash oil is a highly concentrated form of marijuana resin.

“During the production process, a highly flammable and explosive vapor is emitted which can explode on contact with an ignition source,” Sgt. Jim Shannon said in a news release.

A 52-year-old Centralia man was charged yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court with manufacturing marijuana. Dale R. Brotherton is being held in the Lewis County Jail on $10,000 bail.

The find came on Wednesday night at a home on the 800 block of West Pear Street.

Shannon said police had been investigating the situation for about a week.

Officers arrested Brotherton earlier in the day in the area, for a traffic violation. He was driving a pickup truck pulling a fifth-wheel trailer near the bus garage and police stopped him for driving without a required ignition interlock device, according to Shannon.

The sergeant said he believes Brotherton lives in the RV.

The resident of the home they searched that night is a friend of Brotherton’s who allowed him to use the space, Shannon said. She was cooperative, he said.

Shannon’s special anti-crime team confiscated more than 140 pounds of marijuana trimmings and various items used in the hash oil process, he said. They also found a jar of the substance in the kitchen freezer, he said.

He estimates the total street value in hash oil from the marijuana recovered by police would be about $156,000. Shannon used a street price of $40 per gram for the product referred to as Honey Oil, Shatter, BHO, Wax and Earwax.

The resulting product is something users would smoke with a vaporizer or e-cigarette or also could be used for so-called edibles, or marijuana-infused food products, according to Shannon.

Marijuana processing is something newly legalized under Initiative 502, with a state-issued license, but not presently allowed within Centralia city limits, Shannon said.

The sergeant said he didn’t know where Brotherton obtained the marijuana and he didn’t know if Brotherton is someone attempting to get involved in the legal market.

The police department seized the 2003 Ford F-350 pickup truck, the 35-foot RV and also a 1998 Toyota Camry belonging to Brotherton.

The investigation is ongoing, he said. Brotherton is scheduled to be back in court on June 5 for his arraignment, or to review if he’s been able to hire a lawyer, according to Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead.

Shannon said the house they searched is the same address where last Friday, a 17-year-old boy was injured when he was pinned briefly between a pickup and a fifth-wheel travel trailer during an attempt with someone else to hitch the two together. He  said he didn’t know if it was Brotherton or Brotherton’s vehicles involved.

He described the hash oil making process they found as several hanging glass tubes filled with compacted marijuana, through which butane would be passed via a small hole in the bottom – sort of like a drip coffee maker.

The resulting substance would lay on a glass surface, in this case a glass door and a very large glass window, he said. The remaining liquid solvent – sometimes paint thinner like Naptha or alcohol, is evaporated off, according to Shannon.

The end product is the remaining resin, a highly concentrated form of THC.

Shannon said some people use waxed paper to keep it in, and some keep it refrigerated to retain its solidity.

And it looks like ear wax, he said.

Sometimes further processing can turn it into even harder, which is then broken up which is why it sometimes is called Shatter.

He noted the final product retains a certain amount of residue from the solvent, and that indoor growers notoriously use fungicides because of humidity and some use pesticides since aphids are a problem.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has decided to wait until the water level in the Cispus River drops in order to access an area beneath a log jam where a missing 5-year-old child may be.

The Tacoma boy was riding a motorcycle at a camp spot on Monday when he apparently accidentally went into the water. His motorcycle and a visor to his helmet have been recovered.

The child was camping with his family over the weekend about 10 and a half miles south of Randle, along Forest Service Road 120, off Forest Service Road 23.

Search and rescue personnel combed the area, on the ground and in the water each day through Wednesday afternoon.

On Thursday, the sheriff’s office said a spotter from KIRO TV’s helicopter back on Tuesday observed something the same colors as the boy had been wearing beneath a particular log jam in the swift flowing river. Attempts were made on Wednesday by a water rescue team to probe the jam but they were unsuccessful because of the depth and current, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

The banks of the river have been searched and the child is presumed drowned.

“It is believed once the water level drops a few feet, searchers will be able to access the area under the logjam in hopes of finding the boy,” Brown said in a news release at mid-day on Thursday.

The plan is to secure a helicopter and crews for another search next week, if the conditions cooperate, according to Brown.

Meanwhile, they will be checking the area on foot frequently and keep monitoring water gauges in the area, Brown said.

“We don’t know that he’s in that log jam,” Brown said. “But we believe he is, given what the KIRO spotter saw and the way the currents run.”

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield points out how swift and dangerous the search area is, even for rescuers with specialized training.

“Our searchers have worked relentlessly trying to recover this little boy’s body,” Mansfield stated in the news release. “Most of us have children and understand the extreme importance of recovering this little guy for his family. The river conditions have just made this search extremely difficult.”

According to the sheriff’s office, the river level has fluctuated only a few inches either way over the past few days. With the increased warmer weather, unfortunately, the water level will rise due to snowmelt, Brown says.

They also are considering the practicality of utilizing a search dog for future efforts, according to Brown.

Updated at 11:23 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Five swift water rescue team members continue to scour the Cispus River this morning in hopes of finding the 5-year-old Tacoma boy who vanished while camping with his parents on Monday.

“They’re going back over the river and looking at log jams,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said. “The Randle Fire Department and Packwood SAR (Search and Rescue) are on standby, if we should find anything.”

The family was staying at an unimproved campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest several miles south of Randle. The child was riding his motorcycle and apparently got too close to the bank and fell in, while his parents had their back to him, according to the sheriff’s office.

Search and rescue efforts yesterday went until dark, with 18 personnel, including a dive team from Thurston County. A news helicopter assisted earlier in the day, the sheriff’s office said.

They focused on several log jams, Aust said. What was thought to be the child’s helmet about a mile downstream turned out to be only its visor hung up on a log jam, according to the sheriff’s office.

The motorcycle was pulled from the river yesterday, close to the camp spot, according to Fire Chief Jeff Jaques.

Responders called about 7 p.m. on Monday were looking for both the little boy and his 32-year-old father, who had jumped in the river. It was almost dark before the man was found, on the bank looking for his son about a half mile from the camp spot, according to Aust.

The terrain, steep embankments and heavy brush, is making the effort very challenging, the sheriff’s office said yesterday afternoon.

“The river continues to run very swift and cold making the search extremely dangerous,” the sheriff’s office said.

At the scene this morning are sheriff’s office Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber and the water rescue members consisting of four deputies and a officer with Fish and Wildlife, according to Aust.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Responders are attempting to recover the body of a 5-year-old Tacoma boy who fell into the Cispus River near Randle yesterday as he was riding his motorcycle at an unimproved campground.

His 32-year-old father jumped in after the child but was unable to reach him before the boy was swept away, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The father was able to reach the shore after being carried downstream about a half mile, the sheriff’s office stated in a news release this morning.

Teams working last night believed they spotted little one’s helmet snagged on a log approximately one mile down river from from where he went in, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. The recovery operation resumed at daylight this morning, according to Brown.

Deputies, firefighters and swift water team members out of Toledo responded about 7 p.m. last night to reports of possible drownings.

The site is beyond the Cispus Learning Center is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which is about seven miles south of Randle.

Due to darkness and the extremely swift water, teams had to discontinue the search last night, according to Brown.

The boy was camping with his family over the weekend about 10 and a half miles south of Randle, along Forest Service Road 120, off Forest Service Road 23.

Brown said he was wearing full protective riding gear and a helmet, and it appeared he got to close to the river bank and went in.

The river is running very fast at this time of year due to snow melt, Brown indicated, and the water temperatures are extremely cold.

On the scene this morning are deputies, members of Lewis County Fire Districts 14 Randle and 2 Toledo, water rescue specialists from Lewis and Thurston counties, Packwood Search and Rescue and a Fish and Wildlife agent, according to Brown.