Lewis County Sirens.com

A Ford Excursion stretch limousine awaiting auction is one of four vehicles confiscated now by Centralia’s special Anti-Crime Team from suspected drug dealer Jai J. Bhagwandin.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 29-year-old man arrested last month by Centralia drug officers for allegedly selling  ecstasy was arrested again after two informants working with police reportedly bought $200 worth of  ecstasy from him in the parking lot at Spiffy’s restaurant south of Chehalis.

Jai J. Bhagwandin, 29, was taken into custody on Friday, apprehended by law enforcement officers after he drove away following the encounter. He appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon, charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance.

His bail was set at $100,000.

The judge was told he retained a lawyer in his previous case, but ran out of money so qualified for a public defender.

Bhagwandin has 11 pending drug offense counts in Thurston County, the judge was told.

It was March 6 when Centralia’s special Anti-Crime team seized three vehicles, cash and drugs from a Lacey home following an investigation into suspected suppliers to numerous local drug dealers.

A search of that residence turned up about two pounds of hallucinogenic mushrooms, six ounces of suspected hash, five pounds of packaged marijuana, some prescription pills and less than a pound of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or Molly, according to police, as well as a large amount of U.S. currency stored in seal-a-meal packaging.

Bhagwandin now resides in Onalaska where his mother works as an alternative health care provider; his father was present in court today, defense attorney Bob Schroeter said as he appealed for lower bail.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said further charges were expected as roughly a pound of marijuana was located in Bhagwandin’s Subaru Legacy following his recent arrest.

His arraignment  is scheduled for this coming Thursday.

Richard L. Crumbliss is directed to the defendant’s table during a bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An Onalaska school bus driver is jailed following his arrest for allegedly raping a teenage relative in her bed during spring break.

Bail was set over the weekend for 43-year-old Richard L. Crumbliss at $750,000. A different judge today reduced the amount to $100,000.

Crumbliss appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon, shackled at his hands and waist, for the bail hearing.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter in asking for a lower bond noted his client is a volunteer firefighter and also a part time substitute bus driver.

“But, he’s no longer doing that,” Schroeter said as he described how the Onalaska resident’s financial situation qualified him for a court-appointed lawyer.

Charging documents describe a deputy responding on Thursday to speak to the teenage girl, at the behest of a victim’s advocate.

Deputy Susan Shannon was told the girl came home drunk on April 9 and three times during the night, Crumbliss came into her bedroom, while her mother was home and still up and awake during the first two alleged encounters.

Shannon was still investigating when Crumbliss phoned 911 to report the girl had run away, according to charging documents.

According to the court documents, without solicitation, he told the deputy the girl had accused him of rape and he hadn’t seen her since the night before.

He called the girl a huge fibber and worried about his reputation as an officer of the fire department, according to the documents.

The girl told authorities she’d overheard both he and her mother calling her a liar about it.

Deputies subsequently searched the home, and Crumbliss and his wife offered that they had collected the girls underclothes from that night and saved them, the documents state.

He also told the deputy he is never alone with the girl, his wife is always present because about two and half months earlier he was accused of a different sexual assault, according to the documents. He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail on Friday morning.

Judge Richard Brosey this afternoon was told the girl has been taken into protective custody.

Brosey ordered Crumbliss, if he makes bail, to have no unsupervised contact with minor females; and further ordered his spouse may not be the one to supervise any contacts.

Centralia lawyer David Arcuri was appointed to represent him.

Crumbliss is charged with two counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of first-degree incest. His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.

The girl also told authorities, according to charging documents, that when she was 12, he gave her vodka mixed with strawberry drink while she traveled with him in his semi truck and he sexually abused her in the sleeper. He denied the accusation, but admitted giving her strawberry vodka, charging documents state.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 15-year-old Morton boy locked up for allegedly stabbing his mother told police he was upset, that she’d laughed about him twice to other people that afternoon and he’d had enough.

She told him to get a towel to wrap around her arm, and he did, according to court documents. But after 35-year-old Rhiannon Foister went downstairs to the living room, fell beneath a table and told him to get her something to put on her wounds, he told her no, that he wanted her to hurt like he had for the past 15 years, the documents state.

And the teen walked out the door to stand in the driveway to wait for police.

Morton Police Department Police Chief Dan Mortensen said he was called around 3:35 p.m. Monday to the home at the 800 block of Overlook Drive in the East Lewis County town. The boy told the chief he stabbed his mother and so he was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car, according to the documents.

His brother and sister were home when it happened. Foister was transported to Morton General Hospital and then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for additional treatment.

A hospital spokesperson said yesterday morning Foister was listed in satisfactory condition.

The teen was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, and charged on Tuesday with second-degree assault.

A juvenile court judge at a detention hearing the same day ordered him held at least until his arraignment next Tuesday, according to Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher.

That’s also when a trial date and pre-trial hearing will be scheduled, Meagher said.

Court documents, based on the police reports, indicate the police chief recovered a knife about 14 inches long which the boy said he’d gotten out of the kitchen.

Mortensen told Meagher the mother had five to seven stab wounds, including  one to her chest, but he had yet to get a full statement from her.

The documents give the following account, mostly from the 15-year-old’s conversation with police:

The boy said he’d called his mother from school, to ask if he could walk his girlfriend home from school and then walk the rest of the way home, but she said no, she’d pick him up and did so.

That upset him, and then his mother was talking with another mother, and laughing about him not being able to walk his girlfriend home, he told police.

“She said he was going to be turned in to his juvenile probation officer for violating his conditions of release,” the boy related.

Once they got home, the two continued their disagreement, and after he went upstairs to his room, he could hear his mother talking on the phone to someone else, laughing and saying she was going to call his probation officer, he said.

The boy told police he’d had enough.

He went into the living room and told his siblings to leave, because he and his mother were going to have serious conversation.

He asked his mother to walk to her bedroom, where she sat down on the bed and they faced off.

“(He) stated he pulled out the knife and wanted to scare her and show her how serious he was,” court documents state. “He stated he hadn’t intended to stab her with it, only to scare her.”

His mother said go ahead and stab her, if that’s what he was going to do, the boy related to police.

The teen paused and began crying, but after encouraged by the officer to continue, said he lunged at his mom and stabbed her in the arm. She moved away, and he stabbed her in the leg. They continued yelling at each other.

“He added he knew what was happening but was also kind of blacked out,” the documents state.

The siblings came to see what the yelling and screaming was about, and they all ended up back down stairs.

Mortensen describes he and a deputy responding, and arriving to find one juvenile throwing items around the porch saying he was going to kill the boy for stabbing his mother, seeing a pool of blood around Foister’s feet, and then a girl who helped the chief put direct pressure on a towel on Foister’s leg while he spoke with a 911 dispatcher to get aid.

The teen told the chief his probation was for smoking pot and truancy.

The boy told police he went outside to wait for police, and also said he didn’t want to remain inside and watch his mother bleed out.

Chief Mortensen on Tuesday morning described the reason for the assault only as “family issues, apparently”.

The boy is represented by Centralia attorney David Brown.

He’s 15, so he will not automatically sent to adult court, according to Meagher.

Assistant Fire Chiefs Rick Mack, left, and Mike Kytta, watch the board vote to promote Kytta to the top post at Riverside Fire Authority.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Assistant Chief Mike Kytta will replace outgoing Chief Jim Walkowski at Riverside Fire Authority, the department that protects Centralia and it surrounding area.

The move came this evening when the agency’s board of commissioners accepted Walkowski’s resignation and voted to appoint the Fords Prairie resident to the top spot.

“Thank you for the opportunity, it’s an honor to assume that position,” Kytta responded. “I’m looking forward to working with the board, the labor unit, the volunteers and most importantly the community.

“I’m optimistic we will find a way to preserve services for the community.”

Kytta, 54, was chief for a decade of the former Lewis County Fire District 12 which completed a merger with the Centralia Fire Department under Walkowski’s leadership.

Kytta voluntarily stepped down to minimize potential conflicts as that process moved along with the hiring of Walkowski from outside the area.

He was honored by his peers statewide in 2006 with a “Chief Award” in part because of that move, which the Washington State Association of Fire Chief’s called his uncommon commitment to doing the right thing for the public.

Now however, facing a steeply declining budget, the organization has cut firefighter positions this year. It was poised to trim the trio of top officers down to two, when Walkowski accepted a position earlier this month in the Spokane area. He will remain at Riverside through the end of this month.

Kytta, a Centralia native, was a 16-year-old Explorer Scout when he began as a volunteer firefighter. He has 38 years of experience, the past 17 as a full time firefighter.

He has his work cut out for him.

Because of a changing landscape regarding the collection of property taxes, Riverside is operating with an annual budget of about $3.9 million, compared with $4.6 million last year.

It is on track to lose six paid personnel this year, to meet that budget.

The board is planning to ask voters in August for what’s called an excess levy, to prevent next year’s revenue from dropping to $3.1 million, a scenario the department’s leaders say would mean a much different service level for fires and medical calls.

Kytta has grave concerns about explaining the need to the public, without coming across as threatening.

On the promotion, he says:

“It’s exciting, in that I am optimistic,” he said. “I have very deep concerns if we’re not able to earn the public’s support on the levy.”

Pe Ell Mayor Spencer Nichols, head of table, advises the town council not to speak about any personnel matters

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

PE ELL – The tiny west Lewis County town of Pe Ell is without a police force once again, days after its sole law enforcement officer was arrested for driving under the influence, less than two months into the job.

Town Marshal Anthony K. Corder resigned yesterday, and the situation has one community leader calling upon Pe Ell to dissolve its status as a town, saying it’s a sign it can’t afford to operate.

“Look at the history of the officers we’ve had,” Town Councilmember John Penberth said.

The previous marshal Steve Dawes was on the job about a year, before leaving a few months ago, according to Penberth.

Penberth suggested to the town council last night it could consider bankruptcy or it could think about becoming unincorporated

“We’re advertising for certified police officers, but because of our budget, we’re not getting certified people,” Penberth said. “That in itself shows we don’t have adequate funding to be a municipality.”

He indicated the alternative of paying $65,000 a year to the sheriff’s office for the services of one deputy is unaffordable.

Corder, 27, was hired in mid-February with no previous law enforcement experience. He was the only applicant.

The former Marine was commissioned as town marshal on Valentines Day and had yet to attend the state training academy. His pay for the part time job was $1,500 a month.

He turned in his resignation yesterday, according to Mayor Spencer Nichols.

Penberth’s remarks went largely unanswered, coming during a council meeting dominated by agenda of an upcoming spring cleanup and talk by volunteers on how to coordinate the annual parade.

The mayor, and the town’s legal counsel, cautioned council members not to speak of personnel matters.

One among the audience of 21 individuals suggested cutting the wages of the town clerk-treasurer, because she earns more than anyone who lives in Pe Ell. Town Councilmember Kristi Milanowski asked about utilizing volunteer reserve officers.

Mayor Nichols indicated such a program can only be set up by a paid town marshal.

Following the less than hour-long meeting, Nichols said he has put together a notice for the local newspaper that Pe Ell is accepting applications for the job.

Their preferred applicants will be already commissioned and state certified, or at least willing to become certified. Starting salary will be based on experience.

The deadline to apply is May 12.

Nichols declined to answer further questions about Corder’s short tenure, with the town attorney apologizing.

“We can’t comment on personnel matters while an investigation is going on,” Allen C. Unzelman said.

Because Corder not yet attended training to become a state-certified law enforcement officer, his police powers were limited to inside the city limits in the town with a population of 630.
•••

For background, read “Pe Ell’s town marshal pleads not guilty to driving under the influence” from Saturday April 12, 2014, here

Kyle Davison goes before a judge when his attorney asks for more time to investigate baby’s medical records.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 22-year-old Mineral resident accused of severely injuring a 4-month-old infant by shaking it last fall remains jailed and will have to wait a little longer for his trial, as a doctor reviews the case for a second look to find how the little one ended up with bleeding on the brain.

Kyle Davison was arrested in early October, after the baby girl was airlifted out of Morton to Marybridge Children’s Hospital and placed on life support. He and the baby’s mother told authorities the child began to choke and he took it next door to get help from a neighbor where they called 911.

A doctor at the hospital told police that tests indicated inter-cranial hemorrhage, consistent with shaken baby syndrome and not an accident, according to charging documents.

Davison is charged with first-degree assault of a child, an offense with a maximum penalty of life in prison. He being held on $100,000 bail in the Lewis County Jail.

The little girl was hospitalized for weeks, but was moved to Pope’s Kids Place in Centralia where she gets round-the-clock care, and has improved, according to Davison’s lawyer.

“The last time I talked with the mother, about a month ago, the baby was doing a lot better,” Sam Groberg said. “She’s hearing, seeing and eating through a feeding tube.”

The baby, identified only with the initials A.F.J.L. is 10 months old now. Her mother, Llacye Faye Link, is Davison’s ex-girlfriend.

Groberg last week sought a postponement of his client’s trial so another physician could examine the patient’s medical records, he said.

“Did the baby end up in the emergency room because of trauma or did the child have some issues already,” Groberg said. “Is it possible there are other things that caused it.”

Those are some of the questions the doctor will seek to answer, he said.

Groberg said doctors through research are learning of other things that can cause symptoms similar to shaken baby syndrome. In the past, physicians finding the combination of retinal hemorrhaging and bruising on the brain were quick to point to the diagnosis and child abuse, he said.

“Now there’s kind of this growing movement that says we have maybe jumped the gun on this, sometimes,” Groberg said.

Groberg has said Davison is factually innocent.

Details of what happened that night, Oct. 2 in Morton, come from charging documents with information primarily from Davison.

When Morton Police Chief Dan Mortensen interviewed him, he said his girlfriend and her baby had been visiting him at his house in Mineral, and the three of them went to Morton to go out to dinner, and then to Link’s apartment in town.

When they arrived, he changed the baby’s diaper and put it on the couch with a pillow next to her, he told the police chief. He thought they watched a little television.

It was around 11 p.m. when Link gave Davison the baby’s pajamas and asked him to put them on her while she stepped out to buy them a bag of pot, charging documents state.

Davison told the chief he sat down on the couch and took the baby’s bottle from her, then laid her on top of the night clothes; and as he was putting her arms into the pajamas, she began to choke, according to charging documents.

He told of laying her across his lap and patting her back, of holding her in front of him and seeing her not breathing, putting her over his shoulder and patting her, of her still being “white”, according to the documents.

When pressed by Mortensen, he said he was scared and didn’t know what to do and began to shake her, then seeing she was still white, carrying the baby to the apartment next door to ask for help, according to the documents.

He cried, according to the chief, putting his head in his hands.

“I knew better, I knew better. I shouldn’t have done that, I knew better,” Davison said.

His client said he didn’t shake the baby hard, nor did he intend to hurt her, Groberg said.

“There’s a huge difference between an ‘I’m angry’ shake and a resuscitative shake,” he said.

The Lewis County Prosecutors Office however alleges in its charge that Davison intentionally hurt the child, inflicting great bodily harm.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt last Thursday, when the request to postpone the trial was made, asked how the victim feels about the delay before granting the request.

“The mom is on Kyle’s side, she wants him exonerated,” Groberg said. “She doesn’t think my client did anything wrong.”

A review hearing is set for June 5. The trial was scheduled for next month, but is now on the court calendar for the week of July 14.

Lawyers at the same time postponed another trial for Davison, related to charges of second-degree theft and second-degree identity theft, until the week of July 21.

Anthony Corder’s continued employment as Pe Ell’s town marshal is uncertain, so he qualifies for a public defender, according to lawyer.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Handcuffed and clad in green striped jail garb, Pe Ell’s town Marshal Anthony K. Corder was told by a judge he may not drink alcohol or go into bars or taverns.

And that he is subject to random breath tests while his case is pending.

The 27-year-old who was newly hired by the mayor of the tiny West Lewis County town, with no previous experience in law enforcement, took a seat at the defendant’s table in Lewis County District Court yesterday, less than 12 hours after he was arrested for driving drunk.

In his patrol car.

A plea of not guilty was entered for him and Judge Michael Roewe said he would be released on his own recognizance.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter told Roewe the marshal has never had a charge of any kind before.

“He left the U.S. Marine Corps, serving our country, in 2013,” Schroeter said. “Also doing a tour in Afghanistan.”

Corder’s part time pay of $1,500 a month qualifies him for a court appointed lawyer, according to Schroeter. And, his continued employment is uncertain, Schroeter told the judge.

Corder is the sole officer in the town with 630 inhabitants.

His position is so new, he’s been commissioned by the mayor as top law officer in town, but he’s not yet attended the training academy.

Corder was not on duty when he was reportedly observed by a sheriff’s deputy driving his Crown Victoria through town, with its headlights off.

Exactly where he’d been or where he was going wasn’t revealed by the police report, but when he spoke with three deputies – smelling strongly of alcohol and slurring his words – he readily admitted the situation, according to the report.

“Yes, I did do that, I made a mistake there,” Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jeffrey Humphrey documented in his report.

Deputy M. Mohr, who took over the investigation at that point, noted the marshal’s .45 caliber pistol was taken out of the police car, and the car was turned over to Mayor Spencer Nichols.

Corder underwent field sobriety tests in the parking lot of the Texaco on Pe Ell’s Main Street, where he performed poorly and blew a .235 on the portable breath test around 2 a.m.

He was cooperative, but was taken to the Lewis County Jail, where he was processed and booked, according to Mohr.

The legal limit of an alcohol concentration is .08 when driving.

Corder’s contact with sheriff’s deputies in Pe Ell came about because 911 got a phone call from his ex-girlfriend who said he’d been calling her, saying he was going to shoot himself as well as burn her house down, Mohr wrote in his report.

Ebonnie Meyer told Mohr over the phone her ex was highly intoxicated and gets that way when drinking, according to Mohr.

It may not have been the first time the marshal mixed alcohol and his new job.

Meyer said she didn’t know where Corder was, but the last time he called her while he was drunk, he was in his city office where he subsequently passed out, according to the report.

It was about 1 a.m. on Friday when sheriff’s deputies headed to Pe Ell to find him.

Deputy Humphrey described seeing the town’s patrol vehicle driving with its lights off on Second Street, on Pe Ell Avenue and down an alley behind the Texaco station.

He saw it park in front of a residence in the trailer park there where a male got out and went inside, Humphrey wrote.

Humphrey contacted Corder via cell phone and Corder stumbled over the to the gas station to speak with them, according to the police reports.

According to Humphrey, when asked what was going on with his girlfriend, Corder said he was upset because she’d given his extra car key to a repo company and it got taken away.

He denied repeatedly planning to kill himself, saying if he’d wanted to do that, he’d have done it in Afghanistan, according to Humphrey.

The police reports don’t make any mention the deputies pursued any further the ex-girlfriend’s contention the marshal was suicidal.

Once back at the jail, after Corder spoke on the phone with a lawyer, and then just after 4 a.m., consented to be tested on the breath alcohol machine but declined to answer further questions, according to Mohr.

The readings came back as .184 and .186, according to the report.

Mayor Nichols didn’t return phone calls seeking information about Corder’s job status on Friday.

It was just about seven months ago when Deputy Humphrey was arrested by a trooper for driving under the influence. The 11-year veteran of the sheriff’s office was demoted and his continued employment was tied to the conditions imposed by the court.

And in January, another sheriff’s deputy, with six years on the job, was arrested in Centralia for DUI. Chris Fulton quit two weeks later.

Both of them were driving their personal vehicles.

Driving under the influence is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail and up to $10,250 in monetary penalties, according to attorney Schroeter.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Luke Stanton said Corder’s next court date, a pre-trial hearing, is not yet scheduled but likely would take place in four to six weeks.