Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge today dismissed part of the criminal charges against Lorrine D. Birdwell, a Toledo woman who with her husband is accused of major theft in connection with their used car business.

Lorrine and Keith A. Birdwell operated  Birdwell Brothers Auto Sales with sites in Centralia and in Lacey.

They were both in Lewis County Superior Court today, each represented by their own lawyer.

Keith and Lorrine Birdwell

Prosecutors allege the couple used various deceptions to avoid paying back the Centralia-based Security State Bank on loans for vehicles, contending the unrecovered losses to the bank are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They were each charged in January with one count of first-degree theft and five counts of felony unlawful issuance of a bank check.

The “bad” checks – a secondary issue – were allegedly written by Keith Birdwell for several thousand dollars each over a period of three days last July at the point where the bank began to realize there was a problem, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg.

Seattle attorney Allen M. Ressler argued this afternoon his client didn’t write the checks and there was no direct evidence to show she was involved in them. Eisenberg argued she had to have known as she was managing the financial side of the business and the bad checks were part of the larger scheme.

Part of what pointed to what would be a proper inference, Eisenberg said, was Lorrine Birdwell’s “runaway spending” of some $26,000 on her American Express credit card right after the bad checks were written.

Judge James Lawler sided with Lorrine Birdwell’s attorney.

Ressler also notified the court he would be filing a motion to sever their cases so they could be tried separately.

They have both pleaded not guilty.

A trial was scheduled for the week of August 26, but both sides agreed to postpone it, or them, until the beginning of December.
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For background, read “Centralia used car lot owners appear in court on criminal charges” from Wednesday January 23, 2013, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An attorney for the blind man who fell into an uncovered storm drain alongside a Chehalis sidewalk last summer has filed a lawsuit on his behalf, after the city denied a claim for damages.

Tim Franklin, now 43, was walking to the Safeway grocery store to buy milk when he dropped into a brick-lined pit late at night on July 11, 2012.

Tim Franklin

He smacked his head and struggled for about five minutes to get out because his foot was wedged under a small pipe about halfway down.

Police and aid arriving to the corner of Southwest 11th Street at Market Boulevard found him just pulling himself out. He declined to go to the hospital, but went to a doctor the following day, he said.

Franklin, who moved to Daytona, Florida this spring after residing in Chehalis for 10 years, was fairly low key about the incident then, and still makes light of it somewhat.

People don’t believe him when he tells them he fell in a manhole, he said. Because that’s like a joke, a blind man falling into a manhole, he said.

He seems just surprised the city wouldn’t take responsibility for the missing cover.

“They should have bolted it down or something, it’s weird,” he said.

The claim filed in March was for damages in the amount of just over $30,000. It notes he has headaches, pain in his neck and shoulders and elsewhere and that he has fear and apprehension about walking around town due to fear of falling again.

Chehalis attorney Joseph Mano Jr. also wrote that Franklin gave up working in his wood shop because of the inability to turn his head and look down.

Peggy Hammer, with the city of Chehalis said it wasn’t the city that rejected the claim, it was the city’s insurer.

“In general, there are findings the city has to be aware of the situation to be liable,” she said.

Hammer alluded to something the fire department mentioned last year, that metal thieves had been stealing the covers.

The lawsuit was filed in Lewis County Superior Court two weeks ago. The city’s attorney has 20 days to respond.

It asks for an amount to be proven for general and special damages, plus costs.

The filing mentions Franklin’s medical care, pain and lessened capacity to enjoy life.

Mano writes the city had been making repairs at the location, and in the course of the work, a large hole was developed in the sidewalk area which the city failed to cover or ensure was safe for pedestrians.

Franklin said he sold his woodworking tools and decided it’s time for a job in which he relies on his brain instead of physical labor. He previously built birdhouses, cabinets and chicken houses.

“It might be time to learn some computers,” he said in a telephone interview today.

He and his his oldest son relocated to Florida, he said, because his sister lives there, his mother spends a lot of time there and Daytona has good job opportunities for the blind.

He’s currently playing guitar at an old folks home, and would like to expand the musical side of his life, he said. It’s $40 an hour, but only for two hours each month, he said.

“They like the old hymns,” he said.

He said he hadn’t heard from his lawyer since he was told the claim was turned down. He said he hopes they might be able to conduct whatever interviews are needed by telephone.

Franklin said he wasn’t angry when it happened, but he’s beginning to feel differently now.

“Now I’m getting mad, cause they denied the claim” he said without raising his voice or changing his tone. “Sheesh. What am I supposed to do about my medical bills?”
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For background, read “Missing manhole cover trips blind man” from Thursday July 12, 2012, here

Updated at 5:07 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The 94-year-old woman found dead yesterday in a river in the south end of the Boistfort Valley was legally blind and liked to walk along the river on her property, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Alice Cripe was discovered down a steep embankment, resting against some rocks in the South Fork of the Chehalis River on her own property, according to authorities.

Her death was an accident, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said today. Alice Cripe fell down, hit her head and drowned, according to McLeod.

The sheriff’s office doesn’t know exactly when it happened.

Family members from California visited her house on the 1000 block of Wildwood Road on Monday night, leaving around 9 p.m.; and when they returned yesterday morning could not find her inside but subsequently located her body, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said the bank was perhaps 10 to 15 feet down, although detectives don’t know for sure how far she fell.

Fire Chief Gregg Peterson said she is a long time resident of the Boistfort Valley and she lived alone.

It was just a little more than a year ago at the north end of the Boistfort Valley that 8-year-old Nicholas Matchett drowned after he apparently slipped off the steep bank behind his home into the river.

Corey R. Morgan listens to lawyers discuss his bail amount in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 32-year-old man accused of strangling his girlfriend and trying to cover it up with a story of wrecking his truck after three assailants beat her on a logging road near Morton was ordered held on $500,000 bail yesterday.

Exactly what did happen between Corey R. Morgan and Brenda L. Bail remains mostly a mystery, but Morgan is charged with second-degree murder and Bail is dead after a night of drinking, according to his story.

Prosecutors say Morgan had been sentenced two days earlier for an incident of domestic violence from last fall when he punched her in the face.

Morgan was identified as a Randle resident by the sheriff’s office, but prosecutors indicate the two lived together south of Chehalis. He told law enforcement the 48-year-old was his fiancee and they’d been dating for a number of years.

“When interviewed, the defendant’s cousin, who was aware of the prior domestic violence case, said it was only a matter of time before the defendant did something like this,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

His version of events, which authorities have made clear they don’t entirely believe, begins with the couple drinking at the Market Street Pub in Chehalis until about 10 p.m. last Thursday.

He had a few drinks, she had more than five, he said.

According to charging documents filed yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court, he said they left for Wendy’s to get food and dropped some off for her daughter at their home on Pier Road south of Chehalis. Bail’s daughter told law enforcement her mother never came inside the residence.

Morgan said at about 11 p.m., the couple headed out to drink more alcohol at their “special spot” on a logging road about 30 miles away, according to charging documents.

Fast forward to 1:30 a.m. when a resident who lives on state Route 508 not far from the start of the logging road calls 911 to say a man came on foot to her door saying he and his fiancee had been in a wreck and she wasn’t breathing.

Aid crews from Lewis County Fire District 4 responded, along with a Morton police officer, according to the sheriff’s office. They detected no pulse, began CPR and transported Bail by ambulance to Morton General Hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.

Bail was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2:25 a.m.

Charging documents state that multiple law enforcement officers were dispatched at about 2:30 a.m. after word of the death.

Morgan was questioned.

His truck was found in a ditch along Forest Service Road 73 with minimal damage, although he’d said he’d been traveling at almost 70 mph while being pursued by a Dodge Neon, according to charging documents.

Charging documents state Morgan maintained the same general substance to his story, but there were multiple inconsistencies between interviews with various law enforcement officers.

According to the documents: Morgan said he noticed another vehicle followed them after they turned onto the logging road. He said when they reached their destination, Bail got out to urinate while stayed inside his truck.

He said the car came speeding up at them, made a wild spinout and came to a stop whereupon three males – including his former roommate – jumped out and began repeatedly striking Bail with a Maglight flashlight and a baton.

Morgan said he used his marital arts training to fend them off, even knocking his former roommate out cold.

He said he picked Bail up, put her in the vehicle, sped down the logging road but then crashed into the ditch and got stuck.

He said he’d been hit in the head with the flashlight; law enforcement described the injury on the back of his head as more like a scratch.

The former roommate voluntarily spoke with law enforcement on Friday night and indicated he had “absolutely no idea” what the defendant was talking about. He had no injuries, charging documents state.

The cause of Bail’s death, according to the Lewis County Coroner, was asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation. Blunt force trauma to her head contributed to her demise, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

The report from the medical examiner noted it would have taken about four to six minutes of strangulation for the death to occur, charging documents state.

In court yesterday afternoon, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke asked for high bail, telling the judge it was a particularly violent homicide.

Morgan sat quietly beside defense attorney Bob Schroeter, with a half dozen individuals in the benches behind him.

Schroeter countered saying his client was a long term resident of the county with a “good” vocational history, commuting to Longview where he worked in an auto detailing shop for three years.

Judge Richard Brosey appointed Centralia attorney Don Blair to represent Morgan and scheduled his arraignment for Thursday morning.

Brenda Bail: Fun at the river in August 2010. / Courtesy photo

Corey Morgan’s wrecked truck on Forest Service Road 73 west of Morton. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

Updated at 1:26 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Detectives didn’t buy the story about how Corey Ross Morgan’s fiancee suffered her fatal injuries in a wreck on a logging road outside Morton and an autopsy indicated she died from strangulation, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Morgan, 32, of Randle, was arrested on Friday for second-degree murder.

The sheriff’s office said there is a history of domestic violence between Morgan and the victim, 48-year-old Brenda L. Bail of Chehalis.

Aid was called about 1:30 a.m. on Friday to Forest Service Road 73 after Morgan showed up at a house about two miles away and asked the resident to call 911 because he had wrecked his truck and Bail wasn’t breathing.

Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said apparently when aid arrived, Bail had no pulse, they began CPR and transported her to the hospital.

Detectives became suspicious of Morgan’s detailed story of what occurred, according to the sheriff’s office.

He said the couple was visiting their “special spot” when three men jumped them, according to the sheriff’s office. Morgan also told detectives they beat Bail badly but he was able to “thwart” them off because he knew Tae-Kwon-Do, the sheriff’s office said.

He said he put her in his truck and as he sped down the logging road, he lost control and crashed into an embankment, causing his fiancee to hit her head on the dashboard.

The sheriff’s office says Morgan named Roger Etter of Kelso as one of the attackers, but Etter contacted law enforcement over the weekend and has been cleared of any involvement.

Brown said there were no indications Morgan was hurt and even the state patrol didn’t see the collision as one with enough impact to have caused major injuries to Bail.

Brown states Bail was dead at the wreck scene, even though she was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Detectives began their investigation at Morton General Hospital and don’t know if Bail died before the wreck or while Morgan had gone for help, according to Brown.

An autopsy conducted on Friday showed Bail died from asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation, with contributing factors of blunt force trauma to her face, according to authorities. The sheriff’s office says they don’t believe she was injured from the wreck.

Morgan is scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court where his bail amount will be set.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A man was booked into the Lewis County Jail  yesterday for murder, however, the sheriff’s office won’t say anything about what homicide he is linked to.

Corey Ross Morgan was arrested for second-degree murder and booked at 3 p.m., according to jail’s roster.

A spokesperson for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office would not say if Morgan is connected with the suspicious death of 48-year-old Chehalis woman under investigation since early Friday morning or if detectives are working on another death in the county.

Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday morning a man went to a house on the 5900 block of state Route 508 west of Morton and told a woman there he and his fiance had gotten in a wreck on Forest Service Road 73, about two miles away, and she wasn’t breathing.

Aid found her dead when they arrived at the collision, according to Brown.

Detectives were questioning the un-named 32-year-old Randle man who said the couple had been “jumped” and the wreck happened while they were trying to get away, according to Brown. The sheriff’s office yesterday also said they were looking for 39-year-old Roger Etter, of Kelso, because he might have information in the case.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said an autopsy was conducted yesterday and he has determined the cause and manner of death for the woman, but he is withholding that information at the request of the sheriff’s office.

He also is not yet releasing her name as he has not confirmed who she is, he said. McLeod said he has tentatively identified her and notified the family of that person.

Brown indicated last night the sheriff’s office will release no further information on the man booked into the jail until after representatives from its office, the prosecutor’s office and the coroner’s office have a chance to get together for “briefing.”

That won’t happen before Monday, according to Brown.

Zachery H. Bynum appears with a defense attorney in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 41-year-old Packwood man being held in the Lewis County Jail allegedly took a 22-year-old woman up a logging road and threatened her with a machete, telling her either she was going to kill him or he was going to kill her before she managed to talk him into going to the Glenoma grocery, where he then forced her to drive him away as deputies arrived.

Zachery H. Bynum was arrested after an approximately four-mile police pursuit, during which he held the large knife alternately to the young woman’s ribs and neck, according to court documents.

Authorities say she tried to jump from her pickup truck while it was still traveling in excess of 45 mph after its front tires had been punctured by spike strips; it was only after it struck a guard rail and further struggling that she broke free and ran to the safety of a nearby patrol car.

Tuesday’s events were triggered because the woman met with Bynum to tell him she could not see him any more, court documents state.

Bynum, a homeless person, is charged with kidnapping and a multitude of other offenses.

He appeared before a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court, with shackles around his waist and his ankles. He refused jail officers’ attempts yesterday afternoon to bring him into court.

“My client could not be here yesterday because he suffers from significant, I mean significant, mental health issues,” defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge.

Prosecutors asked for bail to be set at $1 million, citing the danger to the victim and the community.

“Short of a violent sexual assault or homicide, I can’t think of much else more he could have done,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke told the judge.

Prosecutors said the Morton woman was taken to the hospital for treatment of cuts on her neck and other places on her body as well as scrapes.

Bynum has a prior felony conviction for second-degree assault from 1994 and several misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence and harassment, according to prosecutors.

Judge Nelson Hunt set bail at $250,000 and scheduled Bynum’s arraignment for next Thursday.

Charging documents are somewhat vague about the relationship between the two and don’t identify the location of the logging road or how long she and Bynum were there before they got to the grocery store at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

O’Rourke said he didn’t yet have a detailed timeline but got the impression from police reports the whole thing may have taken place over a period of a couple of hours.

She told deputies she is married and has had a romantic relationship with Bynum and they were also friends, according to court documents. She said she and her husband were reconciling and her husband no longer wanted her to see Bynum, the documents state. A sheriff’s office spokesperson said the two were dating.

Charging documents based on Lewis County Sheriff’s Office interviews with participants and witnesses allege the following account:

When the young woman met with Bynum on Tuesday to let him know she couldn’t see him any more, he became upset and asked her to give him a ride to a friend’s house. Along the way, he became hostile, calling her names and even spitting on her.

When they neared the destination, he ordered her to pull up a logging road, screaming at her.

Bynum grabbed her by the hair and dragged her up the logging road and away from her vehicle and her dogs which were inside. He took out the large machete and held it in his hand.

Bynum repeatedly shoved her to the ground and ordered her to keep walking and when she struggled, he  grabbed her by the throat and said “if she was going to talk like a man, she would fight like a man.”

He told if she didn’t comply, he would kill her dogs.

Finally, when they were stopped, as he stabbed his machete into the dirt near her, he told her it was her or him and he wasn’t going back to prison.

“(S)he knew she was going to die,” charging documents state.

The young woman convinced him they should go somewhere and continue talking, and she drove them to the store on the 8000 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Glenoma.

O’Rourke charged the defendant with one count of kidnapping for events up to this point and a second count of kidnapping for what happened at the small grocery after they arrived.

Bynum warned her not to do anything stupid, but once inside, she jumped over the checkout register, stood next to the clerk and begged her for help.

“The checker appeared scared and told (her), I’m sorry.”

Bynum pulled the screaming, struggling woman by her hair out of the building, choked her into unconsciousness and then ordered her back into the truck, smashing her face into the steering wheel.

That’s when a deputy arrived. She pulled away and the pursuit began.

The sheriff’s office spoke of him holding a large knife – described as a mini machete – to her neck. Charging documents refer both to a knife and a large machete.

The truck finally stopped near Kiona Creek Road.

Deputies said Bynum refused to comply with their demands, even at gunpoint, walking toward a deputy and telling him to shoot him in the head. It took a sergeant approaching with a Taser for him to get on the ground.

The defendant fought and resisted arrest, even with multiple officers attempting to detain him.

Bynum is charged with 12 counts, including first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault, felony harassment, misdemeanor assault, attempting to elude and resisting arrest.

Schroeter told Judge Hunt Bynum has no income or assets. He was given a court-appointed attorney.

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For background, read “News brief: Morton woman assaulted, forced to flee arriving law officers” from Wednesday July 17, 2013, here