Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 10:25 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A pursuit by numerous police agencies through Lewis County this afternoon ended with two males – wanted in connection with an Olympia homicide – taken into custody near Kelso.

Winlock Police Department Officer Steve Miller was on the Park Road overpass at Interstate 5 when he spotted the suspect vehicle eastbound on Park Road, according to Winlock Police Chief Terry Williams. It was about 2:45 p.m.

Olympia police detectives had asked for assistance in locating the subjects in the Winlock area, Williams said.

A pursuit ensued through various county roads at speeds at times in excess of 95 mph, maybe into triple-digits, according to Williams.

Miller was joined in the chase by Toledo police and deputies from both Lewis and Cowlitz counties, the chief said.

Williams said the occupants of the stolen car were throwing full pop cans and several lit firework-like items at their pursuers. He said they were an unknown type of incendiary device, possibly mortars.

The chase wound onto Jackson Highway and through Toledo and eventually back to Interstate 5 at exit 57 where Officer Miller conducted a so-called PIT maneuver, but the car recovered and continued on, according to Williams.

The car continued south on Interstate 5 where troopers and police from Castle Rock and Kelso joined in until the car lost control and wrecked, William’s said.

Doty resident Sharyl King Quinn said she was passing through Castle Rock headed home when she saw a dozen police vehicles “flying” southbound with lights and sirens.

The chief said it was either because of spike strips set out to stop them or attempting to avoid the strips that caused the crash.

The wanted subjects were taken into custody, Williams said.

The Olympian newspaper reported detectives were after a person interest in Friday’s homicide at an apartment on Lilly Road in Olympia.

Olympian news reporter Lisa Pemberton wrote earlier this evening the chase initially began near Centralia and ended with the crash that shut down Interstate 5 near near the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso this afternoon.

The Longview Daily News reported the two occupants were 21-year-olds and that nobody was injured.

Update: from The Olympian on Monday March 12, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.: News reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes the two 20-year-olds were in Thurston County Superior Court today in connection with the stabbing death of a 29-year-old Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Joshua Leroy Vance was a Centralia College student who got straight “A”s last semester and earlier this week he cut his own hand so severely, he was taken to a Seattle trauma hospital to save his fingers.

Vance, 25, is in the Lewis County Jail today, because according to prosecutors, that same night he also cut the throat of his sleeping father and stabbed him at least 11 times.

Terry Vance, 58, was found dead on his bedroom floor early Wednesday morning after family members awoke to screaming.

Joshua Vance, his father and 11-year-old nephew lived together in his grandmother’s Onalaska home.

Family members say he was prone to violent outbursts, his mental health issues so serious, he could not work and collected social security disability payments instead.

His grandmother Bonnie Vance said he’d been off his medication since last weekend.

“Each day he was off of it, I could see him deteriorating and going back to the way he was before,” she said.

“He could be very abusive and erratic,” she said. “And then he would come to and he would be pretty good. For awhile.”

“And then something would happen and … It’s been bad,” she said.

“And when he was good, he was such a good young man,” she said.

Deputies were called about 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday to a mobile home on the 400 block of Pennel Avenue in Onalaksa when Joshua Vance called 911 and said he killed his father.

According to charging documents, his grandmother confronted him in the hallway, he dropped a knife and ran outside.

Eleven-year-old Thomas Flood told deputies he followed, to warn his Uncle Larry Vance who lives in an adjacent travel trailer.

Thomas said he heard Joshua say, “I killed my father and I slit my throat so somebody come help me because I will die in about five seconds,” charging documents state.

The child said he ran back inside and hid.

Both Bonnie and Joshua Vance had reportedly called 911.

When deputies arrived, they had firefighters tend to Joshua Vance’s cut hands.

It was self-inflicted laceration to the fingers on his right hand, according to Lewis County Fire District 1 Chief Mark Conner who treated him.

“He said he did it to make himself stop,” Conner said.

Prosecutors described the injuries as severe and wrote that he cut his hand on the knife while stabbing his father.

When Deputy Matt McKnight videotaped him before he was taken to the hospital to save his fingers, Joshua Vance told him he was going to kill everyone else on the property, but he couldn’t because he cut his hand, according to charging documents.

Charging documents also say his grandmother saw him a few hours earlier, pulling kitchen knives out of their cutting block and checking their sharpness.

Joshua Vance was charged today with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt ordered him held on $1 million bail.

He sat quietly, shackled with a large bandage on his right hand.

Deputy Prosecutor Joely Yeager said the cruel and heinous act showed he was extremely dangerous to the community.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter said the case showed Joshua Vance has significant documented mental health needs that have not been met.

Bonnie Vance says her grandson has had issues for years.

“His (treatment providers) were in the process of changing his medicine,” she said. “Because of the cost of it; he evidently didn’t have it for a few days.”

The uncle, Larry Vance, was in the courtroom this afternoon, and afterward, said he saw something bad coming as well. But not this.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s like a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” he said.

His biggest question is, why? he said.

Larry Vance commented that just a few days previous he asked his nephew why he wasn’t at school.

“He said he had the flu, it was finals week and he was going to flunk all his classes,” he said.

It was odd, because he got such good grades the previous semester, he said.

Larry Vance said he warned his mother a few days ago, his nephew was “turning into a Hyde again.”

He said his mother and the family have bent over backwards to help his nephew.

Bonnie Vance didn’t talk about herself, in a brief interview yesterday. She spoke of her children and grandchildren.

The 78-year-old raised her family on the block near the school and across from the ball field since about 1970.

Terry Vance and her two younger sons all attended Onalaska schools, as did her grandson, though he also attended Centralia High School too, she said.

Terry Vance played, coached and refereed baseball for years, she said.

“He dearly loved his grandkids, fishing and his games,” she said.

Her two adult sons stayed with her to take care of her, she said. “I had cancer, I’m okay now,” she said.

Joshua Vance was given a court-appointed attorney. His arraignment is scheduled for March 22.
•••

Family friend Cindy Hanson says a group of Onalaskans are getting a work party together, to brighten up Bonnie Vance’s home – do a little renovation like the carpets, and maybe plant a garden, she said.

“Just trying to be supportive,” Hanson said.

Donation can be dropped off at Brenda’s Country Market, she said.

•••

Read “Coroner’s office names Terry Vance as victim in Onalaska home” from Wednesday March 7, 2012 at 7:53 p.m., here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

ONALASKA – Sheriff’s detectives were joined by a team of crime scene specialists from the Washington State Patrol today as they gathered evidence of an apparent homicide in Onalaska, just south of Onalaska Elementary-Middle School.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says 25-year-old Joshua Vance called 911 at 2:45 a.m. and said he’d just killed his father.

The father, Terry Vance, 58, was found dead of apparent stab wounds in a bedroom, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office this morning had no explanation as to why.

The front of the beige mobile home on Pennel Avenue just south of Fifth Street was barely visible with both a travel trailer and a fifth wheel parked in front of it. It sits across from the school ball field.

Some neighbors were uneasy about the news, although not everyone was aware anything happened.

Raymond Palm walked over to the yellow police tape blocking at Fourth Street after getting a phone call from a friend this afternoon, he said.

It makes him afraid, a homicide happening so close to his home, Palm said. Onalaska is usually fairly quiet, according to Palm.

“Doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s a big thing,” he said, recalling the triple murder 18 months ago off Gore Road,

Bruce Hood was preparing a planting bed for raspberries a couple of doors up behind the mobile home and wondered what was going on.

“I wondered why the sheriff’s office was there,” Hood said.

The sheriff’s office said deputies happened to be three blocks away when the younger Vance called. They think Joshua Vance attacked his father while he was asleep in bed.

Vance was taken into custody without incident, and taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with cuts to his hand, according to responders. He was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he was listed in satisfactory condition late this afternoon.

Vance’s grandmother and school-age nephew who live in the home were there but unharmed, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Brown said she didn’t know how Joshua Vance was injured. He will be booked into jail for homicide following his release from the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.

A nearby neighbor who didn’t share her name said she thought Terry Vance was a caregiver to his mother, who has lived there for many years.

Dick Zoda was outside finishing cutting down a tree at his home at the end of the block this afternoon. Zoda recalled often being asked to join the family for BBQ whenever he and his dog took walks.

“I was up a lot last night, but I didn’t hear anything,” Zoda said. “It’s hard to imagine what happened there. Can’t imagine.”

Updated Thursday March 8, 2012 at 10:33 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia City Council Member Bill Bates has been charged with a gross misdemeanor for fatally shooting his neighbor’s cat with a pellet rifle last week.

Bates, who is also pastor of a downtown church, said it was an accident, he was only trying to run it out of his yard.

It happened a week ago Monday in the 900 block of Ham Hill Road in Centralia.

The cat’s owners – the Pannette family – and Bates both said police described to them it’s not criminal to shoot a nuisance animal on your own property.

However, Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg said there is a specific city ordinance about shooting an animal with an air gun.

It’s unlawful to point or shoot an air gun at property of another, Berg said. The cat is the “other’s” property, he said.

The frustration over the untimely death of their 10-year-old cat prompted Dusty Pannette to flyer her neighborhood, so others would be aware of the dangers posed to their roaming animals.

Today, Pannette said she’s satisfied, but not even interested in going to court when he appears before a judge.

“I’m just glad they’re charging him so I don’t have to stand on my soapbox anymore,” she said.

Bates said he has no comment.

He has said he was tired of the animal walking on his clean cars and messing in his beauty bark.

A police officer delivered the citation to Bates on Saturday. His arraignment in Centralia Municipal Court is set for March 27.

Chief Berg said the case was referred to the city attorneys’ office for possible charges and her decision was made on Friday. He disputes the officer told the parties it wasn’t against the law.

The police chief bristled somewhat at the question of whether his department or the city prosecutor should investigate an alleged crime committed by one of the “bosses” of their boss, the city manager.

Some people give city council members too much credit for  the actual reach of their authority, he suggested.

“What I can tell you is the way this case was handled was exactly the way any case would be handled,” Berg said.

Bates, 60, was charged by criminal citation with unlawful use of an air gun – which includes pellet or BB guns.

He was also charged under state law with willfully or recklessly killing or injuring a pet. Both are gross misdemeanors, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine.

Pannette says she’s been amazed by the number of letters and sympathy cards from friends and strangers as well as the outpouring of intense opinions about how right or the wrong the minister’s actions were.

“I was really surprised,” she said. “You have your gun people, your animal people, your religious people and your average Joe Schmoe.”

Chief Berg agreed it’s an interesting conversation, with strong feelings on both sides. The rules and attitudes about weapons, property and pets vary.

While the city has the ordinance about using pellet guns on animals, residents in unincorporated Lewis County don’t have a similar prohibition.

It’s unlawful to discharge a real firearm inside the city limits as well, but that’s not the case out in the county.

And while unincorporated Lewis County has an ordinance in which owners are specifically not permitted to allow their animals to trespass or damage someone else’s plants, animals or property, the city of Centralia has no such “leash law” for cats; only for dogs and livestock.

“There is no city ordinance about cats running at large,” Berg said.

And then there are animal cruelty laws to consider.

Chief Berg says its allowable for those in the city to take reasonable precautions to protect their property, but you can’t use deadly force to protect your property, he said.

“I think the answer here is the manner he chose to get the animal,” Berg said.

Pannette, who owns a clothing store in the Fairway Center in Centralia, said the lawyer she and her husband Jay Pannette hired when they thought the pastor was going to walk away from what happened, told her he couldn’t take any credit for something getting done.

Bates was charged before their attorney got a meeting with the police chief, she said.

“We’re just glad they’re doing something, I’m hoping they take his gun away,” she said.

The family also came to he conclusion over the weekend they finally had an answer to mysterious injuries “Susie” the tom cat had turned up with since before the holidays, she said.

“When you go back to, when you think, someone’s been shooting at him, that would explain the bruise between his tendons on his foot and the hole in his neck,” she said.

Bates is serving his fourth year on the city council and is minister at Destiny Christian Center, an Assemblies of God church on North Tower Avenue in Centralia.

He has apologized publicly, and told the Pannettes he usually shot at the cat’s feet, according to Dusty Pannette.

Bates spoke at length last week about what occurred, but declined on Tuesday to say thing more.

“You know, right now, I have no comment on it,” Bates said.
•••

For background read “Minister, city council member shoots neighbor cat dead with pellet gun” from Thursday March 1, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – In preparation for Thursday night’s gathering of neighbors and officials at Grays barn about a group of ex-convicts living together on Nix Road, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield had two important meetings, he said.

One was on Wednesday when he went to Judy Chafin-Williams home in Chehalis to ask her to cooperate with him by providing a weekly list of all the individuals who live in her homes.

Chafin-Williams lives in Chehalis at House of the Rising Son, a former church she opened in 2006 to people who need help getting back on their feet. She manages it, the house at 110 Nix Road – that has neighbors so scared – and three others in Lewis County.

She said she was sick in bed with the measles as Mansfield and deputy Sgt. Rob Snaza met with her and understood his request, but didn’t agree to it.

“My fever was so high yesterday, I had a hard time comprehending everything,” Chafin-Williams said on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, a dozen county employees – including elected officials, department heads and staff members – met for about an hour and brainstormed ways they might be able shut down the house on Nix Road.

Sheriff Mansfield asked for the meeting with the three county commissioners, since he, the county’s community development director and the county’s elected prosecutor have been looking for solutions for the issue, or problem, he said.

Following are some excerpts from their gathering in a back room of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners offices.

Sheriff Mansfield: Tells commissioners his office is collecting information, intelligence and has created a target file for all calls to the house.

Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill: “As you recognize, we have a civil rights and civil liberties problem,” he said. “You can’t tell people they can’t do things that are legal.”

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer: Are they on wells?

Code Compliance Supervisor Bill Teitzel: “It’s only a matter of time before the septic systems fail.”

It was mentioned it has two or three bedrooms and a dining room used as a bedroom.

Community Development Director Bob Johnson: Notes building codes in which a bedroom must have a closet and a door that closes.

Houses are designed with two occupants per bedroom in mind, Johnson says. He says it’s not a single family use. Its occupants are not related.

Sheriff Mansfield: “I have a Hispanic family, they must have 10 people in their family,” he said. “But I’ve never had a call to that address.”

Prosecutor Meyer: “There’s a reason we don’t allow apartments on Nix Road, it’s not set up for that.”

Director of Public Health and Social Services Danette York: Says it is a commercial operation.

Johnson: “(They) have to have their water supply tested.”

Prosecutor Meyer: “We have to make sure to distinguish it from a bed and breakfast.”

Lewis County Commissioner Lee Grose: “If we want to attack this under code compliance issues, we are putting ourselves under scrutiny because we have multiple, hundreds of code compliance violations that we are not pursuing.” It’s going to raise a flag, he said.

Johnson: We don’t go out looking for violations, we respond to complaints. “We have a process.”

York: That’s not quite accurate. There’s only a process when we want to bring it to the commissioners to abate it, she says.

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Carter: What would the sanction be?

Teitzel: Advises they can look at the new ability to impose a $10,000 fine.

Prosecutor Meyer: Says he thinks everything is already in place under the current statutory scheme.

Carter: Asks about requiring a special use permit.

Johnson: Says someone needs to talk with legislators since Oregon has laws regulating how many sex offenders can live at one address.

Teitzel: “We probably have several tools we could utilize we don’t normally use.”

Prosecutor Meyer: “You need to bite into that bottom line, cause once it starts costing her money, it won’t be such a great idea.”

Sheriff Mansfield: “They are under intense enforcement pressure right now.”

Commissioner Averill: “You understand, we can’t throw people out of the county?”

Commissioner Grose: Tells them to start with a notice of violations, and then they can work on code revisions.

Johnson: A lien against the the property can be attached to the penalty.

Sheriff Mansfield: All you’ve got to do is place yourself in the next neighbor’s position.

York: Says she will find out if they applied for group home status.

Teitzel: Offers to craft the notice. Someone asks if it should be sent by certified letter.

Sheriff Mansfield: “We’ll serve it.”

•••

Read “Discord on Nix Road: Newest arrivals unwelcome” from Saturday March 3, 2012 at 4:37 p.m., here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A stranger knocking on your door after dark asking to use your phone. A stranger walking up your driveway. A stranger shining a flashlight onto your porch at night. Somebody “spot lighting” your house.

Neighbors on Nix Road west of Chehalis are wary, annoyed and scared.

The roughly half-mile long stretch off of Highway 603 is home to descendants of original homesteaders, families, and at least one rental house.

It’s the three-bedroom home just a few doors down that’s central to so many concerns the past few months.

Longtime residents gradually realized its tenants were a group of ex-convicts, some whose past crimes were sex offenses.

And the clash between the rights of citizens to live where they choose and of citizens’ desire to choose their neighbors is playing out in an increasingly intense battle.

Thirty-year-old Chris Hammond moved into the house at 110 Nix Road six months ago, and it’s been disconcerting to him, especially, the man across the street whose name he can’t remember.

“That guy walks around at night shining a flashlight,” Hammond said. “He shined it on our porch.”

“That guy” he’s talking about is Bradd Reynolds, ex-cop, current block watch leader and a 26-year-resident of the neighborhood.

Hammond blames Reynolds for stirring up much of the commotion that he contends otherwise wouldn’t be extraordinary.

“It’s easier to blames the felons, cause we’ve already done something,” Hammond said.

As it turns out, it wasn’t Reynolds, but probably Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield who confronted Hammond in Hammond’s driveway.

Reynolds, however, a retired Centralia police officer, is doing what he can to keep the rural area safe, knowing some number of felons, some with violent pasts have moved in at 110 Nix Road.

In an invitation to the news media Reynolds sent out two weeks ago, he told of a registered sex offender arrested for trespassing when he was found in the brush wearing “camo” and watching young girls playing in the nearby softball field and other concerning incidents.

“Over the past several weeks these registered sex offenders and recently released violent felons have been found down private driveways and loitering in the street,” Reynolds wrote. “One of the residents walked back and forth and sat down in the road this past week for over two and half hours on one afternoon.”

It’s no place for felons, according to Reynolds. And Sheriff Mansfield agrees.

Mansfield has implemented a zero-tolerance policy for any incidents involving the home and he’s made it clear he will do everything in his power to force the house to shut down.

His mission is to deliver a feeling of safety and security to citizens, Mansfield says.

What the sheriff calls “intense enforcement pressure” is making some of those citizens more comfortable and some much less.

The spotlighting was done by a deputy a few days before one of the now-former residents flipped out, Hammond said.

The 30-year-old said he went out on his porch to smoke a cigarette when he saw two patrol cars driving by.

“They proceed to shine their spotlights all over our house,” Hammond said. “You could hear (Bradd Reynolds) screaming, that Dave better stay off his property.”

His roommate Dave Mosteller was inside passed out in a chair on his meds, Hammond said.

Something both sides seem to agree, is they don’t think people like Mosteller and the man arrested at the Grays Field should be living there.

THE TROUBLES

Mosteller was taken away by deputies three times, most recently for kicking a roommate in the leg and picking up a hammer, according to Lucia Spross who is the “house mother” at 110 Nix Road.

Her husband, Wes Holmes had to take away the hammer.

“His counselor calls it an episode of his dementia,” Holmes said. “He thought he was in the house he grew up in.”

Holmes said Mosteller sometimes got aggressive, and had a “helluva time” getting mental health services.

“Dave also with all these problems, has no family to fall back on, no friends,” Holmes said. The housemates did what they could, he said.

Mosteller is in the Lewis County Jail, after his arrest for misdemeanor assault.

The other former roommate won’t be moving back in either.

Eric Bilton-Smith, 49, was arrested for misdemeanor trespass after the September incident at the ball field, and for possession of marijuana.

Bilton-Smith is registered as a level three sex offender because of a 1987 conviction for rape of a 10-year-old girl and later for assaulting a woman. He got out of prison in 2006.

Judy Chafin-Williams, who manages the house, won’t let him come back. But his sex crimes are not the reason.

His “issues” were too much, Chafin-Williams said.

“I finally told him I couldn’t keep him,” she said. “He’s a delusional, paranoid, schizophrenic.”

He’s listed as living “transient” in Lewis County now.

Hammond is fine without those kinds of roommates.

“Those people causing problems shouldn’t be out there on their own anyway,” he said.

THE “MISSION”

Chafin-Williams opened the Nix Road house last July to men transitioning out of prison.

The 59-year-old woman operates a similar house in a former church in Chehalis, called House of the Rising Son.

Her work is Christian-based, she said. The property owners are people who got tired of renting to drug addicts, she said.

The number one house rule is no drugs or alcohol, and most of the residents are under monitoring by the state Department of Corrections.

The rambler on Nix Road is where she places registered sex offenders, because it’s not near any schools, she said.

Currently, three level-two sex offenders live there.

It’s a 1,500 square-foot-plus modular home with a three-car garage on a little more than a quarter acre.

The maximum number of people who can live there is nine, she said, but she prefers to keep it at seven.

Chafin-Williams is disturbed about the outcry over Nix Road.

They’re simply people who need assistance getting back on their feet after prison, she says.

“They have the right to their constitutional rights and pursuit of happiness,” she said. “They have rights, they did their time.”

Spross, the house mother, offered the same sentiment earlier this week.

“I don’t get why everybody’s making a big deal,” the Winlock native said. “I understand their offenses are horrendous, but they’re not pushing their children’s swings.”

They live their “separate lives” and don’t ask the neighbors for anything, she said.

THE RESIDENTS

Spross and her husband moved in three months ago, and they took the converted room in the garage as their bedroom, until a county code enforcement person showed up recently and told them they couldn’t sleep there, she said.

She and Holmes pay $500 a month to share the master bedroom now. It’s what’s affordable, according to Holmes.

His income, after paying child support, from social security disability is small.

“I have to have a place where I have a roommate,” he said. “Trust me, you can’t find anything for $351. If it wasn’t for my wife’s income, I’d be a sunk duck.”

The 33-year-old finished 10 months in prison last April, following a conviction for when authorities seized his entire year’s supply of medical marijuana, he said.

“I didn’t read the fine print,” Holmes said.

The couple often does grocery shopping for the house, and Spross cooks.

Holmes comes across as an advisor and defender for his roomies.

“I tell them it is your God given right to walk down that public road, but do not, under any circumstances, cross that white line into somebody’s driveway.”

He knows they have to be careful, because they are ex-convicts but says his roommates have already paid for their crimes.

“All these guys, they’ve done their time,” Holmes said. “Their court-ordered programs – they’ve either done them or are in the middle of them. They’ve done what’s required of them.”

Not all the residents were as willing as Holmes and Hammond to share their stories.

Hammond said he tends to be the “taxi driver” since he has a vehicle.

He also is kept busy, earning a bachelors degree online and with his fledgling computer consulting business.

He’s only been out since September, after being incarcerated for identity theft, and possession of methamphetamine with a firearm, he said.

Affordability was key for him as well. He saw Chafin-Williams’ phone number on a bulletin board, and hers was the cheapest rent, he said.

Hammond said he doesn’t understand the intensity of the animosity from the neighborhood.

“I’d like to know how it hurts them, somebody who did five years in prison and has been doing good every day since he got out?” he asked.

Hammond didn’t talk about his juvenile sex crime conviction.

The neighbors are frightened. Mansfield says he’s got people who want to sell their homes. Reynolds says some have gone out and bought guns.

THEIR NEIGHBORS

Mike Seago who lives right next door says he worries about his wife and daughter.

“I don’t sleep that well at night, because every little sound, I’m up looking,” Seago said.

The only problems he’s had directly are his daughter was kept awake by loud music from someone pulling into the neighbor’s driveway one night.

“And somebody said on of them was caught climbing our fence, but I don’t know that for sure,” he said.

Susie Reynolds spoke of how her husband gets nervous if she’s out working in her garden and doesn’t answer her cell phone when he calls.

“It used to be I could go work out there all day and it didn’t matter,” she said. “Now if I don’t answer, it’s panic mode.”

And Ken Gray feels like it’s putting a pack of wolves next to a herd of sheep. He owns the softball field adjacent to his home, where his family has lived for years.

“Two weeks ago, my granddaughter wanted to go play on the swing-set, and I had to tell her no, I was afraid to,” Gray said. “They’re making us prisoners in our own homes.”

A neighborhood meeting Thursday night inside Gray’s barn for the news media was organized around the elected official’s schedules. About 60 people gathered, including the sheriff, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, County Commissioner Lee Grose and a handful of others who work for the county.

After making sure none present were residents of 110 Nix Road, Reynolds introduced the sheriff who described what he’s doing to help and answered questions.

THE SHERIFF

Putting that many felons under one roof out in the county is a bad idea because of potential conflict among themselves as well as it’s not a good environment for them, according to the Sheriff Mansfield.

Many of them don’t drive, there’s no bus service and stores, jobs and other resources they need are in town, some five miles away.

“The reason I’m here is because you’ve lost your sense of security in your neighborhood,” Mansfield told the group.

He urged folks to keep in close contact with Reynolds, who is keeping in close contact with a deputy sergeant assigned responsibility for Nix Road.

The 911 center know any calls there are a top priority, they were told. And his deputies will be “real aggressive” every time they come out, the sheriff said.

Deputies have made four arrests there this year, he said.

“My whole goal is to remove that from your community,” he said. “If we can’t do that, we’ll work to make it as safe as it can be.”

Mansfield has parked a patrol car on Reynolds’ property to let the felons know they’re being watched and his office spent $9,000 on a new camera placed in a location he isn’t going to divulge, he said.

The sheriff described the various ways they can keep tabs on the house, for example using community corrections officers who regularly visit there monitoring those who are under their supervision.

Sgt. Rob Snaza is keeping a file on the house, he told the group. And the neighborhood will get flyers whenever any new sex offenders move in, he said.

Mansfield is working closely with other arms of county government to find if any code or zoning rules have been violated, he said.

“They may be a non-profit,” he said. “It will be so expensive, if their mission is compromised because they have so many fines levied on them, they’ll have to move.”

He conveyed the willingness to get new ordinances crafted if that’s what’s necessary and planning to write a letter when he finds out who in the prison system is working closely with house manager Chafin-Williams.

Mansfield praised Reynolds’ work as block watch captain, noting one of the current house residents is responsible for an on-the-job injury that ended Reynolds’ police career and a former resident was once arrested for fighting with Reynolds’ police officer son.

Mansfield advised restraint telling the neighbors to be concerned, but not scared. He doesn’t want someone to end up in jail for shooting someone they’re afraid of, he said.

“They know they’ve got a big target on their back, everybody’s watching them, so they’re trying to toe the line,” Mansfield said. “Some of them.”

OTHER OFFICIALS

DOC Community Corrections Supervisor Scott Albert spoke briefly about the residents of the house his office is responsible for, three of the six who live there now.

State law requires individuals released from prison to reside in their “home” county, he said.

“These are people from our county,” Albert said. “These are people who’ve been to jail and they have no where else to go.”

If they are homeless, it’s more problematic, he said.

“At least here, you know what they are about, and that helps us supervise them,” he said.

Albert noted that released prisoners have civil rights and can only be monitored for certain conditions. He’s working with county government however in the ways that he can.

“Last week, I went to the house and the code enforcement guys walked in behind me,” Albert said.

Elected Lewis County Prosecutor Meyer addressed the group only to praise the neighbors for coming together and assure that his office too would operate with a zero tolerance policy.

Meyer’s Chief Civil Deputy Glenn Carter shared the process the county uses for code violations – fines; and for zoning violations – prohibiting certain uses in certain areas.

The health code, for example, has rules about a septic system needing to be sufficient for a certain number of people, he said.

Among the questions they are pondering is what exactly is meant by “single-family” dwellings, do the occupants have to be related, Carter said.

It’s not black and white, he said.

One of the three elected county commissioners addressed the group, indicating their support for the sheriff.

Lee Grose said at last count, there were 400 code violations around the county.

“We can’t afford to deal with all of them,” Grose said. “Having said that, we’ve moved this issue to the very top.”

The commissioners are also looking to create a new rule, he said, not for just the Nix Road house, but for others like it.

It’s not a simple task, he said.

“We’ve got to be very careful it doesn’t affect the kind of business we don’t want to move out,” he said.

Nix Road block watch captain Reynolds thanked his neighbors for working together and calling when they see something suspicious, like when someone was prowling on his property not long ago. He thanked the sheriff’s office for its involvement.

“If we watch out for each other, we won’t need these guys, except to come and clean up the mess,” Reynolds told his neighbors.

Chafin-Williams has opened other similar houses in Chehalis, Centralia and out towards Onalaska.

There are currently 395 registered sex offenders throughout Lewis County. The number of other ex-convicts is unknown.
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Disclosure: Bradd Reynolds has sometimes shot photographs for Lewis County Sirens.

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Correction: This news story has been updated to reflect correctly when it was Reynolds invited the news media to come to a gathering of Nix Road neighbors and county officials.