Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The executive director of Valley View Health Center said this morning it appears a malfunction in the HVAC system ignited the fire that destroyed its Winlock clinic over the weekend.

Steven Clark said the fire investigator is reasonably certain of the cause.

Courtesy image / Zachary Wichert

“The heating and air conditioning system basically burned it down,” Clark said.

The system had recently been worked on, he said.

Four fire departments responded to the nighttime blaze on the the 600 block of Cemetery Road in Winlock. A passerby called 911 about 2 a.m. on Saturday to report the fire.

Lewis County Fire District 15 described the single-story building as a total loss, with its roof already collapsing as they arrived.

Clark said he’s positive they will rebuild.

Valley View Health Center, based in Chehalis, has numerous clinics in Lewis County and the surrounding area.

They will soon begin looking for temporary quarters for the Winlock location, Clark said.

In the meantime, the one provider and four support staff will move down to the Toledo clinic and see their patients there, he said.

Patients who have already scheduled appointments in Winlock should just keep their same appointment, but do it at the Toledo clinic, Clark said.

It’s located at 117 Ramsey Way in Toledo. Patients can call 360-864-4400 with questions, Clark said.

Update: On the morning of Wednesday Nov. 2, Toledo Police Department Chief John Brockmueller said their part of the investigation is finished and confirmed the fire appeared to have begun in the heat pump outside the building. The insurance company will take over, he indicated.
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For background, read “News brief: Overnight fire claims Winlock doctors’ office” from Saturday October 29, 2016, here

Washington state forensic anthropologist Dr. Kathy Taylor gives instructions to participants before they start looking for signs of buried “bodies.”

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Dr. Kathy Taylor reads bones.

The state forensic anthropologist works at the King County Medical Examiner’s Office but assists agencies all around Washington when they need an expert.

Detective Kathleen Decker, of the King County Sheriff’s Office, has been a tracker for 20 years. She can read blades of grass at an outdoor crime scene and count, for example, how many people have been there.

Sharon Ward is a Portland attorney by day, but she’s also a tracker. And a handler for a human remains detection dog. Her 2-year-old Rottweiler Vali’s nose is so discerning, he knows the difference between the remains of a person and and those of an animal.

On a recent day, the three professionals brought their talents to a rural Chehalis property to conduct field training for nearly 30 law enforcement officers from around the state.

“We know there are graves out there, go find them,” Taylor told their students.

Human bones, plastic skeletons, shovels and even a pigs head hanging from a tree for a period of time were among the props and tools used for the exercises that day.

Lewis County Chief Deputy Coroner Dawn Harris taught the attendees about collecting evidence, such as insects from the pig, but they can all learn even more from each other, Harris said.

“The expertise that everyone brings to the table is so important to what we do,” Harris said.

It’s the third time the Lewis County Coroner’s Office has hosted the two-day course.

Last year, Taylor, Decker and Ward shared their expertise with a group that included all the local deputy coroners. They used to hold the course every summer, up until about three or four years ago and for whatever reason that ended, Taylor said.

Then Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod volunteered to help restart the sessions.

“Warren stepped up and said he wanted to do it,” Taylor said. “It’s not an easy thing to put together at the last minute.”

A primary component of the two-day class is to raise awareness among professionals about the resources available to them, when it comes to bones and buried bodies.

For example, nowadays if a deputy in East Lewis County is called because someone has found a bone, the deputy can take a photo with their phone and it can be forwarded to Taylor.

“A big issue is bear paws,” McLeod said. “When the fur is off, it looks just like a human hand; we’ve had several of those.”

She also can make an important determination about the next step, deciding if human, then is it a modern or historical burial.

Attendees got one day of classroom training, including how to write a search warrant for such a situation, from Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

Their day on the rural Chehalis property began with demonstrations on tracking, the entomology involving the pig remains and then digging before lunch.

Plans are in place to host two courses next year, one in May and another in September. The registration fee for participants is $100 per person, but McLeod plans to raise that to $200 for future classes.

McLeod says his office wants to be more public oriented and do more than just wait around for the phone to ring.

“There’s a need for this, and also it’s revenue for the county,” he said.

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Attendees begin digging during the field portion of the class.

Michael A. Hedges, right, is represented by defense attorney David Arcuri in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Chehalis man who was arrested after a 66-year-old Centralia woman woke up to find him standing over her bed, unzipping his pants this past spring was sentenced today to at least 10 years in prison.

Michael A. Hedges, 43, was charged with multiple felonies in Lewis County Superior Court on April 4, the day after his arrest.

The woman told police Hedges grabbed her hand and placed it on his private parts and she told him he had to leave then escorted him out of her house on Nick Road, according to charging documents.

Police subsequently found him hiding in a nearby trailer park.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney David Arcuri struck a plea agreement to get Hedges an exceptionally long sentence even though both seemed to agree it was a case in which he thought he was in a different residence.

“It was clear he didn’t know where he was,” Halstead said. “As soon as he realized he was in a house he didn’t know, he immediately left.”

Arcuri told the judge his client was in the wrong place because of drugs.

“This is another example of the incredibly insidious nature of controlled substances,” Arcuri said. “They warp your mind.”

Hedges previous to this morning pleaded guilty to second-degree assault with sexual motivation, residential burglary and third-degree assault. Police said he tried to spit on a doctor when they took him in to have an injury on his head – from his arrest – checked out.

The victim didn’t come to the hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

Hedges told Judge James Lawler he knows what he did was out of line, and admitted his drug habit.

“I get it, that kind of, that kind of stuff is inappropriate,” he said.

Halstead and Arcuri recommended Hedges be sentenced a minimum of 120 months and up to life.

Halstead said that means after his release, if he has any violations, he could be potentially be pulled back into prison for the rest of his life. He will have to register as a sex offender.

The judge went along with the suggested sentence.

“I’m sorry the victim wasn’t here, so you could hear directly what this did to her,” Lawler said.

Hedges had supporters in the benches behind him. One of them said he knew if Hedges could change what happened, he would.

“Everything Michael did is 100 percent out of context for him,” his Pastor Keith Heldreth said.
•••

“Centralia resident finds stranger in her bedroom, unzipping pants” from Monday April 4, 2016, here

Austin Courtright with his daughter. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Family and friends of Austin Courtright are gathering this evening at Logan Park to share memories of the 19-year-old and then carry candles in a walk along the route of the final ride that took his life.

Courtright was born and raised in Centralia.

He died early yesterday morning after his he lost control of his car at the 300 block of West Sixth Street at the north end of town.

A Centralia police officer on patrol noticed the car in an alley near the intersection of Oxford Avenue and Marion Street, which then pulled away, turning without signaling , according to police.

Courtright sped away and less than a dozen blocks to the west, he lost control of his Acura, which slid along the side of a house, according to police.

He was ejected and died at the scene. His two passengers, both 25-year-old women from Chehalis, were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries, according to authorities.

Centralia Police Department Officer John Panco said he doesn’t know why the 19-year-old sped away. He did have an outstanding warrant, Panco said.

“We don’t have a chance to ask him, so we don’t know for sure,” Panco said.

Courtright has nine brothers and sisters. His father Scott Courtright lives in Centralia. His mother Deanna Johnson lives in Montana.

He’d recently begun working construction in Seattle, and the car was new, his mother said.

“He’d just bought that, with his own money,” she said.

Last year, Courtright accidentally shot his girlfriend in the thigh, with a pistol in his pocket while she was sitting on his lap, and he pleaded guilty as charged and was given a prison term of a year and a day. His lawyer at the time said he wasn’t suggesting Courtright plead to the charge, but he did anyhow.

Taking responsibility for that was something he felt he had to do, Johnson said.

“Austin was a terror, believe me, he was a handful,” she said. “But when it came down to it, he always told the truth and wanted to do the right thing.”

Johnson said he was getting the paperwork in order so he could move to Montana, while still under supervision with the state Department of Corrections.

“We were on our way here anyhow, to pick him up,” she said this afternoon.

Panco said he didn’t have an update on the how the passengers were doing.

The Washington State Patrol is conducting the investigation into the wreck.

The vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the park in the Logan District.
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For background, read “One dead, two injured after Centralia police pursuit ends with wreck” from Monday October 24, 2016, here

Helen Morgan at her father Jake Morgan’s bedside. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Claims for as much as $5 million in damages have been filed against Lewis County on behalf of two of the several people hurt when a runaway horse and carriage plowed through a crowd at the Southwest Washington Fair.

A lawyer representing John H. Morgan, 38, from Toledo, states that his client suffered a severe brain injury, multiple broken bones and contusions and has already undergone several surgeries.

“John is out of work for an unknown period of time and may not be able to return to work in the same capacity, if at all,” Tacoma attorney Lincoln Beauregard writes.

His 4-year-old daughter Helen Morgan – who was not moving after being struck, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office – suffered five facial fractures under her eyes and has permanent scarring, according to Beauregard. Her left arm was injured as well, he wrote.

The incident happened on the afternoon of August 19, a Friday during the six-day annual fair.

Authorities initially said only that a spooked horse took off running down the midway and four individuals were taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital. A fifth person went to the hospital in a private vehicle, according to the fire chief, and a recently released report indicates the owner of the horse was also hurt.

Lewis County owns and operates the fairgrounds and the fair.

A Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy compiled a report, for informational purposes and as assistance to fire and aid personnel.

Deputy Jeffrey Humphrey wrote he was standing near the sheriff’s office’s booth when he heard a horse pulling a buggy and it began trotting fast. He wrote that he saw people get hit, he gave chase and saw another person on the ground.

Then-Chief Deputy Stacy Brown, who had been with Humphrey, reported she also ran after the animal, noting the carriage was careening out of control behind it. She observed several injured people, she wrote.

Jennifer D. Adkinson later told the deputy she didn’t see it coming until the last minute, and pushed one of her small sons out of the way. Adkinson’s ankle was possibly broken, struck by what the Rochester woman suspected was the carriage, when she was interviewed at the hospital.

Brown and others were able to contain the horse near the north end of the midway, according to Brown’s narrative.

Chief Brown walked with the owner of the agitated horse to its stall and ensured it was confined there.

The owner, Carrie Swearingen, said her leg hurt from trying to stop the horse and carriage, but she was okay and declined aid, according to the incident report. Swearingen is from Dalles, Oregon, and was at the fair to give buggy rides to people, according to authorities.

The claims were filed with the Lewis County Risk Management office on Sept. 28, according to Risk Manager Paulette Young. Young said earlier this week, they’ve turned the claims over to the horse carriage company, for its insurance.

The Morgans were treated at Providence and also Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to their lawyer. He estimates damages for each in an amount between $2.5 million and $5 million.

Beauregard wrote that Lewis County’s liability is under investigation, as it may have contributed to the accident by “not installing proper safety measures.”

Chief Brown’s narrative gives some insight as to what may have occurred to startle the horse.

Brown wrote the horse, carriage and operator were standing in their normal location just north of the sheriff’s office’s booth.

“I observed the horse get spooked and jump, causing the carriage to rock back and forth behind it, which seemed to spook it even more,” Brown wrote. “The horse hit a large raised flower bed, causing it to fall over, which might have scared it even more.”

The horse owner told Brown she was standing next to her horse, Duramax, when a forklift drove by, spooking it, according to Brown. She said she wasn’t able to get the reins over the horse and couldn’t stop the horse as it bolted, according to Brown.

Brown further related that she saw a county forklift throughout the day carrying gates and other items, but she didn’t specifically recall seeing it next to the horse when the horse got spooked.

It’s unclear how many people were hurt during the incident.

Deputy Humphrey and Chief Brown’s reports list four known victims, plus the owner and no other witnesses. One of the four is a county employee.

The only other victim in their report is Thomas T. Mars, from Chehalis, who is also identified in the same report as Andrew T. Mars. He had a laceration near his elbow as well as scratches and/or road rash on his arms, back and both knees, according to Humphrey.

The Morgan family’s lawyer also submitted a claim for the same amount for wife and mother Emily Morgan.

“She continues to suffer from loss of consortium due to the severe injuries of her loved ones,” Beauregard wrote. She’s missing time from work to care for them and it’s unknown when she will be able to return, he wrote.
•••

For background, read “Two of spooked horse victims on the mend, after fair accident” from Saturday August 27, 2016, here

Brian A. Carreon, right, and his lawyer Shane O’Rourke face Judge James Lawler today in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 17-year-old Centralia boy who admitted to being one of three males captured in surveillance video at a roughly 45 second home invasion that ended with a pet dog shot dead got a break.

Brian A. Carreon appeared before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months in jail.

The judge said he would allow the term to be served on electronic home monitoring.

The other two men involved were sentenced last week to 10 and 12 years in prison.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher and Carreon’s defense attorney spent a great deal of time this afternoon addressing the different levels of culpability and the reason they agreed he could resolve his case with a conviction for first-degree rendering criminal assistance.

When the teen was charged in adult court last year, he faced one count of first-degree robbery.

Centralia attorney Shane O’Rourke praised the year and a half long process of getting to the bottom of what happened.

His client didn’t go to the home with the intent to commit armed robbery, he said.

Meagher focused on the issue that without Carreon’s cooperation, authorities would not have known who committed the crime.

“The guy that came clean from the get go is sitting right over there,” Meagher said, pointing to Carreon.

It happened the night of Feb. 19, 2015 at a small house on the 1200 block of Marion Street in Centralia.

The victim and his girlfriend were home with their two dogs when about three males barged through the door demanding money and weed, and fired numerous shots killing their pit bull Misty. Officers found nine shell casings and two bullet jacket fragments at the scene.

Meagher said there was one gun involved.

He told the judge today that Deandre J. Perry of Portland, then 26, kicked the front door in.

Meagher said Hennessy R. Turner-White, then 22 and also from Portland, shot the dog.

Meagher said Carreon provided his cell phone to law enforcement while the Portland suspects as recently as this summer still claimed an alibi.

“So all in all, we think this is a fair resolution,” Meagher said. “It’s probably light handed, but we make no apology for that.”

Turner-White was given 12 years last week for first-degree attempted robbery, first-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of first-degree animal cruelty. Perry was given 10 years for the same convictions, minus the animal cruelty.

Meagher reminded the judge Carreon had been to house before, and had taken a video of himself trimming the victim’s medical marijuana plants. O’Rourke told the judge his client shouldn’t have talked about the marijuana grow, and shouldn’t have been hanging out with the two men.

“This is someone who’s 17, dealing with adults,” O’Rourke said.

Carreon has been free on bail, working and attending Centralia College.

His lawyer asked that he be allowed to go to work and go to classes while he’s on house arrest.

On of the two victims, Dustin Palermo, was present in the courtroom for today’s hearing.

Carreon apologized when it was his turn to address the court, but he did so facing the judge.

“I would like to apologize to Mr. Palermo as well,” Carreon said. “I’m sorry. A dog is definitely part of your family.

“I sincerely apologize.”

Judge James Lawler agreed with the two lawyers deal they’d worked out, noting to the defendant that he wasn’t required to.

“Make something of yourself and don’t come back here,” Lawler said.

Carreon has until 7 p.m. on Nov. 15 to get signed up for electronic home monitoring, or he must report to the Lewis County Jail.

Palermo outside the courtroom was surprised by the short amount of time Carreon got. The last he was aware, prosecutors were seeking a year, he said.

“I’m very upset with it, because he’s the one that brought them to our home,” he said. “Without him, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Carreon’s sister, Taina Duncan, from Portland, is expected for a hearing tomorrow. She allegedly drove the three to Palermo’s home.

Meagher said she’s planning to plead guilty to first-degree rendering criminal assistance, and he’s prepared to recommend she be sentenced to six months.

•••

For background, read:

• “News brief: Second Portland man gets prison for Centralia home invasion” Thursday October 13, 2016, here

• And, Two arrested, two sought in February Centralia home invasion” from Thursday July 9, 2015, here