Lewis County Sirens.com

Samath L. Hem, accompanied by his lawyer Jacob Clark, faces a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 23-year-old Tacoma man was given just over 12 years in prison today for his role in a violent robbery at a rural Chehalis home by a man expecting an escort he’d contacted on Backpage.com.

Samath L. Hem has been held in the Lewis County Jail since shortly after the April 29 events at a residence on the the 900 block of Logan Hill Road.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said two males arrived with the female to the home, but the 53-year-old victim didn’t report what happened until the following day.

The victim told authorities he was punched, hit in the head with a pistol and dragged to his bedroom where he was tied up with a power cord. His television and some checkbooks were gone when he was able to get himself untied and then some property belonging to him was discovered in the trunk of a car impounded after a shoplifting incident a few days later at Home Depot in Chehalis.

Natrone D. Bostick, 19, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty in mid-June and got a 15-year sentence.

Hem, with only a few misdemeanors in his past, was handed down a sentence today in Lewis County Superior Court of 12 years and three months.

Defense attorney Jacob Clark told the judge it was an agreed recommendation between him and the prosecutor’s office. Hem pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and second-degree burglary. He pleaded guilty to third-degree theft and possession of methamphetamine at the same time in the Home Depot case.

Judge Nelson Hunt agreed with the components of the plea deal.

Hem’s mother, fiancée and step-father sat behind him in the courtroom this afternoon, both women crying.

Hunt told Hem to turn around and take look at the emotion they were showing.

“This is about what you did,” Hunt said, as he admonished the defendant to remember the moment the next time he’s disposed to get into trouble.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office has said law enforcement figured out who the woman is, but no charges have been filed against her as of today.
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For background, read “Nineteen-year-old gets sentenced for Backpage.com related home invasion” from Thursday June 16, 2016, here

Tyler M. McKee, center, sits in front of a Lewis County Superior Court judge this afternoon.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office secured a $100,000 arrest warrant for one of three males a 13-year-old girl believes took advantage of her at a Centralia party when she was so drunk she could not walk.

The girl reported to police back in May 2012 she was raped and forensic evidence was collected including from the pants she was wearing, but she only knew the first names of two of the individuals, according to court documents.

Last year, a detective at the Centralia Police Department interviewed a new witness and was given a name, of a male who subsequently recalled being at the party and said he may have kissed her, but accused two of his friends of having sex with the girl after being told she was only 13, court documents relate. His DNA was excluded from the sample found on her pants.

Charging documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court state that one of the friends, Tyler M. McKee, then 19, now 22, was contacted in January in Las Vegas and the DNA collected from him was a match.

McKee was charged in Lewis County Superior Court with second-degree rape of a child. The charge was filed March 18, at the same time an arrest warrant was issued.

He was booked into the Lewis County Jail on Friday and brought before a judge this afternoon.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked the judge to maintain bail at $100,000. Judge Richard Brosey agreed.

Judge Brosey appointed Centralia attorney J.P. Enbody to represent McKee.

Court documents in the case relate the girl said she’d never been intoxicated before, but played beer pong and “shot gunned” approximately 10 beers. She told police she remembered both “Tyler” and “Jeff” being on top of her, one after the other. She recalled a third man who came into the room and put his penis in her mouth, according to the court documents.

She ended up in a corner of a closet with semen on her face and thinks they took a picture of her, because she recalled them telling her to say “cheese,” charging documents allege.

The following day, her friend told she’d had sex with three guys.

McKee’s home address in court documents is listed as in Las Vegas. He is also being held on outstanding municipal court warrants.

His arraignment is set for Thursday.

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former local man nearing release after serving an approximately 27 year prison sentence found himself brought before a Lewis County judge, where state attorneys are asking to keep him locked up.

Dannell Harris was 24 years old when he broke into the home of acquaintances, looking for drugs and money, according to court documents.

The family’s 4-year-old girl was sleeping on the couch, and when he left, he took a BB gun, a few dollars, and the child with him.

Court documents go on to relate how the father discovered she was missing at 3 a.m. It was Nov. 23, 1989, a Thanksgiving morning.

Police searched and later that morning, found the little girl in a car abandoned on a logging road not far from Centralia.

Harris was convicted two months later of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary and first-degree child molestation in Lewis County Superior Court. He was given a sentence of 332 months.

This week, the state Attorney General’s Office filed a petition in Lewis County Superior Court to civilly commit Harris for an indefinite period of time, contending he is a sexually violent predator.

Harris had a previous conviction for third-degree rape in a 1988 case. He also had a 1985 conviction for second-degree robbery. Both were in Thurston County.

The state contends Harris has a mental abnormality and is likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if released. The allegations in the petition have to be proven at a trial.

In 1990, Washington became the first state in the nation to pass a law permitting the involuntary civil commitment of sex offenders after they serve their criminal sentences. The attorney general’s office’s special division to handle those cases was created shortly after that.

Harris, now 50, was transported from the Twin Rivers Correctional Center at Monroe to Lewis County and brought before a judge on Thursday.

A Lewis County Superior Court judge had already seen the petition and found probable case for the case to go forward. An order was signed directing the custodial detention and evaluation of Harris.

An evaluation will be done by an expert chosen by the state, to include penileplethysmograph and polygraph testing, according to court documents.

Among the documents in the petition are those signed by a psychologist who evaluated Harris in 2009, conducting  four and half hours of clinical interview and reviewing more than 2,000 pages of documents.

The psychologist this week signed a declaration that it’s still his opinion Harris has a mental abnormality that causes him serious difficulty controlling his sexually violent behavior. Dr. Dale Arnold wrote he read 700 pages of updated records to come to his present conclusion.

In his report, he makes note of information from his interview that states Harris had some 400 sexual partners by the time he was incarcerated, had only begun to feel sexual desire for young girls a few months before the kidnapping and that Thanksgiving morning of 1989 was the first time he’d acted upon the feelings.

Harris is represented by two lawyers, Pete MacDonald and Ival Gaer.

The state’s aim is to keep Harris in a secure facility for control, care and treatment until his condition has changed.

Judge James Lawler on Thursday signed an order to transport Harris to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island. Currently, 283 individuals are being held under the program.

During fiscal year 2015, the attorney general’s office’s special division tried 15 cases and won 10 civil commitments.

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By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Law enforcement estimated a sizable investment was made – as much as $50,000 – in an indoor growing operation on rural property just outside Centralia, where they seized almost 30 pounds of marijuana from an outbuilding.

The 23-year-old resident who allegedly cultivated and trimmed the plants was charged in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday with two felonies in connection with the find.

Ivan C. Spain Hanson was brought before a judge yesterday afternoon, after spending a night in the Lewis County Jail.

Hanson has no criminal history, not even a speeding ticket in his past, defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge as bail was discussed.

He earns about $4,000 per month working at a distributor called Green Leaf Industries in Thurston County, O’Rourke said, indicating that meant he didn’t qualify for a court appointed lawyer.

His case was pursued by the Lewis County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Hanson is charged with manufacture of marijuana and also possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture or deliver, both class C felonies with maximum penalties of five years in prison.

Charging documents don’t make any mention of where he may have planned to market the product.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt when he learned the defendant was employed in the marijuana industry pondered aloud how to tailor the conditions of release, which generally order that a person pending trial may not use or possess illegal drugs.

“Do not have any on your person while you’re away from the job site,” Hunt told him. “And do not use any, on or off the job site.”

While producing and selling recreational cannabis have been legalized in Washington, following the 2012 passage by voters of Initiative 502, businesses must be licensed through the state Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello said Hanson did not have any kind of license for his operation.

The property is on the 1200 block of Roswell Road, on the east side of town on land just adjacent to the city that sits in unincorporated Lewis County.

Details in court documents are few, suggesting JNET began the investigation “in 2016”. A detective who went to the location could smell the strong odor of growing marijuana coming from the buildings.

Records showed exceptionally high amounts of electricity were being used there. A search warrant for the home and outbuildings was obtained on Monday.

Masiello wrote in charging documents that 150 plant were found in the larger building, and one room appeared to have just been harvested. Marijuana was found inside large trash bags, he wrote.

The preliminary weight of what detectives confiscated was 29 pounds.

Given the growing equipment they found, it appeared $40,000 to $50,000 had been invested in the facility, Masiello wrote.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Melissa Bohm made mention to the judge a gun was found in Hanson’s vehicle, when she addressed the question of bail.

O’Rourke noted his car was located elsewhere, with the weapon inside, not at the property and not with Hanson. Hanson had a license for the .22 caliber Walthur, according to O’Rourke.

Judge Hunt allowed the defendant release on a $10,000 unsecured bond. He ordered him to return to court next Thursday.

The illegal grow find comes on the heels of a similar case.

Two individual appeared before the same judge on Wednesday, also charged with manufacture of marijuana.

According to the allegations in court documents in that case, a Renton woman purchased a building described only as on Tower Avenue in Centralia – with recently darkened windows – for the purpose of of growing marijuana.

A detective with tips from citizens, including one who reported smelling marijuana, contacted the driver of a black BMW parked there this past spring.

Anh Tuan Hoang Nguyen, 33, of Centralia, provided the detective with an authorization form and allowed him inside, where he said he had 25 plants.

The detective was shown a room with about 25 plants, but then behind two doorways found rooms with about 80 more plants.

Nguyen told the detective he sold five to six pounds of marijuana every three to six weeks, and that he was growing it for a dispensary in Seattle. When asked about money, he handed over $6,605 he said were proceeds.

Charges were filed on July 1, following the JNET investigation, and Nguyen and his mother were summonsed to court. His mother is named in court documents as Mai Anh Hoang Nguyen, 54 years old.

They arrived to court on Wednesday afternoon with a lawyer and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Judge Hunt set their bail with $10,000 unsecured bonds. Their trials are set for the week of Oct. 13.

Neither the city of Centralia nor Lewis County have yet issued any approvals for growers, processors or retailers of marijuana.

Erin Stiebritz, right, and her lawyer face Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The counselor accused of having sex in her office at Green Hill School with a student-inmate pleaded guilty today, as charged.

Erin Stiebritz, also known as Erin Snodgrass, appeared in Lewis County Superior Court with her lawyer this afternoon who spoke to news reporters after the hearing.

“My client made a terrible decision, she’s taken responsibility,” defense attorney Blake Kremer said. “She’s going to be paying for it for a long time.”

Stiebritz, now 37, was arrested earlier this year following an investigation conducted in 2015 for incidents that occurred during the latter half of 2014. She has been free on bond since she was charged.

Judge James Lawler today accepted her guilty plea to one count of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct.

Lewis County prosecutors wrote in charging papers that the then resident-counselor had an intimate relationship with an incarcerated boy who turned 18 during that time. Stiebritz had begun working there in June 2013.

Green Hill is run by the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, a division of the Department of Social and Health Services. It’s a medium to maximum security fenced facility in Chehalis that provides male offenders education and vocational training.

She remains free until her sentencing, which is set to take place in September after a pre-sentencing investigation is done.

The standard sentencing range for the offense is six to 12 months in jail, however, prosecutors have agreed to recommend an exceptionally shorter sentence, according to Kremer.

If the judge goes along with it, she would get 14 days in jail and 46 days converted to treatment, Kremer said. Then she would also have to register as a sex offender for 10 years, he said.

Judge Lawler today also agreed to seal portions of documents in the file he said contained personal and private information about the defendant as well as other people.

Her hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21.
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For background, read “Counselor-inmate sex alleged at Green Hill School” from Tuesday January 12, 2016, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It’s a rare event when any of the three Lewis County Superior Court judge positions really open up, as in recent years the incumbents have run for reelection unopposed until they decide to retire.

So, contested races for the bench here are not common.

This year, two judges will be stepping down at the same time, and two candidates are campaigning for one of those seats.

Rural Chehalis attorney Katherine Gulmert filed to run for the position being vacated at the end of this year by Judge Richard Brosey. Chehalis lawyer Joely O’Rourke declared her candidacy for that seat in March.

Katherine Gulmert

In December, when Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt announced he would be retiring at the end of this year, Adna attorney Andrew Toynbee announced he would be a candidate. Nobody filed to run against Toynbee.

Hunt was first elected in 2004. Judge Brosey has held his seat since July 1998. Judge James Lawler is running for a third term and is unopposed.

The Superior Court judges preside over felony and high-money civil cases on the top floor of the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis, the county seat. The job pays $162,618 a year.

The names of the three hopefuls will appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Gulmert was the last of the three to make her plans known.

The native of central California moved to rural Chehalis in 2002 after earning her law degree in 1998 at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.

She’s worked both sides of the courtroom when it comes to criminal law, with the early parts of her career in various prosecutor’s offices.

In 1999, Gulmert worked at the Grays Harbor County Prosecutor’s Office. In 2000, she took a similar position with the city of Aberdeen and in 2004, with the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

For two years, she was the chief criminal deputy prosecutor in Jefferson County, doubling as the county coroner, and then worked as a deputy prosecutor in Cowlitz County until 2013.

Since then, Gulmert has been in private practice, co-creating a law firm that maintained an exclusive contract with the city of Longview for indigent defense. Gulmert cites other areas in which she’s practiced, such as family law, elder law,  and veteran’s law.

She moved her practice to Chehalis this spring, taking an office in the building that holds the Community Mediation Center of Lewis County on Pacific Avenue.

Gulmert, 58, said when she saw Judge Brosey was retiring, she decided: “If I was going to be a judge, this was my time to do that.”

“I do have the experience for the position and I am hardworking,” she said. “And I will learn the areas which I haven’t yet done.”

“I am willing to put my whole self into it,” she said.

Her election information highlights giving back to the community.

“Our county deserves an experienced judge, one who, after listening carefully to both sides of a difficult case, will make her decision based on the laws as written,” she states.

When she’s not working, Gulmert volunteers her time as a board member for the Evergreen Playhouse in Centralia and the Ballet Theater of Washington.

Both Toynbee and O’Rourke since they announced their candidacies have been put on the contact list to serve as substitutes on the bench in in Lewis County Superior Court handling family law cases, as pro-tem commissioner.

According to the most recent information available from the state Public Disclosure Commission, only O’Rourke has reported raising any money for her campaign, with just over $12,000 raised and spent. Her campaign shows about $4,200 of debt, money the O’Rourkes loaned the campaign.

PDC filings for Gulmert, Toynbee and Lawler each show they have raised no money.

The primary election on Aug 2 won’t include any local judicial races but does include various federal and state offices as well as contested races for two of the three Lewis County commissioner positions.

Numerous candidates have filed to run for state representative and state senator in Legislative District 19 which includes the southwest portion of Lewis County. The two representatives and senator for Legislative District 19, the rest of the county,  are on the ballot, but unopposed.

See the online Voter’s Guide for the primary election, here
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For background, read:

• “Judge Brosey eyes retirement, Chehalis lawyer to seek election to the court” from Wednesday March 30, 2016, here

• “Lewis County judge won’t seek election to fourth term, local lawyer to try for the bench” from Wednesday December 16, 2015, here

• Information on candidate Katherine Gulmert, here

• Information on candidate Joely O’Rourke, here

• Information on candidate Andrew Toynbee, here