Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  With less than three weeks to go before trial, a Vader mother of three has the weekend to contemplate a plea offer in last autumn’s death of a 3-year-old boy who was part of her household.

Brenda A. Wing and her husband, both now 27, were arrested after the child died, of what has been described vaguely as ongoing abuse.

Brenda A. Wing

Danny A. Wing pleaded guilty in March to first-degree manslaughter and also to assault in a deal that is expected to send him to prison for just over 16 years, if a judge agrees.

Lawyers and Brenda Wing went before a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court, for a scheduled omnibus hearing. That’s a standard proceeding between arraignment and trial in which both sides put down on paper the agreed particulars for trial.

Lewis County Prosecutor Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney John Crowley told the judge they’d like to postpone the omnibus until Monday afternoon.

Both attorneys said outside the courtroom that’s to give the defendant time to consider the state’s proposal for a “resolution” to the case.

Jasper Henderling-Warner

Jasper Henderling-Warner was pronounced dead at Providence Centralia Hospital last Oct. 5 after medics were called to the home because he was unconscious.

The autopsy found abrasions, bruises and healing fractures and labeled the cause of death as chronic battered child syndrome. Jasper was suffering from skin infections that were found to be secondary to his cause of death. His 21-year-old mother had asked the couple that summer to take him for a year, while she was homeless and looking for work out of state, according to authorities.

The Wings were initially charged with homicide by abuse or, in the alternative, first-degree manslaughter, two crimes with widely different penalties. Each of the two were charged as either the principal or accomplice.

Their three children were taken into protective custody by the state.

Danny A. Wing

While in talks this week about a possible plea deal, the attorneys today continued with steps as though the trial beginning May 18 will still take place.

Halstead told the judge he amended the information to change the date of the offense from Oct. 5, to the time period between July 31 and Oct. 5.

Crowley objected, saying the drastic alteration in the charges would prejudice his client so close to trial. Judge James Lawler allowed the substitute charges.

Brenda Wing pleaded not guilty to the amended information, in her only words spoken aloud on the record.

In March, after her husband pleaded guilty, prosecutors said they expected him to cooperate, leading to more information about what happened to Jasper.

The court hearing was less than 10 minutes long.

When it was over, Crowley left the courthouse to go visit with Brenda Wing in the jail.
•••

For background, read “Prosecutor expects plea deal will help reveal answers about Vader toddler’s demise” from Wednesday March 25, 2015, here

Daniel L. Norby waits at the defense table as court documents are signed setting his bail for criminal impersonation and theft charges.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – What would you do if you’re taking the driver’s test to get your license and the examiner in the passenger seat directed you to a casino?

If he suggested you come inside to with him meet a girl that he knew? And then asked to borrow $20?

Like one recent applicant, you might start to get suspicious.

Centralia police say that’s exactly what happened to an individual who went to the Washington Department of Licensing on Kresky Avenue.

After checking in with a woman at the counter, and being told to wait outside where the examiner would be right out, a man who said his name was Dave got into the vehicle, and what followed weren’t the usual requests for showing one knows the rules of the road.

Authorities say “Dave” was really a 47-year-old Chehalis man posing as an employee from the state agency. He happened to be in line behind the applicant last Thursday.

Daniel L. Norby was arrested yesterday for first-degree criminal impersonation and charged with the same in Lewis County Superior Court.

Police and prosecutors offer no explanation for why he, allegedly, pretended he was giving a driving test.

Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke this afternoon told a judge her temporary client has been a law abiding citizen for the past five years, resides with his girlfriend on Brown Road outside Chehalis and also has three children, as she made her case for how low his bail should be.

Judge R.W. Buzzard wasn’t persuaded, noting that during two of those last five years Norby was incarcerated. Buzzard set bail at $25,000.

According to charging documents, the odd set of circumstances began when Edward Jerns went in to take his driving test.

Jerns described to a police officer what happened and how after a period of time at the Lucky Eagle Casino, he became skeptical and called the Department of Licensing to tell them, they were still at the casino.

He was told to notify security, and he did, the documents relate.

Jerns told Officer Doug Lowrey that also “Dave” had traded coats with him while at the Rochester establishment, and when he got his coat back, some $1,000 to $1,200 was missing from the inside pocket. He had just cashed his social security check, he said.

An employee at the Kresky Avenue licensing office told Lowrey she spoke to the man who walked in right behind Jerns, and that he was asking about how to get his license, according to court documents. She said she watched him walk out and get into Jerns’ vehicle.

Yesterday, the DOL employee and Jerns picked Norby out of a police photo montage, according to the court documents.

Lowrey said when Norby was contacted at a Centralia motel, he declined to be interviewed by arresting officers, but said the alleged deed last week that got him a lift to the casino seemed to be just an impromptu event.

Norby was also charged with second-degree theft.

He qualified for a court-appointed lawyer and is scheduled for arraignment a week from tomorrow.

Presumably the driver’s license applicant gets a do-over on the test.

Cessna 170B rests in large field off Southwest 216th Lane.

Updated at 5:16 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

GRAND MOUND – Responders were called to the scene of a small plane crash south of Grand Mound late this morning.

The call came from the pilot himself about 11:48 a.m., according to Thurston County emergency dispatchers

The Cessna 170B came to rest in a field near the 6200 block of Southwest 216th Lane.

Bill Fortman said he was sitting down at his dining room table having a cup of coffee when he looked out his window and saw an airplane sitting in the neighbor’s field.

“I thought well, I’d better go out and see if there’s anyone in that thing,” Fortman said. “I did. There was.”

The pilot was alone, leaning against the side, and asked him to open the door, Fortman said. He couldn’t hardly talk, he said.

“He was bleeding a little bit on one hand, he was talking to 911 and didn’t know where he was,” he said.

West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Lt. Lanette Dyer said arriving firefighters extricated the pilot and he described generalized back, neck and body pain.

AirLift Northwest picked him up at Rochester High School to fly him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in case of internal injuries, according to Dyer.

“We sent him to Harborview where they could take a closer look at him and make sure everything was good,” Dyer said.

The 73-year-old man was enroute from Spanaway to the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, according to Dyer.

She said she was told he was traveling at about 2,500 feet when he lost power to his engine, attempted various emergency procedures and then looked for an area to put the plane down safely.

The light green Cessna was in one piece and sitting upright, but tilted with the tip of one wing down.

The tail number is registered to a James W. Johnson, of Spanaway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The fixed wing single engine aircraft was manufactured in 1958.

A hospital spokesperson said late this afternoon Johnson is listed in serious condition.

Fortman said he didn’t hear anything and wasn’t sure how long the aircraft was sitting outside the back of his home. He said he understood it flew over an adjacent stand of trees next to the open field and, thankfully, managed to clear them.

“Fortunately the grass was tall, so I think that cushioned it a little,” Fortman said.

Deputies and firefighters arrive to scene. / Courtesy photo by Thurston County Sheriff’s Office

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The city of Chehalis enthusiastically announced the hiring of a fire chief, a man the city manager says brings a wealth of experience and will provide the needed leadership to help chart the course of the department over the next five to 10 years.

Ken Cardinale

Ken Cardinale starts work on May 18, according to City Manager Merlin MacReynold.

“He is the right fit for our fire department, the city administration and our community and we are looking forward to him starting,” MacReynold stated in a news release this morning.

Cardinale has over 32 years of service as a fire professional with 29 years with the Palo Alto (California) Fire Department. He and his wife Beth moved to Kelso to be closer to family and will soon relocate to the Chehalis area, according to MacReynold.

The Chehalis Fire Department last had a full time chief in April of 2013, when Chief Kelvin Johnson retired.

Cardinale, 58, has served in numerous positions including battalion chief, acting EMS chief and acting deputy chief. Among his assignments was chief of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a mostly underground complex at the university where experiments were conducted splitting atoms.

“I am honored and humbled to have this opportunity to help move the Chehalis Fire Department in a positive direction into the future and I look forward to serving the citizens of Chehalis and the community,” Cardinale stated in the news release.

His annual salary will be $87,192. MacReynold said it’s toward the top of the range they planned for, based on the amount of experience he will bring to the job. The Chehalis Fire Department has 14 employees.

Cardinale said he’s very excited and even a bit surprised to have been chosen, given that he’s an outsider from another state.

Chehalis Fire Department Capt. Casey Beck, who is president of the IAFF Local 2510 representing his department’s union members, indicated this morning he’s pleased with the choice.

“He’s a great guy, highly qualified,” Beck said. “He’s somebody we can really work with.”
•••

For background, read : “Chehalis fire chief search winding down” from Monday April 6, 2015, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The lawyer for the family of the man who was mistakenly cremated and whose casket was inhabited by a stranger at his funeral service in Chehalis said they held back on filing a lawsuit until the state licensing authority finished its investigation.

It didn’t provide them all the answers they were looking for, attorney Shawn Briggs said.

“It focused on where the initial mistake was made, and it really stopped there,” Briggs said. “It didn’t address how the mistake was perpetuated.”

Jerry Moon

Jerry Moon was 72 years old when he died in October 2013 at a hospice facility in Longview.

He and his wife Jan Moon lived in Castle Rock, but he, having been born and raised in Chehalis, had plans to be buried in his family plot in Claquato Cemetery, according to Briggs.

Sixteen years earlier, he had entered into a pre-arranged contract with Brown Mortuary Service of Chehalis, at a guaranteed price of $4,655, that provided for arrangement and professional staff services, and various other items including embalming, viewing, funeral and graveside services as well as disposition by burial in a casket, according to the lawsuit.

Jerry Moon feared cremation, according to Briggs.

Briggs and Briggs of Lakewood filed the complaint for damages last week in Lewis County Superior Court on behalf of Jan Moon and other immediate family members.

According to the lawsuit, and to an investigation conducted by the Washington State Funeral and Cemetery Board, on October 13, 2013, acting at the request or direction of Brown Mortuary’s parent company Service Corporation International, an employee of Dahl McVicker Funeral Home picked up Moon’s body from Community Home Health and Hospice in Longview. In the same trip, he collected the body of another man who had died there at nearly the same time.

Instead of putting identification bracelets on the bodies at the hospice, he brought them back to McVicker’s where he put Moon’s bracelet on Robert Petitclerc; and he placed Petitclerc’s bracelet on Moon.

On Oct. 15, an employee of McVicker’s released the body labeled Moon to a Brown’s employee for transport to Lewis County.

Another employee of McVicker’s took the body labeled Petitclerc to be cremated on Oct. 17.

The state licensing board placed blame for the mixup on Dahl McVicker, and the sanctions for unprofessional conduct included a fine of $12,500 and one year of probation, according to an agreed order signed last May.

Christine Anthony, a spokesperson for licensing board said they found no wrongdoing on the part of Brown Mortuary, concluding it was unaware of the misidentification and didn’t commit any violations.

The lawsuit filed on April 21 seeking an unspecified amount of damages names both entities, specifically Service Corporation International, doing business as Brown Mortuary Service and The Pierce Group, doing business as Dahl McVicker Funeral Home.

SCI, a Texas corporation, describes itself as the North America’s largest deathcare provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services.

Moon’s funeral service was held on Oct. 21, 2013 at Brown’s.

The lawsuit contends Brown’s conspired to cover up that Moon had been mistakenly cremated, and that defendants knew the wrong body was delivered to Brown’s and acted in concert to conceal the error.

The suit states Brown’s knew or should have known the body – of a man in his 90s – they embalmed and dressed in Moon’s clothing was not Moon.

In preparing for the service, Brown’s was provided with over 60 photographs of Moon.

“When the casket was opened at the end of the service, guests were horrified by what appeared to be a plastic bag covering the head and face of the body in the casket,” the lawsuit states. “When the plastic was removed, guests at the service, including the plaintiffs, were shocked to discover that the body inside was not Moon’s.”

Despite knowledge to the contrary, representatives of Browns insisted and tried to convince Moons’ family the body in the casket was Moon and should be buried as planned in his grave, the lawsuit contends.

“The manager was insistent it was him,” Briggs said. “Saying, people do look different after death.”

“They don’t grow a full head of hair,” he said.

Moon was bald with a recently shaved head when he died.

Briggs said the conversation continued until Brian Moon said, “Show me my dad’s colostomy bag.”

“And in the next breath, the manager said, ‘No, it isn’t him, but it wasn’t my fault’.”

Briggs said Brown’s then put the son on the phone with McVicker, and he was in total shock and grief, learning his father had been cremated.

“It was chaos,” Briggs said.

The suit also claims Jan Moon was charged $8,834 by Brown’s to do what it had previously contracted to do for $4,655, and that afterward, sent her a refund check for $92.72.

“Instead of being treated with dignity, Jerry Moon’s family was demeaned and denied the opportunity to honor their loved one in laying him to rest,” Briggs wrote.

Multiple phone calls to Brown Mortuary manager Daniel LaPlaunt seeking comment were not returned.

The suit asks for damages for the plaintiffs’ emotional distress, financial losses and other special damages to be proven at trial.

Briggs said he previously represented the family of the other man, Petitclerc. They never actually filed suit, he said, they discussed it and negotiated a settlement.

The defendants have 60 days to respond to the complaint, once they are served, he said.

After that, “We go though the litigation process,” he said. “Put people under oath and ask people questions about why they did what they did, and then we end up in front of a jury.”

Updated at 6:16 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Two men were injured in a fire early this morning east of Randle, one of them a 67-year-old who was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Firefighters were called around 4:30 a.m. to the 700 block of Carr Road by a neighbor, according to responders.

Lewis County Fire District 14 Firefighter Ron Blankenship said he and his wife – both advanced EMTs – arrived first and found the man and his 23-year-old grandson walking toward the road.

About 200 yards behind them, he could see what he understood was a trailer house fully involved in flames, he said.

The grandfather had burns on 20 percent of his body, on his arms, legs, chest and head, Blankenship said.

The younger man had minor burns on at least one hand and his front, he said. He was taken to Morton General Hospital, he said.

Firefighters were joined by members of Lewis County Fire District 10 in Packwood.

Fire Investigator Jay Birley said there was so little left, he couldn’t be certain what it was before it burned and doubted he would pinpoint a cause.

“It looked like he had a trailer, there was a metal frame on cinder blocks,” Birley said. “It looked like wood frame structures were added onto the sides.”

The resident had no electricity, and Birley learned from a deputy on the scene, the man had had issues with his wood stove door.