Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County 911 dispatchers will gather at a Chehalis park today and do a balloon release to bring attention to the issue of missing children.

Saturday is National Missing Children’s Day and employees of the county department recently became certified with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“Putting that highlight back on missing kids is what we’re trying to do,” said employee Laura Hanson.

They’ve scheduled a news conference from 1:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. at Stan Hedwall Park on Rice Road in which representatives from the Washington State Patrol and Lewis County 911 will discuss what more folks can do about missing children.

Gordon Trucking will bring one of its semi trucks which features a poster-sized face of the missing Lewis County girl,  Kayla Croft-Payne, Hanson said.

Croft-Payne is among those on Washington state’s missing children list. She was 18 and living outside Chehalis when she was reported missing on May 5, 2010.
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National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Twenty-five ways to make kids safer, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Streets around the Centralia Post Office were blocked off for about three hours this evening after police responded to an unattended suitcase found sitting in the lobby.

It was empty.

Centralia police were called at 5:03 p.m. to the building on the 200 block of Centralia College Boulevard because the lone piece of luggage was suspicious, according to the Centralia Police Department.

The Washington State Patrol Bomb Squad was summoned and after an examination, concluded it contained nothing, Officer John Panco said.

It was a small gray soft-sided bag, according to Panco.

Thy opened it up, it was empty and there was no information indicating who it might have belonged to, he said.

It was just one month ago when a shoe box found sitting on the sidewalk next to the police department brought a response from bomb technicians. It too was empty.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 28-year-old Rochester resident was killed in a logging accident yesterday morning in Cowlitz County

The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office reports deputies and aid called about 9 a.m. to the site roughly two miles west of Cougar learned that Kyle M. Schlesser died instantly when he was struck by a falling tree.

Schlesser and his partner, 43-year-old Owen Fickett of Onalaska, were falling separate trees when it happened, according to the sheriff’s office.

Fickett said he called out prior to dropping his tree to make sure Schlesser knew, and that the tree Fickett dropped hit a second tree which fell onto Schlesser.

The sheriff’s office said in a news release all indications are it was a very tragic accident.

Deputies were told Fickett has 23 years of logging experience without ever causing injury to himself or others. Schlesser has been logging nine years, the sheriff’s office stated.

He is the son of the owner of the logging company, James Schlesser, according to Chief Criminal Deputy Charlie Rozenzweig.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Lewis County jury deadlocked on whether 47-year-old Lauri Spangler committed a crime in connection with what police said was a medical marijuana dispensary they raided  two years ago shortly after it opened in downtown Centralia.

Spangler was the only one of four individuals in the case to go to trial. The others’ cases are already settled with plea agreements.

She was charged with maintaining a premises for using controlled substances, but her attorney told jurors last week all she did was get the business license and set up the checking account for her boyfriend Colby Cave.

Hub City Natural Medicine opened on Tower Avenue in early 2011 with a city-granted business license which the city said accidentally slid below its radar.

Jurors deliberated about five hours following the two-day trial last week in Lewis County Superior Court.

Lewis County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said jurors didn’t stick around on Friday to talk so that he or the defense attorney might learn what their issues were.

However, documents now available in the court file offer some clues.

Jurors sent a question to the judge on Friday after lunch, asking for the definition of “knowingly”.

The judge’s written answer delivered back to the jury room essentially said he couldn’t answer that, they should refer to their jury instructions.

Within a half an hour, jurors sent out another note, informing the judge they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt queried them individually in open court, asking if they were certain they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision in a reasonable amount of time.

The jurors were all in agreement that they couldn’t reach an agreement.

The judge declared a mistrial.

Meagher said today he hasn’t made a decision on whether to retry Spangler, however, on Thursday he will go ahead and schedule another trial.

“We’ll make our formal decision later,” he said.
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For background, read “Centralia marijuana store case goes to trial” from Wednesday May 15, 2013, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The construction worker injured yesterday when a 5,100-pound steel beam tipped over and pinned him is recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The Olympia resident who is in his mid-20s ended up with a broken ankle, pelvis and ribs, according to Mike Swarthout.

Swarthout is the project manager with Kaufman Construction and Development which is erecting a 75,000 square foot sports center near Fort Borst Park in Centralia.

Aid responded yesterday morning to the site, where co-workers had already used a forklift and other equipment to move the beam.

Swarthout described the metal piece as 30 to 40 feet long and 6 feet tall; it was laying on the ground and had just been moved into position and shored up, he said.

“They’re still trying to figure out why it fell over,” he said.

The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating.

Swarthout didn’t release the worker’s name, but said he had no internal or head injuries and other than broken bones, everything else checked out okay. He is expected to undergo surgery today, he said.

The Lewis County Sports Center is roughly 40 percent finished and will provide space for indoor baseball, soccer, volleyball and basketball. Swarthout said it could be ready for use at the end of this year.