By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
King5.com reports Tenino Mayor Eric Strawn put the police chief on administrative leave today, but it only lasted 90 minutes.
Reporter Zahid Arab writes it happened after Strawn recently learned a stalking complaint he had made against a council member last year was handled internally instead of referred out.
Arab reports Strawn is under investigation for his conduct in office and plans to resign at the end of the month.
Read about it here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A worker was airlifted to a Seattle trauma hospital after a Centralia construction site accident in which he was hit by a large metal beam this morning.
Riverside Fire Authority was called about 9 a.m. to the area near Johnson Road and Pioneer Way where an events center is being built.
Fire Chief Jim Walkowski said he didn’t know how or even where the object struck the man.
“The victim was already extricated from under the beam when we arrived,” Walkowski said.
He was conscious, but sustained “multi-system trauma,” according to Walkowski.
A helicopter landed at the nearby school football field to fly the middle-aged man to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to the fire department.
Several entities are working together under a public facilities district to build an events center near the sports fields complex adjacent to Fort Borst Park.
The incident was reported to the state Department of Labor and Industries for possible investigation, but further details were not readily available.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A 19-year-old lifeguard from the Great Wolf Lodge is jailed, accused of raping a 14-year-old guest of the Grand Mound hotel and indoor water park.
Alex Eduardo Salazar
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says Alex Eduardo Salazar befriended the girl and she left willingly with him yesterday when his shift ended. The assault occurred in Salazar’s car on a nearby roadside, according to the sheriff’s office.
He then dropped the teen back off to the establishment where she informed her family of what occurred, according to Lt. Greg Elwin.
Deputies arrested Salazar yesterday afternoon at Rochester High School where he is a senior, Elwin said. He lives in the Grand Mound-Centralia area.
The victim sustained minor injuries, according to Elwin.
Great Wolf management is cooperating with investigators and reviewing their protocols, he stated in a news release.
Detectives are seeking the public’s help in identifying any other potential victims.
Elwin said Salazar was initially booked for rape of a child third-degree but at his probable cause hearing was ordered held also on second-degree rape.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The (Longview) Daily News reports the Winlock school bus driver involved in an accident last month while carrying a soccer team has quit rather than get fired.
Ronnie H. Withrow, 53, had been with the Winlock School District since September and was put on leave after the April 10 incident.
The bus blew through a stop sign at the end of the exit 63 freeway off ramp and traveled about 75 feet down a ravine. Withrow said the brakes didn’t work, but state patrol inspectors found no mechanical failure.
Read about it here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A re-sentencing set for this week has been postponed, for the former Centralia High School student whose virtual life sentence for a drive-by shooting committed at age 16 was tossed out by the state court of appeals.
Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr. will likely remain held in the Lewis County Jail until the hearing, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh.
“We’re looking at scheduling it for late summer, or early fall, Beigh said today.
His attorney asked for more time, as he gets an expert, or experts, who may testify on the issues, Beigh said. She and Olympia attorney Robert Quillian notified a judge today they were in agreement about canceling Friday’s court date and moving the hearing farther into the future, Beigh said.
Solis-Diaz Jr. challenged his 2007 sentence of nearly 93 years for a drive-by shooting that summer in Centralia in which no one was injured. He was convicted by a jury of six counts of first-degree assault, one count of drive-by shooting and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm.
The appeals court last September identified numerous shortcomings by the defendant’s lawyer, related to matters that weren’t addressed in connection with Solis-Diaz Jr.’s juvenile status. Among them, attorney Michael Underwood failed to call family or or other members of the community to testify on his client’s behalf, a move which would have apprised the court that the teen’s emotional and mental maturity should have been considered.
Solis-Diaz was arrested in August 2007 after gunfire was sprayed along the east side of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, missing six bar patrons. Witnesses testified it was gang-related. He was tried as an adult.
Beigh said the prosecutor’s office has not yet made an absolute final decision about how long of a sentence it will push for. She said part of her argument will be based on what Quillian presents.
Beigh said she expected a status hearing will probably be scheduled for the end of June. The sentencing hearing itself is likely to be lengthy, she said.
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For background, read: “Appeals court gives Centralia teen a “do-over” on 90-plus-year drive-by shooting sentence” from Wednesday September 19, 2012, here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A local couple were hit with a new twist on an old scam with a caller pretending to be an officer from the Chehalis Police Department.
Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said the scheme involved the fraudster somehow managing to make the recipient’s caller ID appear as though the phone call came from the police department.
“They’re using one of our officer’s names, asking for Western Union type payments,” Wilson said yesterday.
Wilson said he was contacted on Wednesday by the target who got suspicious and called him instead of falling for the trick.
The sergeant wants to remind the public to never give out personal information to anyone who calls asking for it.
The Chehalis Police Department does not ever ask people for payments over the telephone, he said.
“The bottom line is we would never ask anyone to send Western Union or money to anywhere,” Wilson said.
In this particular case, Wilson said, a Chehalis woman was told on the phone an officer would contacting her in a follow up phone call and her husband answered when that call came.
He was skeptical and began grilling the person on the phone, Wilson said.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian writes that the 15-year-old son of Sen. Brian Hatfield pleaded guilty yesterday to rape and molestation in connection with incidents involving an 11-year-old boy at Hatfield’s home in Raymond and another home in Chehalis.
Associated Press writer Mike Baker reports Hatfield was in the process of setting up counseling for his son and while the senator did not report the abuse to authorities, the teen was planning to turn himself in.
The state legislator from Pacific County has served the 19th District since 1994; he was re-elected in November to serve the district that now includes a portion of western Lewis County.
Read about it here
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