By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports Thurston County Superior Court’s longest serving judge has retired after 30 years on the bench.
News reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes about Judge Paula Casey in The Olympian.
Read more here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Centralia police took a report yesterday morning a Centralia woman was raped.
An officer responded about 9:15 a.m. yesterday to the 1200 block of Alder Street to talk to the victim, according to a police spokesperson.
Officers are investigating and releasing very little information.
Where it occurred, when it occurred and what the circumstances were are still unclear, according to police spokesperson Officer John Panco.
“We don’t know if it was a stranger or a known person,” he said. “The lady was upset. We got as much information as we could and that’s something we can’t verify.”
The case, according to police, is being investigated as a first-degree rape, meaning serious physical injury, threat with a deadly weapon, involving kidnapping or where the perpetrator criminally enters a building to assault the victim.
The police department describes it in a brief summary as a possible sexual assault.
Panco said there was some delay in the woman calling police. He did not know the woman’s condition.
Gary A. Lohr is sentenced for possession of meth and bail jumping
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A former longtime worker at Maple Lane juvenile detention facility for boys will appeal his drug conviction, saying the insignificant amount of methamphetamine and the jacket it was found in weren’t his.
Gary A. Lohr, 66, was fresh out of prison and getting back on his feet when Centralia police arrested him last December, his attorney told a judge yesterday.
Lohr has fought hard against his addiction, attorney Bryan Hershman said.
“He was born with whatever it is that makes people struggle with this curse, this plague of meth as he calls it,” Hershman said.
A Lewis County Superior Court jury last week found Lohr guilty of possession of methamphetamine and bail jumping. It’s his fourth drug conviction, Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke noted.
Lohr briefly addressed the judge when given the opportunity.
“Thank you for the court’s time,” he said. “I’m innocent and that’s all I can say.”
Hershman argued for the low end of the standard sentencing range, while the prosecutor argued for the high end.
Judge James Lawler chose the high end and sentenced Lohr yesterday morning to 29 months in prison.
His attorney filed a notice of appeal before Lohr was taken away.
Maple Lane was a state juvenile institution in Grand Mound that has since shut down.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports that when police searched the home of a missing 52-year-old man looking for clues about where he might be, they found pornographic images involving children on his computer.
Troy A. Fisher
Troy A. Fisher, the interim artistic director at the Capital Playhouse, was booked into the Thurston County Jail late today, according to news reporter Jeremy Pawloski.
Fisher vanished Sunday night and was located unharmed early Wednesday morning when he called 911 from a pay phone and said he couldn’t remember where he had been, according to the Olympia Police Department.
Read more here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The (Tacoma) News Tribune reports the mayor of the city of Pacific has terminated four of its police officers, following last week’s incident in which officers arrested the mayor for trying to enter a locked office at city hall.
News reporter Alex Krell writes that among the reasons cited are unlawful anarchy and mutiny.
Read more here
Updated at 5:03 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Detectives today arrested a 24-year-old Winlock man for a 2007 sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock-area campground.
Reginald L. Juntunen was identified through DNA, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
He was in Lewis County Superior Court today on an unrelated matter when he was taken into custody.
The sheriff’s office says the girl was riding her bicycle in the campground when she was approached by a man who said he wanted her to come look at something.
When she came close, he told he had a knife and forced her into a public restroom and assaulted her, according to a news release from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He left on foot, the sheriff’s office says.
The report was taken when deputies were called on Sept. 22, 2007 to the campground on the 200 block of Ajlune Road.
Evidence from the scene was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab and earlier this month the sheriff’s office received notification they identified a suspect through CODIS – the Combined DNA Index System, according to the news release.
Juntunen was booked into the Lewis County Jail for multiple counts related to the incident, including first-degree rape, first-degree rape of a child, first-degree child molestation, first-degree kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and second-degree assault, according to the sheriff’s office.
“This is an excellent example of the technology that exists today and how we are utilizing it to solve crimes, make arrests and send people to prison,” Sheriff Steve Mansfield stated in the news release. “Without the CODIS System this arrest would not have been possible.”
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Ricky Allen Riffe is back in Lewis County.
Riffe, 53, was arrested at his home in Alaska on July 8 for the 1985 slayings of Edward and Wilhelmina “Minnie” Maurin of Ethel.
Rick Riffe
He has been brought back to face charges of two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery, as well as one count of burglary.
Riffe was booked into the Lewis County Jail abut 9:45 p.m. tonight, according to the jail roster.
He will go before a judge at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
Prosecutors believe Riffe and his now-deceased brother John Gregory Riffe got into the couple’s home, uncovered bank records and forced the couple to go with them to the bank and withdraw $8,500 before shooting them in the backs with a shotgun inside their car, according to charging documents.
The Maurin’s bodies were found days later on Christmas Eve 1985 off a logging road west of Adna.
Ed Maurin was 81 years old, his wife 83.
•••
See video from Kirotv.com of Riffe’s arrival at the jail, here
For back ground, read:
• “Breaking news: Sheriff: Cold case solved in 1985 shooting death of elderly Ethel couple” from Monday July 9, 2012 at 9:13 a.m., here
• “Sheriff: It’s safe for further witnesses to come forward following arrest in deaths of Ethel couple” from Monday July 9, 2012 at 5:14 p.m., here
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