Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A trial expected this summer for a man who allegedly helped his father – a former Washington state trooper – carry out a suicide plan and make it look like homicide so the family could collect insurance money, has been postponed.

Kenneth R. Varner

The lawyer for Kenneth R. Varner said a judge today agreed to postpone the trial until the week of Sept. 12.

The father, 49-year-old James E. Varner of Olympia, was found dead with a gunshot inside his car on a forest road near Packwood in February 2006.

Kenneth Varner, now 34, has pleaded not guilty in Lewis County Superior Court.

Charging documents in the case offer suggestions the son retrieved the firearm from Packwood; it was found later in Mayfield Lake.

Authorities arranged in April for Kenneth Varner to be arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where he had been living.

Defense attorney Michael Underwood said the large volume of documents gathered in the investigation made it necessary to push out the date of the trial.
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Read “Bail $500,000: Son wanted for allegedly helping former trooper in suicide, fraud, arrested in Mexico” from  Thursday April 14, 2011, here

Read “Packwood-area death scene was tampered with, authorities say” from June 11, 2010, here

A baby owl is getting veterinary care after a deputy helped rescue it from a barbed wire fence near Toledo this morning. / Courtesy photo Lewis County Sheriff's Office

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An owl rescued from a barbed wire fence earlier today in Toledo is getting bandaged up and awaiting transport, hopefully, to a specialty clinic in Eastern Washington.

A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched this morning to an owl caught in a barbed wire fence along Kangas Road about 8 o’clock this morning, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

A citizen called 911 after seeing the young bird struggling to get loose, the sheriff’s office reported.

Sheriff’s detective Bruce Kimsey, with the help of a farmer who lives nearby, was able to extricate the owl from the wire, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Brown said the owl was handed over to a wildlife group in Chehalis.

The owners of the group, called We are One: Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, hope to nurse it back to health so it can be returned to its own habitat as soon as possible, according to Brown.

Tammy Yuth, of We are One, said she is making arrangements to send the owl to the veterinary school at Washington State University in Pullman.

“He’ going to have to get a graft on his wing, he’s lost a lot of flesh,” Yuth said.

Yuth said he’s just a baby, born this spring.

He’s either a Barred Owl or a Spotted Owl, it’s hard to tell when they’re so young,” she said.

Yuth’s husband brought the bird to her workplace, Tumwater Veterinary Hospital, she said. He’s bandaged up and sitting in a kennel awaiting transport, she said this afternoon.

Yuth is a veterinary assistant there, but also operates a wildlife center in Chehalis, where she currently is rehabilitating numerous animals, including a baby beaver, a raccoon and variety of birds, she said.

Kimsey named the owl Orville.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A judge ordered 22-year-old Steven Moulton of Morton to undergo an evaluation at Western State Hospital when Moulton appeared in Cowlitz County Superior Court yesterday, according to KATU television in Portland.

Moulton is charged in Cowlitz County with kidnap, assault and molestation for a July 9 incident in a restroom at at a ballpark in Castle Rock in which he allegedly pushed an 8-year-old boy to the floor, choked him and bit him.

Moulton is in the Cowlitz County Jail. His bail was raised to $500,000, KATU reports.

Moulton also has a pending case in Lewis County from last summer when he was found inside a park bathroom stall with an 8-year-old boy who said Moulton covered his mouth with his hand and punched him twice in the face.

Also, the Washington State Patrol revealed on Friday Moulton was identified as the person who groped and kissed a 9-year-old boy at the Maytown rest area in south Thurston County on June 27.

Charges have not yet been filed in that case.

Moulton has previously been found not competent due to a developmental disability.

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Read:
• “Breaking news: Morton’s Steve Moulton a suspect in a third bathroom assault” from Friday July 15, 2011, here
• “Castle Rock public bathroom attack suspect charged with kidnap, assault, molestation” from Thursday July 14, 2011, here
• ” ‘Developmental delays’ may put alleged attack in Morton park restroom case on hold” from Friday Nov. 26, 2010, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Former Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Hal Sprouse yesterday won his appeal of his firing.

Sprouse, 61, was terminated by Sheriff Steve Mansfield in January of last year, and the Lewis County Civil Service Commission subsequently upheld the firing.

A Cowlitz County Superior Court judge yesterday ruled in his favor, he said.

“We’ve been fighting the civil service ruling,” Sprouse said today. “The judge overturned it.”

He had been asking to be reinstated with backpay and benefits, he said.

His appeal was filed in Lewis County, but a Cowlitz County judge has been handling it because of potential conflicts, he said.

Sprouse said he was happy about the judge’s decision.

“I expected it all along ’cause I really believe what I did was correct, was what I should do, and was within the law,” he said.

His firing was related to him giving information to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, he said. He didn’t want to discuss the details however, referring further questions to his lawyer

The county has the right to appeal the decision, he said.

Sprouse, who started work at the sheriff’s office in November of 2001 after retiring from the Phoenix, Ariz. Police Department, is currently selling real estate locally, he said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The former chief financial officer for Steck Medical Group was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail for skimming cash from deposits from the business.

Keith B. Mohoric, 52, of Centralia, was arrested in early May by Chehalis police, accused of embezzling some $25,000 from the health clinic.

He pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to first-degree theft and second-degree theft. Several counts of forgery were dropped.

Mohoric was sentenced yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court to the top of the standard range for first-degree theft, six months; and the top of the standard range for second-degree theft, three months, according to Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead.

Total confinement is six months.

The group’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Bredeson said Mohoric had worked for them a little more than a year and a half and promised restitution when he was confronted.

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Read “Breaking news: Steck Clinic accountant arrested, accused of embezzling” from Wednesday May 11, 2011, here