By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The (Tacoma) News Tribune reports the governor signed into law yesterday a requirement that law enforcement officers impound vehicles involved in DUI arrests for 12 hours.
News reporter Katie Schmidt writes the new law – designed to make sure people sober up before getting back behind the wheel – goes into effect in July.
Read Schmidt’s news story here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Thurston County Narcotics Task Force seized roughly four pounds of methamphetamine, cash and vehicles in a drug investigation that included searching a home in Tenino yesterday.
Detectives with the task force, the Tenino Police Department and special agents with Homeland Security have conducted an investigation over the past several months that included purchasing large quantities of the drug, according to a news release from the task force.
They identified several locations and subjects involved in the sale and distribution of methamphetamine, the news release states.
Two females and two males were arrested yesterday when search warrants were served at the 900 block of Garfield Street East in Tenino and the 8500 block of Steilacoom Road Southeast near Lacey, according to the news release.
Two young children were placed into the custody of Child Protective Services, according to the news release.
Charges are expected of possession and delivery of a controlled substance as well as unlawful use of a building for drug purposes, according to the news release.
The street value of the methamphetamine was placed at $154,360. The task force notes the investigation will continue.
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For further details following a bail hearing, read The Olympian news story, here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The local Fraternal Order of Police group is inviting the public to its May meeting to hear Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield discuss responsibilities and consequences associated with citizens’ use of deadly force.
The gathering is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday May 9 at the Lewis and Clark Apartments at 117 W. Magnolia Street in Centralia.
The question to be addressed is when is it okay for a citizen to use deadly force to protect themselves or their property, according to a news release from the F.O.P. Centerville Lodge No. 26.
Twice in recent years a Lewis County citizen has used deadly force against persons they discovered on their property which resulted in death and ended up in court.
In 2002, a 65-year-old man was charged with manslaughter after he fatally shot a presumed burglar on his property in rural Centralia. He was found not guilty by a jury.
Last spring, 60-year-old Ronald A. Brady fired at two suspected burglars on his Onalaska property, killing one of them. Sheriff Mansfield made it clear he believed the shooting to be justified and announced he would not arrest Brady.
The Lewis County Prosecutors Office however, charged Brady with manslaughter and then upgraded the charge to first-degree murder. The case is awaiting trial.
Sheriff’s detective Sgt. Dusty Breen will join the sheriff in the presentation. A question and answer session will be included, according to F.O.P event chair Bradd Reynolds.
For further information, contact Reynolds at 360-520-6562.
TWO PEDESTRIANS HIT IN CENTRALIA CROSSWALKS
• Two pedestrians were struck by vehicles in crosswalks in Centralia yesterday, but neither resulted in serious injuries according to police. Aid and police were called about 12:40 p.m. to West Main and Yew streets where a 44-year-old woman from Napavine was hit by a Suburban, according to the Centralia Police Department. She was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with a possible wrist injury, according to Sgt. Kurt Reichert. The driver, a 56-year-old Winlock resident, was cited for failure to yield the right of away to a pedestrian, Reichert said. Then just after 4 p.m., a pickup truck ran over the foot of a 13-year-old Centralia boy in a crosswalk at North Tower Avenue and East Maple Street, according to police. The driver in that case, a 58-year-old Centralia man, was not cited as it appeared the teenager had stepped out from where he was not visible to the driver, Reichert said.
VANDALISM
• A security camera at the Aerie building on the 200 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia captured an image of a possible suspect about the same time the camera was struck and broken by a board, according to a report made to the Centralia Police Department yesterday morning.
CAR PROWLS
• Police were called about 7:15 a.m. yesterday to a car prowl on the 900 block of North Washington Avenue in Centralia. Taken was cash as well as a backpack with schoolwork inside from an unlocked vehicle, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• Centralia police were called about noon yesterday to a vehicle prowl on the 700 block of H Street. Somebody got inside by damaging the handle to the rear hatch and then rummaged through the vehicle, according to police.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A vigil is set for the still missing-Kayla Croft-Payne on Thursday evening, the one year anniversary of the Lewis County teenager’s disappearance.
Croft-Payne was 18 years old and living in a trailer between Chehalis and Napavine on April 28, 2010 when she last logged onto her MySpace internet account. She was reported missing on May 5 by a friend who hadn’t seen or heard from her for several days.
Kayla Croft-Payne
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has followed tips up into Pierce County, down into Cowlitz County and beyond but the young woman hasn’t turned up.
Last month, detectives said the last place they could verify she was seen was a a trailer park in the Toutle area.
Winlock resident Jerome Painter is organizing Thursday’s event at Penny Playground in Chehalis. His cousin is a really good friend of Croft-Payne’s, he said.
“I know a lot of people who know Kayla and love Kayla and want answers, like her family,” Painter said. “It’s just touched my heart and I really wanted to do something.”
Painter said people who know her and people who don’t are equally welcome to attend.
Her parents and other family members will be there, he said.
Her father, Thomas Payne of Longview, said he’d rather his daughter was found, so he didn’t have to go to such a gathering, but he will be there to honor his daughter.
“I’m hoping some of her friends will come up and talk with me,” Payne said today.
He’s frustrated, having so little information about his daughter’s movements before she vanished, and hopes perhaps someone who hasn’t been comfortable talking with law enforcement would feel okay talking to her father, he said.
Painter put Croft-Payne’s parents to work, giving them tasks such as spreading the word and trying to round up donations of candles and helium balloons.
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What: Vigil for Kayla Croft-Payne
Where: Penny Playground in Chehalis, at Southwest 13th Street, off Interstate 5 exit 76
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday April 28, 2011
For information: contact Jerome Painter at jeremy@zebracomputers.com
Join the Missing Kayla Facebook page, here
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Read background on Kayla Croft-Payne, here
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The state Department of Corrections is inviting public comment on the possible impacts of building a new state prison facility in Grand Mound or two other potential locations.
Members of the public can offer their thoughts by letter, by email or at a meeting scheduled next week at Rochester High School.
DOC hopes to construct what they call a prison reception center in Western Washington – with 1,024 beds.
It’s the place offenders go first, to be evaluated for physical, mental health, security and other needs and to determine the particular prison where they will serve their time, according to DOC.
Officials anticipate a staff of approximately 500 in a 356,000 square-foot building on roughly 50 acres.
They are looking at the site which currently is home to Maple Lane School – a state juvenile correctional facility at 20311 Old Highway 9 SW in Grand Mound which is slated for closure.
DOC is also considering two other properties: in Kitsap County near Belfair and Bremerton, as well as in Mason County near Shelton and the existing Washington State Correctional Center.
They would like what they are calling the Westside Prison Reception Center to be up and running by 2016, since prison population forecasts indicate a bed shortage for male offenders by that time.
Prison officials are proposing environmental impact statements be conducted on all three sites, to determine probable, significant adverse environmental impacts.
Those could include a broad range of effects, such as on water, plants, animals, air quality, noise, utilities, transportation, schools, police and fire services and more, according to DOC.
Agencies and members of the public are being asked to offer feedback on the scope of the environmental impact statements and may comment on such things as alternatives, mitigation measures and expected impacts, according to DOC.
The state legislature has approved funding to find a location and for pre-design costs but have not yet approved funds to build the new facility, according to DOC.
Properties pitched earlier this year by Winlock, Morton and Castle Rock didn’t make the cut.
Comments can be submitted before 5 p.m. on May 13, 2011.
By email: to David B. Jansen at receptioncentersiting@doc.wa.gov
On the DOC website: at http://www.doc.wa.gov/business/capitalprograms/prisonsiting
By mail: to David B. Jansen at WA Department of Corrections, PO Box 41112, Mail stop 41112, Olympia, Wash. 08504-1112
At the meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday May 4 in the commons room at Rochester High School at 19800 Carper Road SW, Rochester.
Similar meetings will be held the same week at Bremerton City Hall and Mason County Public Works.
BICYCLIST HIT WITH FLYING SODA
• Centralia police were called about 4:25 p.m. yesterday to North Pearl Street and West Oakview Avenue about a juvenile male throwing a soda at a woman riding a bike. The case involving the youth, whose age was not released, was referred to a prosecutor for a possible charge of fourth-degree assault, according to the Centralia Police Department.
THEFT
• Centralia police were called about 7:30 p.m. yesterday to the 700 block of South Silver Street about the theft of copper wire from a vacant residence.
• A car reported stolen on April 22 was reported found abandoned yesterday behind a business on the 1200 block of South Gold Street in Centralia, according to police.
• Chehalis police were called yesterday morning to to Southeast Aust Manor Drive about a possible identity theft.
• Centralia police were called yesterday about a cell phone stolen from an unlocked vehicle on Saturday on the 1700 block of Harrison Avenue.
• Police were called about 2:15 p.m. yesterday about graffiti on a wall at the 400 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia.
ASSAULT
• Centralia police took a report yesterday morning of a sexual assault on a teenager. Further details were not readily available.
HARASSMENT
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning a 36-year-old man was arrested following an incident in Toledo on Saturday in which he allegedly threatened, with a knife, to kill a relative. Deputies called about 4:45 p.m. to the 100 block of Layton Road found the suspect and others had left but subsequently arrested Lester G. Kirkendoll, of Toledo, according to the sheriff’s office. Kirkendoll was booked into the Lewis County Jail for felony harassment.
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