Lewis County Sirens.com

This news story was updated at 10:45 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia police last night went to the residence of the man arrested at Hub City Natural Medicine and found marijuana growing in his home and inside two motor homes as well as an underground growing operation.

Officers seized about 164 plants of all different sizes from the property at the 18400 block of Leon Road Southwest in Rochester, according to the Centralia Police Department.

“The shed had a wooden floor with a hatch that led to an underground room dug out under the shed and the house,” police Sgt. Jim Shannon said this morning.

The approximately 10-foot by 12-foot room was wired for power and lights with reflective material covering the walls, he said.

Daniel J. Mack, 39, of Rochester, was arrested Wednesday evening when police shut down a storefront in downtown Centralia they say was operating as a medical marijuana dispensary. Mack identified himself as volunteer dispensary worker, but police consider him one of three owners of the business.

The Centralia Police Department’s Anti-Crime Unit, along with other officers and sheriff’s deputies served their search warrant about 6 p.m. last night at Mack’s home in Rochester.

Nobody was arrested there. A 14-year-old was the only person present, Shannon said. He is being cared for by neighbors, according to Shannon.

The search warrant was obtained in connection with the investigation that led to Wednesday night’s raid at Hub City Natural Medicine on the 100 block of South Tower Avenue. There, police confiscated dried marijuana in large mason jars, various baked goods, candies and refrigerated items suspected of containing marijuana, as well the businesses’ computers.

Shannon said Mack admitted to bringing product from his residence to the store to distribute.

Further arrests are expected, as there are other growers, other customers and other sellers, Shannon said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Kenneth R. Varner pleaded not guilty today to charges related to allegedly helping his father make a suicide look like homicide so the family could collect insurance money

His 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 R. Varner

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

James Varner worked for the state Department of Labor and Industries and before that, was a Washington state trooper.

He reportedly left a note apologizing to his wife about his debt, and telling her not to blame his son.

It’s a case with a “a lot of fraud” involved, according to Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield.

Charging documents in the case – 19 pages of them –  offer suggestions the son retrieved the firearm from Packwood; it was found later in Mayfield Lake.

They also include details of an insurance fraud scheme related to a falsely-reported-as-stolen antique car, a case both men were blamed for in Thurston County.

James E. Varner

The documents further contain accusations by a woman who said she reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Kenneth R. Varner defrauded her out of money for the purchase of property after she met him in Puerto Vallarta.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said today the latter allegations are something for the FBI to investigate. He did not know if they have done so.

Kenneth R. Varner pleaded guilty to the Thurston County charges but never returned to be sentenced, Halstead said.

Charging documents include allegations the father facilitated bank transactions for his son’s business deals, which the son conducted under an alias. The younger Varner reportedly worked as a free-lance realtor in Mexico.

Kenneth Varner is charged in Lewis County Superior Court with promoting a suicide attempt and conspiracy to commit theft in the first degree.

He was also charged in an entirely separate Lewis County case – for theft related to a a bid to replace a roof of a business partner’s building in Centralia in 2006.

He remains held in the Lewis County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Trial dates were set for the week of June 6.
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Read background on the case here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Twenty-one-year-old Jack A. Silverthorne is planning to plead guilty in last summer’s death of Morton teenager Austin King.

Austin King

Silverthorne’s lawyer said today attorneys have worked out a plea agreement in which the charges will be downgraded, and his client is looking at about eight and half years in prison.

Centralia attorney J.P. Enbody said it seemed he and prosecutors both came to understand Silverthorne caused the 16-year-old’s death, but it wasn’t something he set out to do.

Austin vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton.

Jack A. Silverthorne

Enbody said evidence showed the two were out on the logging road and there was a dispute. The exact details may never be known, he said.

Austin’s skull was cracked and Silverthorne had a broken bone in his hand, he said.

Silverthorne, who had been staying in the trailer park with his grandmother at the time, was arrested in November at his home in Renton and charged with first-degree murder.

Authorities have said in charging documents they believe Silverthorne’s motive was related to an attraction to a girl, the mother of Austin’s child.

He is expected to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter on May 6.
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Read previous most recent story, here

Read more about the case in “Morton homicide: Suspect had broken hand, victim had cracked skull” from Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010, here

This news story was updated at 12:37 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia police seized marijuana, food items suspected of containing marijuana and computers yesterday evening when they searched a downtown business they say was operating as a medical marijuana dispensary.

One man was arrested as well at Hub City Natural Medicine on the 100 block of South Tower Avenue, according to police.

The action followed a month-long investigation that grew out of numerous complaints of marijuana violations, according to a news release from the Centralia Police Department.

While the city had issued a business license to the enterprise, it was with the understanding it was dealing in products such as vitamin supplements, according to the news release.

The arrest and seizure comes as the state legislature is considering legislation to clarify issues involving the state’s 1998 voter-approved medical marijuana law.

According to police: the Centralia Police Department’s Anti-Crime Unit served a search warrant about 6 p.m. yesterday.

About a dozen officers, including deputies from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, were on hand.

Daniel J. Mack, 39, of Rochester, was arrested for delivery of marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession with intent to deliver marijuana.

There were other people inside – determined to be “patients” or “customers” – but they were not arrested, according to Officer Chris Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said Mack identified himself as volunteer dispensary worker, but police consider him one of three owners of the business. She expects other arrests to be made.

Among the items confiscated were dried marijuana in large mason jars and packaged for individual sale, various baked goods, candies and refrigerated items suspected of containing marijuana, as well as paraphernalia and the businesses’ computers.

Hub City Natural Medicine applied for its city business license on Jan. 31, specifying the nature of its business as “education and sales of natural medicine”, something that didn’t trigger a review by the chief of police, according to the Centralia Police Department.

The news release cited a bulletin from the Washington Cities Insurance Authority issued in December saying medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal and not entitled to a business license.