Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Onalaska man who allowed a teenage drinking party at his home after which a 15-year-old boy died from alcohol poisoning was sentenced yesterday to nine months in jail.

Nickolas Barnes

James W. Taylor, 30, was taken into custody following the proceedings yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.

Taylor was initially charged with second-degree manslaughter but pleaded guilty in February to lesser charges including furnishing liquor to minors and failing to summon assistance.

Judge Nelson Hunt said the outcome might serve as a caution to adults who facilitate binge drinking.

The sentencing ends a case that began when high school sophomore Nickolas Barnes passed out in Taylor’s front yard, following a drinking game in which he and another teenage boy reportedly downed more than 11 shots of vodka.

James W. Taylor

Prosecutors alleged Taylor told the teenagers to “let him sleep it off.”

Nickolas was found not breathing an hour or two later; his friends had removed his clothes and written on his body with a black marker.

Taylor and another man took him to a hospital, but Nickolas died two days later, on Sept. 21, 2009. His blood alcohol level was .32.

Nickolas’s grandmother Susan Patterson spoke for his family when she addressed Taylor, a father of several children.

“It’s been one year, seven months and 20 days since Nick died because you didn’t call 911,” Patterson said.

“I pray you will never ever know the empty feeling that is in our hearts over the loss of a child,” she said. “I hope the hands you put your children’s lives in know how to call 911.”

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer explained the plea agreement saying no amount of time will make up for what happened, but “we believe with the facts we have, this is the best outcome.”

Defense attorney Don Blair told the court his client made a decision he will regret the rest of his life.

Taylor apologized for everything that happened.

“I don’t expect forgiveness or anything, I know what happened and there is nothing much to say,” he said. “I’m sorry Barnes family for your loss. If I could take his place, I would.”

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Read more on the plea agreement in “Onalaskan offers mixed pleas in teen’s alcohol poisoning death” from Thursday Feb. 24, 2011, here

Read about the party in “Remembering Nickolas Barnes” from Thursday Sept. 23, 2010, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  The coroners inquest into the controversial 1998 death in Toledo of former state trooper Ronda Reynolds is being put on hold, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod announced this morning.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod

A review by a panel of citizens was set for the end of August, but McLeod says now the outcome of a related civil case and as well as a triple-murder trial scheduled for the same time both present conflicts.

One of McLeod’s first acts after he took office in January was to change Reynolds’ death certificate from suicide to undetermined. Soon afterward, he announced that rather than review it himself behind closed doors, he preferred a coroners inquest, an open forum that would enhance public confidence in the final conclusion.

The case was the subject of a civil trial in November 2009 after which a panel of citizens concluded then-Coroner Terry Wilson’s determination that Reynolds’ died of suicide was arbitrary, capricious and incorrect. A judge ordered Wilson to change the manner of death, but Wilson instead appealed the order.

McLeod took over the coroner’s office after winning last November’s election.

Ronda Reynolds

Today McLeod is saying the outcome of the civil case appeal – Thompson vs. Wilson – could include an order giving him 10 days to review the case and come up with the manner of death.

“I cannot in good conscious spend tens of thousands of Lewis County taxpayers’ dollars to pursue an inquest when a real possibility exists that the Court of Appeals may order me to conduct a case review to make my own determination as to the manner of Ronda’s death,” McLeod wrote in a news release.

The appeal – by both the coroner and by Barb Thompson, the mother of Reynolds – is being argued in the Court of Appeals in Tacoma in June.

The other issue, according to McLeod, is a criminal trial for John A. Booth Jr., charged with last summer’s homicides in the Salkum-Onalaska area, is scheduled to begin the same week.

Because many individuals are involved in both cases, that would place an undue burden on the resources of the Lewis County Prosecutors Office, McLeod writes. Lewis County sheriff’s detectives are involved in both cases.

Initial plans were to hold the inquest in Clark County beginning Aug. 29 with an outside coroner presiding and Lewis County Deputy Civil Prosecutor David Fine presenting the case to a panel of six citizens.

Fine has represented the coroner, along with Olympia attorney John Justice, on the civil case.

McLeod notes that he still feels a coroner’s inquest is the best format for full public disclosure of the facts in the case and his decision on whether to do so at a later date will depend on the outcome of the Appeals Court decision.
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Read “Details of coming coroner’s inquest in Ronda Reynolds death unfolding slowly” from Friday Feb. 18, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Chehalis police arrested the chief financial officer for Steck Medical Group yesterday for allegedly embezzling some $25,000 from the health clinic.

Keith B. Mohoric, 51, of Centralia, had worked for the business a little more than a year and a half and was fired yesterday, according to authorities.

Steck Medical Group Chief Executive Officer Chris Bredeson said this morning they recently discovered discrepancies in their bank deposits. They contacted police on Friday.

Bredeson said in a prepared statement: “While significant, the losses do not affect the clinics’ services to patients.”

Detectives went to the clinic on Bishop Road in Chehalis yesterday morning to interview Mohoric and then booked him into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree theft and forgery, police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said.

McNamara said essentially, not all the money that was supposed to be going to the bank actually was.

McNamara said Mohoric did not say why he did it, “just that he needed it, he was having money issues.”

Steck Medical Group operates multiple clinics in Lewis County, including Steck Medical Center in Chehalis.

Bredeson said Mohoric promised restitution.