By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
KING5.com reports Tenino’s Mayor Eric Strawn is considering getting rid of the city’s police department to deal with $150,000 shortfall in next year’s budget.
Reporter Drew Mikkelsen writes the five officer department accounts for 53 percent of Tenino’s operating fund.
Read more here
Updated at 5:32 p.m.
SHERIFF’S OFFICE: MAN ASKS 911 FOR SLEEPING PILLS
• A Winlock man was arrested after he reportedly called 911 eight times over the weekend to say he’d been poisoned, there were suspicious people outside his home and he needed sleeping pills because he’d been awake for five days. Deputies who responded to the 100 block of Bethany Lane suspected he might be under the influence of something because of his odd behavior, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He said he had used methamphetamine, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Matthew T. Johnson was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital after first calling 911 on Saturday and was then released, according to Brown. Johnson repeatedly called 911 until Sunday morning, when deputies arrested and booked him into the Lewis County Jail for telephone harassment, she said.
KITTEN SHOT
• Chehalis police are investigating an incident in which a kitten was shot on the 1400 block of Mills Avenue. An officer called about 6 p.m. on Friday was told by the 20-year-old owner the feline was found under the neighbor’s porch and the veterinarian suspected it was a .22 caliber bullet that went through the spine, according to police. Sgt. Brian Hickey said he understood the kitten didn’t survive. An officer is still attempting to contact individuals to conduct further interviews, Hickey said.
PATIENT TAKES SWING AT FIREFIGHTER
• A 26-year-old intoxicated woman from Lacey was arrested about 1 a.m. on Saturday when she allegedly took a swing at a firefighter who was trying to help her get up. Police were called to the 2100 block of North National Avenue to assist aid crews which had been summoned about a woman who was having trouble breathing, according to the Chehalis Police Department. She told the firefighter to “FU” and grabbed his legs when her punch didn’t connect, according to police. She was booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree assault but is being released without the felony charge pending further investigation.
BURGLARY IN CENTRALIA
• Someone stole a sledge hammer, tools and a moving cart from a residence on the 200 block of Van Buren Street in Centralia, according o a report made to police yesterday afternoon. They also removed the siding from a shed and made off with fishing poles and a tool chest, according to the Centralia Police Department.
BURGLARY SUSPECT PICKED UP IN TOLEDO
• Deputies located a burglary suspect last night near Toledo and booked him into the Lewis County Jail. David M. Meyer, 31, was wanted in connection with a Oct. 12 break-in to a home on the 100 block of Collins Road, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Meyer was found about 7 p.m. in the 1500 block of state Route 505, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
CAR STOLEN, FOUND
• Centralia police took a report on Saturday morning of a car stolen from the 300 block of Jackson Street. The victim later found her Honda in the area of Anderson Road, according to the Centralia Police Department.
THOUSAND DOLLAR TOW DOLLY MISSING
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning a blue and white tow dolly valued at $1,000 was stolen from near a driveway on the 2700 block of Sandra Avenue in Centralia on Oct. 12. The victim just reported the theft on Friday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It has spoked rims, according to the sheriff’s office.
WRECKS
• A 55-year-old man was arrested for driving under the influence after a two-vehicle minor injury collision on Harrison Avenue and Johnson Road in Centralia on Friday evening, according to police. An officer called about 8:10 p.m. to the scene issued a citation to George M. Solomon, of Centralia, and then released him, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• A 42-year-old Winlock man was arrested for driving under the influence after a non-injury, single vehicle collision Friday afternoon in the Toledo area in which he allegedly ran away from the scene, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A detective arriving about 3 p.m. located Douglas F. E. Jerome and brought him back to the wreck, according to the sheriff’s office. It happened near Jackson Highway and Frost Road near Toledo. His car sustained only minor damage, , Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
POLICE CHASE THROUGH WINLOCK
• A 25-year-old motorist was arrested yesterday evening after a police pursuit that reached speeds of more than 50 mph in a residential neighborhood on Southeast First Street in Winlock, according to police. Winlock Police Chief Terry Williams reported the driver fled his vehicle on Ash Street where he was apprehended. Marcus A. Church of Silver Creek was found to be in possession of suspected methamphetamine, according to Williams. A search of the vehicle by police dog Misha and her partner turned up drug paraphernalia and an illegal weapon, according to Williams. Church was booked into the Lewis County Jail about 7:20 p.m. for attempting to elude, possession of meth and possession of a dangerous weapon. It began with a traffic stop related to driving with a suspended license, according to the chief.
Nancy Punches realizes she was in over her head.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
DRYAD – Authorities seized dozens of foxhounds from a 79-year-old woman who lives in Dryad; animals they said were living in deplorable conditions.
All but a few seemed to be well-fed but their living area was overrun with feces, according to Lewis County code enforcement officials.
Code Enforcement Supervisor Bill Teitzel said he didn’t believe she was selling the dogs.
“I think she essentially is not physically able to care for the dogs and they were breeding among themselves,” he said yesterday.
Authorities rounded up 68 or 69 canines during Friday’s operation on the 400 block of River Road, 20 of them puppies, according to Teitzel. They found one dead pup which will be examined, he said.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Steve Aust said once they get the results of the necropsy, they will evaluate if there is a criminal issue of abuse or neglect.
The foxhounds are descendants of four puppies who – along with their owner Nancy Punches – survived Lewis County’s December 2007 flood while her 16 champion show dogs perished.
Punches endured a nightmarish 36-hour ordeal alone in which she was trapped inside her mobile home as flood waters rose to within inches of her ceiling. She floated upon a tipped-over antique bookcase after placing her five-week-old dogs inside a styrofoam shipping container.
Lewis County Commissioner Bill Schulte who lives in the same community about 14 miles west of Chehalis tipped off enforcement employees there might be a problem. Schulte told Teitzel early last week Punches has been a responsible dog owner for years.
“Her bond (with the dogs) is a little different than before,” Schulte said.
Punches, a longtime breeder of show dogs, has been mostly cooperative.
“I don’t want to blame it on the flood,” Punches said. “But I’m not the same person I was before the flood.”
“I always try to do too much, and it just caught up with me,” she said.
Animal enforcement employees visited Punches’ rural property a week ago and observed feces and sawdust stacked up to eight inches in the outside run area, according to Teitzel. Punches works out of town and they had a hard time catching her at home, he said.
When they returned on Friday morning with a warrant to inspect the premises, it had rained, he said.
“The first thing my staff noticed, that had totally liquified, and the dogs were wading through it,” he said.
Inside the dogs’ central building, waste was mounded to more than a foot, he said, and conditions were severely overcrowded.
They amended their warrant to allow for immediate confiscation of the dogs.
The roundup lasted until long after dark, he said. Assisting with collecting and subsequently housing the canines were animal control employees from Clark County, the city of Chehalis and the Lewis County Animal Shelter. The non-profit animal rescue group Pasado’s Safe Haven in Snohomish County helped as well.
Some went to veterinary clinics with minor leg injuries or possibly urine burned feet, according to Teitzel.
It became a struggle crating up 70-plus-pound foxhounds, he said.
“As we got about two-thirds (of the way) through, some had never been handled,” he said.
Punches, who assisted them during the wrangling, called it bedlam and traumatizing for many of the dogs.
Next-door-neighbor Jim Chown called Punches a sweet lady who has a hard time letting go of things.
“She knows every dog, she knows their names,” Chown said.
Punches spent yesterday with her adult son who traveled from his home in Burien to help his mother.
“I’ knew it was bad,” she said. “I’ve known the past couple of months I was over my head.”
It’s not for lack of trying though, she says.
At 79, she is on her feet all day, working four 10-hour days a week in the lab at Morton General Hospital. Her commute is an hour and a half each way.
That leaves about enough time and energy to feed her dogs, feed herself and sleep until her next shift, she said.
“It’s hard to get good help when it comes to shoveling (kennels),” Punches said.
She said she didn’t intend for the dogs to multiply the way they have, but the fencing between the males and females has deteriorated in places.
She’s spoke with fencing people about replacing it, as soon as she could get the money, she said. She’s talked to contractors about a replacement roof.
“I tried to get a loan, but it’s a double-wide, a used one,” she said of her home that was donated after her first one was destroyed in the flood.
They go through 150 pounds of dog food a day.
Punches has attempted to find homes for some of her dogs, spending her time off last weekend delivering four of them partway to Montana. It’s hard to choose which ones to keep, she said.
She knows for sure she would not willingly give up Noah and his sister Spirit, two of the pups that she kept warm inside her shirt as she wandered hypothermic and disoriented through her former home on Dec. 4, 2007; or Hawk, the grown dog she said had to save himself.
The generosity of strangers afterward was tremendous, she said, with cards and much-welcome and needed donations of money.
Punches chokes up and pauses, saying she doesn’t usually cry.
“People were so nice, I’m afraid when they hear about it …,” she said.
She worries those people will think their kindness then was a mistake, she said.
Her first dog show was in 1956, she said. “I’ve never had a problem like this.”
Changing the topic, she admits she doesn’t know what will happen next.
Amy Hanson from the animal shelter offered her a deal on Saturday, in which she would be willing to return four of the dogs if they are “fixed”, she said, in exchange for signing the rest of the dogs away.
Some of them are championship foxhounds, she said.
“Those dogs are valuable to the breed,” Punches said. “If they’re spayed or neutered, they’re no good to the breed.”
•••
CORRECTION: This news story has been updated to correctly reflect the number of dogs Nancy Punches lost in the December 2007 flood.
The sheriff’s office counted 47 adult dogs and 18 puppies with four of the puppies taken to Cascade West Veterinary Hospital in Centralia for treatment and one dead puppy found in a cage. Two of the animals are fox terriers, the rest foxhounds, according to Code Enforcement Supervisor Bill Teitzel. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office
•••
The dogs’ housing at the property on the 400 block of River Road west of Chehalis. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
KOMOnews.com reports that dozen of foxhounds were seized today from a home in Doty; animals living in deplorable conditions.
The sheriff’s office said the county had been working with the dogs’ owner in an effort to get her property up to code, but she has given up custody of the animals, according to the news item.
Read about it here
Updated at 1:49 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
An expected lawsuit regarding the fatal shooting by a Lewis County sheriff’s deputy of an unarmed Napavine man has been filed in federal court.
Steven V. Petersen
The sheriff’s office in a news release “vehemently denies” Deputy Matt McKnight acted recklessly or negligently in any way when he shot 33-year-old Steven V. Petersen last year.
The action filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma alleges McKnight engaged in a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ approach to law enforcement, according to the news release.
Sheriff Steve Mansfield says McKnight did everything he was supposed to do.
An attorney for Petersen’s family has said their investigation would focus on the sheriff’s office training, supervision and decision-making in the field when using deadly force.
It happened on June 20 in Napavine, when police and deputies responded to an approximately 2 a.m. call that Petersen left stab holes in the door of his ex-girlfriend’s mobile home while trying to get inside and then left on foot.
Deputy McKnight found Petersen a few blocks away, and after Petersen refused to take his hand out of his pocket and began to charge McKnight, the deputy fired four shots, according to the account given by local authorities. The dead man had no knife.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer concluded McKnight’s use of deadly force was justified, based on an investigation conducted by outside law enforcement officers. McKnight was also cleared by an internal review at the sheriff’s office.
The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, but the claim that preceded it asked for as much as $10 million.
More to come.
•••
For background, read:
• “Multi-million dollar lawsuit coming in deputy-involved shooting in Napavine” from Wednesday June 6, 2012, here
• “Details emerge in Napavine officer-involved shooting” from Saturday July 2, 2011, here
Updated at 4:40 p.m.
PE ELL MOLESTATION SUSPECT PICKED UP IN TEXAS
• A 41-year-old former Pe Ell man who vanished after he was charged five years ago with molesting his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter was located and arrested yesterday west of Dallas by Texas Rangers.
Michael T. Yeager
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives have been looking for Michael T. Yeager since 2008, at one point even conducting SWAT operations where they thought he was camping in the woods around Pe Ell, according to the sheriff’s office. Local detectives learned family member’s of Yeager were assisting him by giving him a place to live in Quitman, Texas and asked the Rangers for assistance, according to Sheriff Steve Mansfield. Yeager was arrested late yesterday afternoon and will be extradited back to Lewis County. Mansfield said Yeager was living out in the woods and tried to escape by water in a canoe. A Ranger tracked him down and found he had a large amount of survival gear, a rifle and a fishing pole. Mansfield said. The case involves an allegation he molested the girl over a several year span while they resided together in Pe Ell, according to the sheriff’s office.
COPPER WIRE, PIPES, MISSING FROM ROCK PIT
• Somebody stole stole thousands of dollars worth of materials and equipment from a business on the 800 block of state Route 507 in an overnight break in, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy called to the rock pit about 9 a.m. yesterday learned that 250 feet of copper pipe and 100 feet of copper wire were among the items taken, according to the sheriff’s office.
THEFT FROM RENTAL BUSINESS
• Centralia police are investigating a theft from a household furnishings rental center on the 2000 block of Borst Avenue. A report made to police yesterday afternoon indicated a customer stopped making payments on a living room set and a television, according to police.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The (Longview) Daily News writes about how no requirement for permits or licenses for dog breeders in Lewis County allows unhealthy conditions to go unchecked.
Reporter Natalie St. John reports residents can refuse inspectors access to facilities.
St. John describes how it was a tip about possible marijuana growing three years ago in Toledo that led authorities to one of the worst cases of animal abuse investigators had ever seen; where many of 157 dog were sick or malnourished and feces covered nearly every surface.
Read more here
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