Lewis County Sirens.com

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former local man nearing release after serving an approximately 27 year prison sentence found himself brought before a Lewis County judge, where state attorneys are asking to keep him locked up.

Dannell Harris was 24 years old when he broke into the home of acquaintances, looking for drugs and money, according to court documents.

The family’s 4-year-old girl was sleeping on the couch, and when he left, he took a BB gun, a few dollars, and the child with him.

Court documents go on to relate how the father discovered she was missing at 3 a.m. It was Nov. 23, 1989, a Thanksgiving morning.

Police searched and later that morning, found the little girl in a car abandoned on a logging road not far from Centralia.

Harris was convicted two months later of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary and first-degree child molestation in Lewis County Superior Court. He was given a sentence of 332 months.

This week, the state Attorney General’s Office filed a petition in Lewis County Superior Court to civilly commit Harris for an indefinite period of time, contending he is a sexually violent predator.

Harris had a previous conviction for third-degree rape in a 1988 case. He also had a 1985 conviction for second-degree robbery. Both were in Thurston County.

The state contends Harris has a mental abnormality and is likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if released. The allegations in the petition have to be proven at a trial.

In 1990, Washington became the first state in the nation to pass a law permitting the involuntary civil commitment of sex offenders after they serve their criminal sentences. The attorney general’s office’s special division to handle those cases was created shortly after that.

Harris, now 50, was transported from the Twin Rivers Correctional Center at Monroe to Lewis County and brought before a judge on Thursday.

A Lewis County Superior Court judge had already seen the petition and found probable case for the case to go forward. An order was signed directing the custodial detention and evaluation of Harris.

An evaluation will be done by an expert chosen by the state, to include penileplethysmograph and polygraph testing, according to court documents.

Among the documents in the petition are those signed by a psychologist who evaluated Harris in 2009, conducting  four and half hours of clinical interview and reviewing more than 2,000 pages of documents.

The psychologist this week signed a declaration that it’s still his opinion Harris has a mental abnormality that causes him serious difficulty controlling his sexually violent behavior. Dr. Dale Arnold wrote he read 700 pages of updated records to come to his present conclusion.

In his report, he makes note of information from his interview that states Harris had some 400 sexual partners by the time he was incarcerated, had only begun to feel sexual desire for young girls a few months before the kidnapping and that Thanksgiving morning of 1989 was the first time he’d acted upon the feelings.

Harris is represented by two lawyers, Pete MacDonald and Ival Gaer.

The state’s aim is to keep Harris in a secure facility for control, care and treatment until his condition has changed.

Judge James Lawler on Thursday signed an order to transport Harris to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island. Currently, 283 individuals are being held under the program.

During fiscal year 2015, the attorney general’s office’s special division tried 15 cases and won 10 civil commitments.

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By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Law enforcement estimated a sizable investment was made – as much as $50,000 – in an indoor growing operation on rural property just outside Centralia, where they seized almost 30 pounds of marijuana from an outbuilding.

The 23-year-old resident who allegedly cultivated and trimmed the plants was charged in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday with two felonies in connection with the find.

Ivan C. Spain Hanson was brought before a judge yesterday afternoon, after spending a night in the Lewis County Jail.

Hanson has no criminal history, not even a speeding ticket in his past, defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge as bail was discussed.

He earns about $4,000 per month working at a distributor called Green Leaf Industries in Thurston County, O’Rourke said, indicating that meant he didn’t qualify for a court appointed lawyer.

His case was pursued by the Lewis County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Hanson is charged with manufacture of marijuana and also possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture or deliver, both class C felonies with maximum penalties of five years in prison.

Charging documents don’t make any mention of where he may have planned to market the product.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt when he learned the defendant was employed in the marijuana industry pondered aloud how to tailor the conditions of release, which generally order that a person pending trial may not use or possess illegal drugs.

“Do not have any on your person while you’re away from the job site,” Hunt told him. “And do not use any, on or off the job site.”

While producing and selling recreational cannabis have been legalized in Washington, following the 2012 passage by voters of Initiative 502, businesses must be licensed through the state Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello said Hanson did not have any kind of license for his operation.

The property is on the 1200 block of Roswell Road, on the east side of town on land just adjacent to the city that sits in unincorporated Lewis County.

Details in court documents are few, suggesting JNET began the investigation “in 2016”. A detective who went to the location could smell the strong odor of growing marijuana coming from the buildings.

Records showed exceptionally high amounts of electricity were being used there. A search warrant for the home and outbuildings was obtained on Monday.

Masiello wrote in charging documents that 150 plant were found in the larger building, and one room appeared to have just been harvested. Marijuana was found inside large trash bags, he wrote.

The preliminary weight of what detectives confiscated was 29 pounds.

Given the growing equipment they found, it appeared $40,000 to $50,000 had been invested in the facility, Masiello wrote.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Melissa Bohm made mention to the judge a gun was found in Hanson’s vehicle, when she addressed the question of bail.

O’Rourke noted his car was located elsewhere, with the weapon inside, not at the property and not with Hanson. Hanson had a license for the .22 caliber Walthur, according to O’Rourke.

Judge Hunt allowed the defendant release on a $10,000 unsecured bond. He ordered him to return to court next Thursday.

The illegal grow find comes on the heels of a similar case.

Two individual appeared before the same judge on Wednesday, also charged with manufacture of marijuana.

According to the allegations in court documents in that case, a Renton woman purchased a building described only as on Tower Avenue in Centralia – with recently darkened windows – for the purpose of of growing marijuana.

A detective with tips from citizens, including one who reported smelling marijuana, contacted the driver of a black BMW parked there this past spring.

Anh Tuan Hoang Nguyen, 33, of Centralia, provided the detective with an authorization form and allowed him inside, where he said he had 25 plants.

The detective was shown a room with about 25 plants, but then behind two doorways found rooms with about 80 more plants.

Nguyen told the detective he sold five to six pounds of marijuana every three to six weeks, and that he was growing it for a dispensary in Seattle. When asked about money, he handed over $6,605 he said were proceeds.

Charges were filed on July 1, following the JNET investigation, and Nguyen and his mother were summonsed to court. His mother is named in court documents as Mai Anh Hoang Nguyen, 54 years old.

They arrived to court on Wednesday afternoon with a lawyer and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Judge Hunt set their bail with $10,000 unsecured bonds. Their trials are set for the week of Oct. 13.

Neither the city of Centralia nor Lewis County have yet issued any approvals for growers, processors or retailers of marijuana.