Lewis County Sirens.com

Attorney Adam Karp answers news reporters’ questions following hearing on Jay the cat.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The untimely death of Jay the cat who suffered what prosecutors called cruel and terrible injuries at a north Centralia apartment complex this past spring drew two dozen spectators to a Chehalis courtroom today.

A Bellingham lawyer, on behalf of a Thurston County animal control officer, petitioned a judge in Lewis County District Court to allow for the issuance of a citizen criminal complaint.

Jay the cat

Lewis County prosecutors have called the death deplorable, inhumane, horrific and without justification, but contend they had insufficient evidence for criminal charges.

Attorney Adam Karp strongly disagrees.

Karp in his 19-page filing, with additional declarations from numerous witnesses, laid out a variety of potential criminal charges which could be pursued.

One of them was in connection with the man Centralia police arrested the night of April 28, but then let go.

Centralia police said Kyle B. Burke, 24, took a knife to the pet at the 100 block of Virginia Drive. The following day, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said the cat may have suffered its injury at the hands of a child, at one point was dropped from a second-floor balcony and that possibly Burke was putting it out of its misery.

A retired Thurston County deputy and his wife went to the apartment complex and retrieved the dead pet that Centralia police had left behind, and took it to Erika Johnson, a former law enforcement officer and current senior animal control officer for Joint Animal Services in Thurston County.

Johnson had a veterinarian conduct a necropsy.

“Her opinion, of reasonable medical certainty, is Jay was alive before that penetrating injury,” Karp told the judge today. “This was not euthanasia.”

Meagher argued to Lewis County District Court Judge R.W. Buzzard the veterinarian could not pinpoint which injury caused the cat’s death.

“The state submits what’s going on here is they don’t like our charging decision,” Meagher said.

It would put the office in an ethical bind of they were made to prosecute a case they didn’t have faith in, he said.

“Who killed the cat?” Meagher asked rhetorically. “Nobody can answer that, even their expert.

“That’s why the state can’t charge the fellow, his friend, or even the little girl.”

Meagher said the strongest part of their case was to submit the 11-year-old girl to a voluntary diversion process. Witnesses said she squeezed Jay until his body made a “popping” sound and subsequently struck him in the head with a three pound rock, according to court documents.

Judge Buzzard took the final two minutes of a half hour hearing to say he took numerous pieces of information into consideration and would not allow the petition to proceed.

Karp said afterward he was underwhelmed, upset and concerned about the way animals are treated in the county, noting “lackluster treatment” by two branches of the government.

He plans to appeal Judge Buzzard’s decision, once the written findings are filed.

He immediately filed in Lewis County Superior Court a petition to impanel a grand jury to look at the case. He said it will take two of the Superior Court judges to decide if it can go forward.
•••

For background, read “Centralia police admit errors in cat cruelty investigation, taking a second look” from Wednesday May 18, 2016, here

•••

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge has found a Lewis County rape case must be dismissed because of intentional governmental misconduct by the sheriff’s deputy assisting the prosecutor during the trial.

The trial in Lewis County Superior Court began and then ended the same day last month in a mistrial.

Jordan T. White, 23, of Centralia, was facing a charge of second-degree rape for an alleged incident in 2014 at a rural Centralia home involving a young woman with whom he had somewhat of an intimate relationship.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt decided last week to dismiss the case. At issue was nonverbal communication in front of the jury by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Justin Rodgers, who was seated at the prosecutor’s table for the trial. Rodgers investigated the case.

Defense attorney Shane O’Rourke and Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Melissa Bohm each filed a proposed written order to document the judge’s decision. The two differed in how to characterize what occurred.

This week, the two lawyers and Judge Hunt spent almost an hour in a hearing discussing what the order should state. The document is called Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

They agreed that Deputy Rodgers, while seated next to Bohm, dropped his pen onto the table at a particular point during the trial which drew the attention of members of the jury. He also had gestured to the alleged victim while she was on the witness stand.

“Deputy Rodgers engaged in intentional governmental misconduct by showing his disgust at the defendant’s version of events and communicating with the alleged victim through hand gestures during her testimony,” Hunt said of the wording he would adopt in the final document.

Judge Hunt went on to say that when the jury was sent out of the room and he questioned the deputy about his actions, the deputy was not immediately forthcoming in his answers.

The state has 30 days in which to decide if it will appeal the dismissal, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

The mistrial occurred on Nov. 29. Follow up hearings were held on Dec. 14 and this past Wednesday.

The incident was reported in the spring of 2015 to the sheriff’s office and charges were filed late this summer. The alleged victim said she was heavily intoxicated and realized the next morning she had been anally penetrated, according to court documents. White told the deputy what they did was her idea, because she wanted to remain a virgin, according to the documents.

O’Rourke said his client has mixed feelings about the outcome of his case.

“I think a lot of people would expect relief, or jubilance,” he said. “It’s not like that.”

Their position on the case was White was wrongly charged and they had been prepared to go all the way to a verdict, O’Rourke said.

An attempt to seek comment from Deputy Rodgers through the sheriff’s office resulted in Chief Deputy Dusty Breen stating that neither they nor the deputy would comment. Breen said the sheriff’s office would review what occurred.
•••

For background, read “Rape case: Trial cut short in Lewis County Superior Court” from Wednesday November 30, 2016, here

Janet L. Anderson is led to the defendant’s table in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Centralia woman who drove to the police station to report she’d fatally shot her husband was brought before a judge again yesterday afternoon for arraignment.

Janet L. Anderson, 39, has been held in the Lewis County Jail since she was arrested on Saturday. She is charged with second-degree murder.

Clad in red jail garb, handcuffed and shackled at her waist, Anderson sat silently beside her court appointed lawyer.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler asked Anderson for her plea.

Her eyes were on the judge when she leaned forward slightly toward a microphone and responded, “Not guilty.”

Anderson is being held on $1 million bail.

She told police she and her spouse, 41-year-old Ty Anderson, had been arguing at their home off of West Oakview Avenue and he grabbed his gun and pointed it at her.

However, Ty Anderson’s body was located in their bedroom wrapped in a tarp, with a bullet hole in the back of his neck and another in his lower back, prosecutors allege.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh has told the court they suspect as much as 12 hours may have passed before Anderson turned herself in.

She is represented by Centralia attorney Shane O’Rourke.

O’Rourke and Beigh yesterday scheduled Anderson’s trial for the week of Feb. 13.
•••

For background, read “Centralia husband took a bullet to the base of the back of his neck, wife charged with murder” from Monday December 19, 2016, here