Updated at 4:18 p.m.
NECK SNAPPING COMMENT LANDS MAN IN JAIL
• Centralia’s former cemetery sexton John C. Baker was arrested last night after he allegedly grabbed the arm and head of a woman at his house and threatened to snap her neck for trying to use her phone to record a conversation with him. Sgt. Carl Buster said the 42-year-old woman, who also lives at the home on the 1900 block of Johnson Road, was filling out an application and had a math question for Baker. For whatever reason, she whipped out her cell phone and she was recording this, according to Buster. The woman, who is described in the police report as his employee, hid in a bedroom and called 911, Buster said. Baker, 69, was arrested for fourth-degree assault and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
FRAUD IN THE THOUSANDS
• Chehalis police are investigating a check cashed at a bank on the 200 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue for more than $4,000 on the account of a Florida resident whose identity had been stolen. Checks supposedly from the same man’s account were also written in Wenatchee and Gainsville, Florida, according to detective Sgt. Gary Wilson.
ALLEGED WINDOW SMASHER RELEASED
• A 23-year-old Toledo woman was arrested and jailed yesterday morning for allegedly taking a golf club a car belonging to a housemate, breaking out the windshield, and three other windows. The damage to the 1997 Oldsmobile is listed at $1,200, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The woman was arrested for second-degree malicious mischief after the approximately 10 a.m. call to the 100 block of Conifer Lane. She has been released without charges pending further investigation.
DOWNTOWN DISORDERLINESS
• Chehalis police called to a dispute about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday night at a downtown bar ended up arresting two people; one for allegedly driving away drunk and his girlfriend for allegedly trying to grab her car keys from an officer when she learned the vehicle was going to be towed. She was too intoxicated to have taken the vehicle, according to police. Genise L. Morgan, 39, of Rochester, was arrested for obstruction and then given a ride home, Sgt. Gary Wilson said. Christopher B. Mellon, 39, of Chehalis, was arrested for DUI, Wilson said.
BURGLARY CENTRALIA
• Centralia police were called to Lakeside Industries yesterday morning at the 2000 block of Johnson Road where someone had broken into and ransacked a small storage building. Missing were vehicle keys and a black felt pen, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• One thousand feet of copper wire, a cutting torch and a steam cleaner were stolen from the 3500 block of Harrison Avenue outside Centralia in a burglary sometime after Feb. 25 and before yesterday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
MUSEUM THEFT PLEA AGREEMENT
• Deborah Sue Knapp and her lawyer were in court today to notify a judge they have a plea agreement in principle, in connection with charges she stole thousands of dollars from the Lewis County Historical Museum while she was its executive director. Knapp was arrested in December 2011 after the discovery the institution’s endowment fund of more than $460,000 was drained and a police investigation was conducted. She will return to Lewis County Superior Court next Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., scheduled for a change of plea, according to Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead. The now-53-year-old was hired in July 2006 and was paid a salary of $43,000 a year.
WRECK IN GRAND MOUND INJURES ONE
• A 19-year-old Rochester man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle this morning after a single-vehicle collision in which he was ejected and his pickup truck landed on him. Troopers and aid were called about 9:30 a.m. to Old Highway 99 just east of Interstate 5 near Nutmeg Street. The 1985 Ford pickup had struck a power pole and rolled over, according to the Washington State Patrol. The pole was splintered like a matchstick and hanging over the heads of crews who used their tools to extricate the driver, West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott said. The patient had fairly severe injuries but no visible trauma, according to Scott. Brett A. Tardif was described as in stable condition this afternoon by a spokesperson for the state patrol. The cause of the crash is under investigation but Trooper Guy Gill indicated speed was a factor and Tardif had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Jan, at sentencing, the lawyers on both sides usually explain to the judge why they are asking for the amount of jail / prison time that they are asking for
Sharyn: when is the plea agreement being made public?