Updated at 1:12 p.m.
DRUGS
• Centralia police arrested an individual for possession of methamphetamine when he was observed without a seatbelt in a vehicle stopped because one of its occupants was wanted on a warrant. It happened about 7:30 p.m. yesterday at Harrison Avenue and Alexander Street, according to the Centralia Police Department. Sgt. Kurt Reichert said there were four people inside and because of the “furtive movements” in the backseat and being unrestrained, Matthew M. Morris, 21, was patted down and the substance turned up. When Morris was booked into the Lewis County Jail, a baggie with suspected heroin was discovered as well, according to Reichert.
PROWLING
• Centralia police responded about 2:15 a.m. today to car prowls in the 3000 block of Galvin Road in which windows were broken. A lunchbox, CDs and the rearview mirror were stolen in one case and in another nothing appeared initially to be missing, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• A backpack was stolen and a window broken out from a vehicle at the 500 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 10:15 p.m. yesterday.
• An officer took a report yesterday of medication stolen from an unlocked car overnight at the 400 block of Ash Street in Centralia.
FROM THE COURTHOUSE
• The Onalaska man serving a five-year sentence for fatally shooting a suspected burglar outside an uninhabited house he owns is scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon as prosecutors seek payment of their costs for the appeal he lost. Ronald A. Brady claimed self-defense in the 2010 death of 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton but the 60-year-old was convicted the following summer of second-degree manslaughter. He appealed on several grounds, including contending the trial court erred when it refused to allow testimony to prove McKenzie and his wife were at his property to steal and didn’t allow the jury to consider a right to resist the commission of a felony. The appeals court said the only crime being committed at the time he opened fire with a .22 rifle was criminal trespass. Brady is set to appear in Lewis County Superior Court at 4 p.m. today.
WRECK
• Police and aid responded about midnight when a Volvo slammed into a parked sport utility vehicle at the 300 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue in Chehalis. The 24-year-old driver from Chehalis was not injured but a trooper took over because of the possible involvement of alcohol, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, misdemeanor assault, violation of protection order, drug arrests for which information is not readily available from law enforcement; responses for alarms, disputes, apparent computer scammer on the phone … and more.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Yikes, don’t forget that arrest for “possibly” having “a drug-like substance” is also common. Yes, it seems that any “suspected” cause can make the cops do what they want. Happens all the time on Sirens. I’m all for getting druggies and ner’do’wells off the streets, but just for merely “suspecting” then arresting seems to take it too far. Find the evidence – can of paint, foil packet, etc in hand, and then proceed! If kids can’t be taken away from parents when kids see the parent sniffing drugs on the table and the cops see the residue but the parent claims it was flour, then why let the “suspected” cases get the can? I just don’t get it…. And I’m a good guy that likes cops!
Goes along with “for my safety, please take all the firearms out of your car/house/etc”. Or that guy that had a gun in his truck and got in trouble for having it there (I guess that gun racks are illegal now???). Check out the cleaning out of citizens after Katrina – it’s coming to a neighborhood near you!
Is anyone else a little alarmed that all CPD needed for probable cause to search the vehicle was no seatbelt and “furtive movements”?. Wtf?! Little by little I am seeing our 4th amendment rights getting eaten away & it’s starting to make me very uncomfortable. It’s easy to look the other way when they are arresting meth-heads but it’s a slippery slope I fear.
I see stories like this all the time and wonder if we are flirting with becoming a police state. I am not a tinfoil hat wearer. Just a concerned normal citizen like many of you.