SCAMSTERS SCAMMING
• Beware if you get a phone call informing you you’ve won $2.5 million and that you can redeem your winnings by first mailing off a $480 cash card from Wal-Mart to cover the taxes for the IRS, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It appears to be a scam and one local woman contacted law enforcement after she received at least four such calls from someone identifying themselves as a representative of American Cash Rewards, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday. She was told James Washington would be presenting the reward, Brown said. Fortunately the woman didn’t believe the caller. The sheriff’s office offers its oft-repeated advice, “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.”
FIGHT AT PARTY BRINGS FELONY CHARGES
• Two young men were arrested this week for an assault last month at a party in Centralia that left a 19-year-old male with a broken jaw. Police arriving at about 12:45 a.m. on March 16 to the 500 block of East Maple Street observed numerous males running from the area, found blood spattered around the front door and learned a 19-year-old Centralia resident had been struck numerous times as well as kicked in the face while he was on the ground, according to authorities. A witness told police Cole T. Rife, 18, had come to the gathering and was trying to pick a fight with anyone who would fight him and turned his attention to Logan Crump, according to charging documents. Crump initially didn’t care to press the matter, until after the following day when he got medical treatment and discovered he had a fractured mandible, charging documents state. Crump told police Rife phoned him and apologized. Rife, a rural Chehalis resident, was arrested and went before a Lewis County Superior Court judge on Tuesday, charged with second-degree assault. His temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter said he’d known the W.F. West High School graduate since he was a kindergartner. Judge James Lawler allowed Rife to be released from jail pending trial on a $10,000 unsecured bond, co-signed by Rife’s father. Then on Thursday, Tyler L. Burk, 19, of Rochester, was arrested for second-degree assault in the same case, according to the Centralia Police Department. He was scheduled to go before a judge yesterday afternoon, and subsequently released from jail.
FROM THE COURTHOUSE
• The former Chehalis resident locked up for 160 years for a Yakima County gang-related incident reached out to local prosecutors from prison to request they bring him to Lewis County to face a judge in connection with a drive-by shooting from the summer of 2010 in Chehalis.
Andrew Morales-Loberg
Andrew Morales-Loberg, now 22, was charged after the incident on Southwest William Street, and a $500,000 arrest warrant issued, but he was never apprehended by local police. At the time, police said someone in a red Chevrolet Blazer fired a round from a pistol that struck a parked vehicle while four people were standing near it. Morales-Loberg was transferred from prison last week to the Lewis County Jail. He appeared in Lewis County Superior Court Thursday for his arraignment. Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said the case was being revisited at the defendant’s request. “He wrote us a letter, asking that the matter be taken care of,” Meyer said. The prosecutor said he didn’t know why, but did know outstanding matters can affect what programs inmates are eligible for. Morales-Loberg was among four LVL gang members sentenced in the fall of 2012 to more than 100 years in prison for shooting up an inhabited trailer in the town of Outlook in retaliation for a previous shooting. Nobody was injured there, nor in the William Street shooting, which police said was related to drugs and money. Three other individuals were also charged with drive-by shooting from the Chehalis case, but those charges were dismissed against all three. Morales-Loberg is represented by attorney Sam Groberg. He entered a plea of not guilty. A review hearing was scheduled for May 1, and a trial set for the week of June 2. The earliest he can be released from prison in the Outlook case, with good behavior, is Christmas Eve in the year 2165, according to prosecutors.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving with suspended license; responses for collisions on city streets … and more.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter