DRUGS AND ARRESTS
• The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning they arrested a Rochester woman early yesterday for possession of methamphetamine and second-degree possession of stolen property. Veronica N. Nelson, 27, was booked into the Thurston County Jail following the 3:40 a.m. traffic stop on Old Highway 99 and 198th Street Southwest, according to Lt. Chris Mealy. Mealy said the deputy asked about a credit card Nelson seemed to be trying to hide and she said she’d found it at the Red Barn on Saturday night. It had been used to buy about $600 of merchandise at Lewis County businesses since then, he said. The credit card’s owner said he’d lost the card at the Red Barn on Saturday, Mealy said. The deputy also found a zip lock baggie in her Chevrolet Malibu which contained several “crystals”.
• Loring C. Chandler, 47, of Centralia, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail after officers detained him for an outstanding warrant about 12:30 a.m. today on the 3200 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia. A small blue tupperware container, containing suspected drugs, fell out his pants during the arrest, according to Centralia Police Department Sgt. Carl Buster, so Chandler was arrested also for possession of methamphetamine.
SECOND-DEGREE ASSAULT
• Wakiza L. Wittwer, 33, of Pe Ell, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail last night for second-degree assault. A deputy called to his Pe Ell-area home was told that Wittwer had choked and punched his housemate and knocked her head against a dresser, according to the sheriff’s office. Wittwer was also booked for assault of a child in the third-degree as he allegedly hit her 2-year-old boy, Cmdr. Steve Aust said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter