Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Originally charged with trying to run down a court security officer, a 22-year-old Adna man instead was convicted today of three misdemeanors and sentenced to time served.

Phillip A. Pinotti drew gunfire when he fled an attempted arrest on a misdemeanor warrant in Centralia last month, on foot and then in his car. The bullet shattered his driver’s window and glass fragments cut his face, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Last week, prosecutors dismissed a charge of first-degree assault and replaced it with obstructing, a gross misdemeanor, saying they concluded Pinotti had no intent to injure the officer.

Centralia Court Security Officer Steve Howard said after Pinotti started his engine, the car jerked forward, and he thought he was going to be hit. Pinotti said he put it in reverse and hit the gas as hard as he could.

No other witnesses spoke of the car moving forward.

Howard wasn’t injured either. His use of deadly force was found to be lawful.

Today, Pinotti was in Lewis County Superior Court to plead guilty to obstructing, third-degree escape and tampering with evidence.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer told the judge the state’s position is the evidence in the case did not reveal an assault.

He recommended a sentence of 364 days, with all but six days suspended, giving Pinotti credit for time served in the jail.

“Frankly Mr. Pinotti is lucky,” Meyer said. “He’s lucky he’s even sitting here. He’s lucky he’s not dead.”

Defense attorney Don Blair said he agreed with the sentence.

“I agree, and Phillip agrees, what he did back on the 16th was stupid,” Blair said.

Blair said clearly it was a bad decision on his client’s part, but one he will have learned from.

Judge Nelson Hunt read aloud Pinotti’s written confession, about his flight from Centralia Municipal Court and Officer Howard.

“I went out of the courtroom and ran to my car and did not stop when an officer told me to stop,” Hunt read. “I had my friends park my mother’s car in the garage.”

The judge asked Pinotti if those were his words, and numerous other questions. Pinotti addressed the judge as sir with each reply.

Pinotti’s only previous conviction was a misdemeanor.

When the hearing was over, Pinotti was escorted back to the jail, where he is being held on charges filed last week for alleged delivery of heroin while he was out on bail, and for possessing a large amount of heroin last summer.

His arraignment on those charges is scheduled for tomorrow.
•••

For background, read “Charge of assault that prompted officer to shoot, dropped for Adna resident” from Thursday January 8, 2015, here

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2015 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Top story of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.