DEPUTY WAKES UP MAN IN BURNING HOUSE
• A Bucoda home was destroyed by fire yesterday morning and a resident sleeping in a virtually sound proof room escaped injury when an early-arriving deputy woke him up. The Bucoda Fire Department was joined by three other departments to answer the approximately 9 a.m. call at the 200 block of Market Street, according to Fire Chief Jim Fowler. The resident had sound proofed a bedroom in the backside of the house to keep the noise of trains out and a Thurston County Sheriff’s deputy broke a window to wake him up, Fowler said. The front half of the single-story wood home was burning, Fowler said. The house was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived, Fowler said. The cause is under investigation.
ASSAULT
• A man reportedly picking fights with other patrons at a downtown Centralia drinking establishment was arrested after he allegedly rammed an arriving police officer with his shoulder yesterday evening in Centralia. Jimmy H. Mayfield, 56, was arrested for third-degree assault after his contact with an officer at the 100 block of North Tower Avenue, according to the Centralia Police Department. The Centralia resident was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.
• A Chehalis man was given a citation yesterday for “prohibited acts by dogs” after a woman walking along the 2300 block of Jackson Highway was bitten in the hip by a Boxer dog and then an arriving deputy was charged by the Boxer and a Mini Pinscher, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy then witnessed the canines run after another woman walking by, the sheriff’s office reported.
THEFT
• A pistol was among more than $3,000 of valuables stolen in a burglary at a home on the 700 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Napavine sometime between Nov. 7 and Monday, according to Lewis County Sheriff’s office. Taken was a .357 Colt Python with custom grips, an air conditioning unit, an area light and binoculars, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday.
• A 1997 Honda Accord, with its keys in the ignition, went missing from the 2500 block of North Pearl Street sometime between Friday and Monday, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported yesterday. It has a license plate reading 521 UBX and belongs to a Marysville woman, according to the sheriff’s office.
• Police are investigating the theft of prescription methadone from a room at Providence Centralia Hospital yesterday morning. An officer called to the facility on the 900 block of South Schueber Road was told the victim was visiting his wife and left the medication in her room while the couple left briefly. When he returned, the methadone was gone, according to police.
• Centralia police took a report of a a prowl on the 900 block of North Tower Avenue on Monday night. Two propane tanks were reported taken.
VANDALISM
• Chehalis police were called about 3:40 p.m. yesterday to Southwest Cascade Avenue where they were told someone had shot out the window on a canopy of a pickup truck. Further details were not readily available.
• A deputy was called yesterday to the 1800 block of little Hanaford Road in Centralia where a man reported someone shot out two windows of his house with what appeared to have been a BB gun.
DUI MISHAPS
• Chehalis police were called about 1:40 a.m. yesterday by a motorist and told a vehicle was stopped in the intersection of National and Chamber of Commerce Way and the driver was “passed out.” The driver was woken up and drove away, but was found nearby where his vehicle had driven off the road into the brush along the 1600 block of National Avenue, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Brent A. Laughlin, 34, of Centralia, was arrested and booked for driving under the influence, according to Chehalis police.
• A 63-year-old Doty resident was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital yesterday with shoulder and neck pain after a single-vehicle wreck on state Route 6 just east of Pe Ell. A trooper called just after 10 a.m. reported John L. Case had been traveling west when his pickup truck left the road to the right, struck an embankment and came to rest in a ditch, according to the Washington State Patrol. The Ford Ranger pickup was totaled, according to the state patrol. Case was to be cited for driving under the influence, according to the investigating trooper.
PEDESTRIAN STRUCK BY VEHICLE
• Police were called about 8:15 p.m. on Monday after a pedestrian was hit at the southbound onramp to Interstate 5 at Harrison Avenue in Centralia. The individual walked away, telling the driver he was not hurt, according to the Centralia Police Department. Officers contacted him a few blocks away and he declined aid, police reported. Police concluded he had stepped into the path of the vehicle and it struck his leg.
DRUGS
• Two people were arrested Monday night for possession of drugs from the 1100 block of Scammon Creek Road in Centralia. Just after 9 p.m., officers contacted Tracy A. McGee, 44, about a felony warrant and when she was booked into the jail, suspected methamphetamine was discovered hidden in her bra, according to the Centralia Police Department. A 16-year-old boy was arrested for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia and taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, according to police. It’s not clear if they were at the same address.
• Three Rochester residents were among those arrested yesterday when drug detectives served search warrants at store fronts operating as marijuana dispensaries in Grand Mound and four other locations in Thurston County. Rochelle L. Deloe, 36, Roberta E. Johnson, 50, and Donald E. Smith, 31, were arrested for unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, according to the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force. According to a news release, law enforcement officers from four agencies, working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, served warrants at “illegal dispensaries” after a five-month local investigation that included numerous purchases of marijuana from the various places. They included “Triple D’s” on the 21500 block of Old Highway 99 in Grand Mound. Spokesperson Lt. Greg Elwin said. Elwin today said he didn’t know how much marijuana was seized at Triple D’s, because although law enforcement officers arrived there around 11 a.m., they hadn’t finished “processing” the store front by the time he went home yesterday. Elwin said that while the state’s medical marijuana law allows patients to grow their own or have a caregiver grow it for them, the law “clearly prohibits the sale of marijuana by anybody, to anybody.” Read about the other locations searched in today’s Olympian, here. Read about federal involvement in coordinated raids in Thurston, Pierce and King counties, here
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CORRECTION: The name of one of the three individuals arrested in Grand Mound has been updated to reflect her correct first name. (An “a” was inadvertently left off the end of Roberta E. Johnson’s name)
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter