Sheriff’s Office: Performing above and beyond

February 3rd, 2017
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Deputy Jeff Godbey, center, flanked by nominees for Field Operations Bureau Employee of the Year.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – When Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza stood at the pulpit in preparation to recognize outstanding employees, he began with a moment of silence to honor law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty last year.

Fifteen officers nationwide met the same fate so far this year, a number that increased by two between the time Snaza prepared his remarks and yesterday afternoon when he gave them.

Sheriff Snaza got teary-eyed, and said so aloud.

He told the gathering how each night as he goes to bed, he checks to make sure his phone is working.

“And I think about you guys, and I hope that I don’t get that phone call,” he said, his voice breaking.

Members of the sheriff’s office met yesterday afternoon at the Bethel Church of the Assemblies of God in Napavine, for the annual event. They were joined by family members and some members of the community.

Snaza spoke to all his employees, telling them not to feel left out one bit if they weren’t called to the stage.

“Every one of you are role models, team players,” he said. “I look up to you each and every day.”

Guardian Awards
• Special Services Bureau – Detective Jamey McGinty
• Corrections Bureau – Capt. Chris Tawes

Employee of the Year Awards for 2016
• Services Bureau – Accountant Sandy Lupo
• Corrections Bureau – Support Technician II Jennifer Teitzel
• Corrections Bureau – Corrections Deputy Jeremy Engel
• Field Operations Bureau – Deputy Jeff Godbey

Top Performer Awards for 2016
• Deputy Skylar Eastman
• Corrections Deputy Kimberly Crook

Sheriff’s Award
• Sgt. Alan Stull

Sheriff Life Saving Medal
• Deputy Tyson Brown

Citizen Life Saving Award
• Matt Mohney
• Chad Smith
• Teresa Smith
• April Brathovd

Citizenship Award (United Way, Shop with a Cop)
• Debbie Campbell
• Linda Raschke
• Linda Lee
• Angela French
• Sue Muller

Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

February 3rd, 2017
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STOLEN PUP

• Centralia police were called to the 400 block of West Main Street about 10:25 p.m. yesterday where an individual reported that two people that are known to her stole her dog, according to the Centralia Police Department.

THEFT CENTRALIA

• Centralia police were called to the 2900 block of Mount Vista Road about 12:45 p.m. yesterday to take a report of a burglary to an apartment complex laundry room and storage closets in which a number items were taken, according to the Centralia Police Department.

UNLAWFUL INTERFERENCE

A 29-year-old Centralia man was arrested after allegedly taking a cell phone away from an individual who called 911 yesterday morning. Jake A. Reinitz was booked into the Lewis County Jail for interfering with reporting domestic violence in connection with an approximately 11:30 a.m. call yesterday associated with an address on the 600 block of West Maple Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.

AND MORE

• And, as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, harassment, no-contact order violation, misdemeanor assault, driving under the influence; responses for alarm, dispute, civil issue, suspicious circumstances … and more among 123 calls for local law enforcement and / or fire-emergency medical services in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. today.

Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

February 2nd, 2017
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Updated at 6:58 p.m.

ATTACKED ON RAILROAD AVENUE

• Centralia police were called at 8:50 p.m. yesterday to the 200 block of Railroad Avenue on a report of a bloodied male who had been beaten and robbed of some of his property. The victim was transported to the hospital for treatment and advised his assailant was a bald man and possibly two other males were involved, according to the Centralia Police Department. Later in the night, officers were called to a homeless shelter regarding a naked and disorderly person to be removed, according to police. The earlier robbery victim who was out of the hospital by then was also present at the shelter, identified the disorderly man as his attacker, police reported. William F. Adams, 40, of Marysville, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree assault, first-degree robbery and possession of methamphetamine, according to police.

THREATENED AT BELMONT AVENUE

• A 40-year-old Centralia man who allegedly displayed a knife and threatened to kill a person at the 100 block of Belmont Avenue in Centralia was arrested yesterday morning for felony harassment. Officers called just before 7 a.m. booked Patrick R. Lytle, 40, of Centralia, into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department. He was charged instead in Lewis County District Court with harassment, a gross misdemeanor.

HEALTHCARE UNRULINESS

• A 24-year-old Centralia woman was arrested following a call just before 2 p.m. yesterday for allegedly assaulting two members of security staff at a healthcare facility at the 900 block of South Scheuber Road in Centralia. Amanda B. Smith, 24, was booked into the Lewis County Jail for two counts of third-degree assault, according to the Centralia Police Department. However, prosecutors declined to file the felony charges and referred the case to municipal court.

• Centralia police were called to a healthcare facility at the 900 block of South Scheuber Road just before 6 a.m. yesterday where a 61-year-old allegedly assaulted security staff. Mahlon L. Wigginton, of Centralia, was arrested for third-degree assault and then released, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Chehalis police were called just after 6:30 p.m. yesterday after a customer jumped over the pharmacy counter at K-Mart and grabbed prescription cough syrup and put it in a bag. The subject fled the store, but dropped the stolen item on the floor, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

BURGLARY AND THEFT

• Centralia police were called just before 2 p.m. yesterday for a burglary to an apartment at the 300 block of East Pear Street.

• A deputy was called yesterday to the 100 block of Ridge Lane in Packwood after the front door to a residence was found forced open. Among the missing property is a propane fireplace and two flat screen televisions, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• Centralia police responded to an approximately 12:10 a.m. call today from a motel at the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue to take a report a wallet had been stolen.

SEARCH FOR DRUGS

• Deputies arrested a 25-year-old Rochester man for outstanding warrants and driving with a suspended license when they responded to an approximately 7 a.m. call yesterday about a strange vehicle in someone’s driveway area at the 2400 block of Seminary Hill Road in Centralia. Adam I. McGowan was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said passengers included a 20-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man and information about suspected drugs in the trunk is leading to a request for a search warrant to look for “additional controlled substances.”

• Drug detectives got a search warrant for a home in north Centralia yesterday and arrested two men for possession of methamphetamine. They went to the home of 45-year-old Donald E. Cheney Jr. on Noel Avenue, knocked, and multiple individuals exited the residence, according to court documents. When Cheney was searched, they found suspected meth on him and more on his bed, next to a loaded Ruger pistol, according to the documents. Cheney was booked into the Lewis County Jail and charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with possession of methamphetamine as well as second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Steven A. Dembrowicz, 37, was also arrested as residue on a bong and baggies in his bedroom field tested positive for meth, according to charging papers. Dembrowicz was charged today with  possession of methamphetamine. The case was investigated by the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.

CAR PROWL

• Centralia police were called just before 5 a.m. today to the 800 block of E Street when a resident heard a noise outside and subsequently discovered a gas cap was removed and fuel stolen from a vehicle.

• Centralia police were called yesterday afternoon to the 1000 block of K Street to take a report that a firearm had been stolen from a vehicle five years earlier.

• Chehalis police were called to the 1500 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue yesterday following the discovery someone had siphoned gasoline from a work van.

• Centralia police responded to an approximately 8:15 a.m. call yesterday to the 1200 block of North Pearl Street where someone had broke out the window a vehicle and stole items from inside. A computer and a backpack were stolen from a second vehicle in the area, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Chehalis police were called just before 9 a.m. yesterday to the 1300 block of Bishop Road after a vehicle pulled up, a male got out and smashed the window of a parked vehicle to steal a purse. Less than a half an hour later, an officer was called for a similar occurrence at the 2200 block of Jackson Highway, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Department spokesperson Linda Bailey said the suspect vehicle in multiple prowls at daycares in Chehalis in Centralia is a white passenger vehicle with tinted windows and possibly California plates

VANDALISM

• A 21-year-old Centralia resident who allegedly punched out the window of someone else’s vehicle at the 1100 block of South Pearl Street was arrested yesterday for third-degree malicious. Juan C. Andrews was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Chehalis police were called just before 7:30 a.m. today to a business at the 1500 block of Northwest State Avenue where someone had broken out a large showroom window. The loss is estimated at $2,000, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

AND MORE

• And, as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, drinking in public, protection order violation, misdemeanor assault, driving with suspended license; responses for alarm, dispute, civil issue, shoplifting,  suspicious circumstances, dog shot with a BB gun, male sitting at a bus stop in the same spot for over a week … and more among 129 calls for local law enforcement and / or fire-emergency medical services in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. today.

Pe Ell coach’s rape conviction is reversed

February 1st, 2017
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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – He’s already served his prison time, but Pe Ell resident Todd Phelps got good news in the form of the Washington Court of Appeals reversing his convictions for third-degree rape and second-degree sexual misconduct.

The jury trial stretched over nearly two weeks in the spring of 2012 and the former Pe Ell High School softball coach and log truck driver was given a sentence two days shy of six years.

The attorney for the 52-year-old painted a picture of a coach who became close to a 16-year-old team member because he was worried she was cutting on herself and might commit suicide. The prosecution told jurors of a man who gradually seduced a girl already troubled with low self esteem and depression.

Phelps lost an appeal in 2014, but filed a personal restraint petition. In its decision published last week, the appeals court said the prosecutor committed misconduct by introducing and arguing facts not in evidence about sexual grooming.

“… (T)his misconduct was prejudicial, flagrant, and ill intentioned and that there was no likelihood that this error could have been cured by a proper instruction,” the three-member panel wrote.

The panel held the error resulted in prejudice.

“You cannot get back the six years in prison, but he corrected what he found in error,” Seattle-based attorney Suzanne Lee Elliott said of her client.

Exactly how much time Phelps actually served isn’t clear, as he would have gotten early release with credit for “good time.”

Elliott  said the issues that led to this decision for her client have been an ongoing topic in the appeals court and the state Supreme Court and led to some high profile cases being overturned because of overreach on the part of prosecutors.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said his office plans to ask the appeals court to reconsider its decision.

“Let’s not forget, the appeals court originally upheld the conviction,” Meyer said yesterday. “And if we have to retry it, we will.”

Phelps was represented by Centralia defense attorney Don Blair in the 2012 case in Lewis County Superior Court. The state’s case was presented by Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Debra Eurich and Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead. Judge Nelson Hunt presided.

In its more than 30-page opinion, the appeals court notes that the state contended its argument about grooming was based on reasonable inferences from the record. The appeals court however held that expert testimony is required if the state intended to rely upon “grooming” to argue and prove its case.

While the issue of grooming was discussed during jury selection and at length during closing arguments, by the deputy prosecutor, there were only two instances during the trial when the term grooming was mentioned in witness testimony, Justice Jill Johanson wrote.

The opinion issued on Jan. 24 was authored by Johanson, with Justices Thomas R. Bjorgen and Linda Cj Lee concurring.

Prosecutor Meyer said yesterday if he doesn’t get the hoped for result in the request for reconsideration, he’ll have to make a decision about asking the state Supreme Court to look at the case.

“If necessary, we’ll retry it, we’ll work with the victim on retrial,” Meyer said.
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For background, read “News brief: Appeals judges reject each of Pe Ell man’s claims on rape conviction” from Wednesday June 18, 2014, here

News brief: Chehalis shooting case ends with prison

February 1st, 2017

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 36-year-old man convicted in a case in which a woman standing on a Chehalis home’s porch was shot at twice following an early morning argument was sentenced yesterday to 12 years plus eight months in prison.

Andrew C. Skyberg previously made an Alford plea to second-degree assault and a straight plea of guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm.

Lawyers on the two sides had an agreed recommendation he should get 152 months and a judge yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court went along with that.

It happened outside a home on the  600 block of Southwest William Avenue in Chehalis in the early morning hours of Oct. 7. Prosecutors said Skyberg pointed his handgun in the air and fired off two to three rounds then shot twice toward the 52-year-old victim.

Nobody was injured but one bullet lodged in the railing along the front porch.

The Chehalis man was ordered to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation, as chemical dependency was found to have played a role in the offense, according to court documents. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim for 10 years.
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For background, read “News brief: Suspect in Chehalis shooting incident pleads guilty” from Friday January 27, 2017, here

Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

February 1st, 2017
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Updated at 1:12 p.m.

HEALTHCARE MAYHEM

• A 33-year-old Chehalis resident was arrested last night after police were called to the 900 block of South Scheuber Road in Centralia because he allegedly threatened to kill nurses there. Michael A. Hilton also allegedly spit in the faces of a nurse and a police officer. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail for felony harassment and two counts of third-degree assault, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A 35-year-old Centralia man allegedly broke out the glass to a sliding door at a healthcare facility at the 900 block of South Scheuber Road in Centralia. Officers responding to the approximately 11:15 a.m. call arrested Joseph E. Leyva for second-degree malicious mischief and booked him in to the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

JAIL MAYHEM

• A deputy was called to the Lewis County Jail about 9:10 p.m. yesterday to investigate damage to a camera and phone system in a holding cell allegedly caused by an inmate. Lucas J. Davis, 31, of Centralia, was additionally booked for first-degree malicious mischief, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• Chehalis police were called yesterday to Green Hill School to investigate an incident from the day before in which a 16-year-old student-inmate was stomped on and stabbed in the head with a pencil, allegedly by a pair of fellow student-inmates. Cases for second-degree assault are being forwarded to prosecutors regarding the 19-year-olds, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

BREAK-IN CENTRALIA

• A deputy was called yesterday morning to a storage building at the 4800 block of Galvin Road where an unknown person had cut a padlock and removed an antique typewriter and an antique camping kit sometime during the previous week, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. There may be other property missing but the case is still under investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.

DRUGS

• A case involving a juvenile was referred to Lewis County juvenile prosecutors for a charge of possession of marijuana, in connection with an officer contact about 1:30 p.m. yesterday at the 800 block of Eshom Road in Centralia.

ON THE ROAD, OFF THE ROAD

• A semi-truck pulling a long trailer struck an overhead traffic light pole on South Pearl and Cherry streets just before 4 p.m. yesterday, blocking the intersection for some time and completely disabling the traffic lights for the intersection, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A 31-year-old Tacoma motorist was arrested after he lost control and ran his 1993 Ford Explorer into a ditch along the Cispus Road outside Randle yesterday, causing major damage to the vehicle. A deputy responding to approximately milepost 5 yesterday afternoon learned that Leviticus C. Gese was driving with a suspended license in the third degree and booked him into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

AND MORE

• And, as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, probation violation, misdemeanor assault; responses for alarm, dispute, civil issue, shoplifting, vehicle collision, suspicious circumstances … and more among 141 calls for local law enforcement and / or fire-emergency medical services in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. today.

News brief: Missing Cowlitz River fisherman still not located

February 1st, 2017

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office yesterday suspended the search for the 43-year-old man who was reported missing from the Blue Creek Boat Launch area along the Cowlitz River.

Friends came to meet up and fish with Prathana Nammavong on Saturday and found his vehicle, fishing poles and chair, but not him.

Attempts to locate the Des Moines resident were made during the weekend and Monday on the water and along the banks with no success.

Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said there are some areas of the river they’d like to go back to, but are evaluating how they can do that safely.

The boat launch is south of Ethel, off Spencer Road.
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For background, read “News brief: Des Moines man missing from Cowlitz River fishing area” from Monday January 30, 2017, here