Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 22-year-old Adna resident whose high profile escape from an attempted misdemeanor arrest at Centralia Municipal Court in December was followed by a drug arrest pleaded guilty today to two felonies.

Phillip A. Pinotti was out on bail from his escape incident when Centralia police arrested him two and a half weeks ago for twice having heroin and once selling it.

Phillip Pinotti

One case was from last August that was brought to the attention of prosecutors after the escape. The other involved newer incidents.

Lewis County prosecutors in a plea deal they said got both sides something they wanted, reduced the charge from August and dropped one of two counts in the more recent case.

“It seems like the quantity alone is not enough for possession with intent (to deliver),” Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge this morning.

Meagher was referring to mid-August when police had him and Zachary J. Maurer under surveillance as they went to Longview to allegedly purchase heroin and subsequently impounded their vehicle finding drugs.

Pinotti’s responses were simply “Guilty, your honor,” when queried by the judge on each count.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt said he found Pinotti guilty as charged, of possession of heroin in August and of delivery of heroin on Dec. 20.

Pinotti, whose lives with his parents in Adna, drew gunfire from a court security officer on Dec. 16 when he ran away as he was being taken into custody and jumped in his car.

He was there for arraignment on a charge of driving under the influence, and the judge saw he was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant for failing to appear in Chehalis Municipal Court, in connection with a third-degree theft.

Two weeks ago, Pinotti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors for the incidents of that day; obstructing, third-degree escape and tampering with evidence. He was given a sentence of 364 days, with all but six days suspended, getting credit for time already served.

Court Security Officer Steve Howard said he fired one shot because Pinotti tried to hit him with his car, but the Lewis County prosecutor concluded Pinotti wasn’t trying to run him run down.

Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer cleared Howard of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting, but Centralia Police Department Chief Bob Berg’s decision if Howard’s actions were in line with department policies is still pending.

Defense attorney Don Blair told the judge today he wanted to set the sentencing hearing for later, because his client has a misdemeanor sentencing coming up, and if he gets sent to prison, he would miss that.

Pinotti’s sentencing for the drug cases is scheduled for Feb. 11. He faces a standard sentencing range of between 12 and 20 months, according to Meagher.

Before the events of Dec. 16, Pinotti had one misdemeanor on his record, from 2009.
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For background, read:

• “Summertime heroin case proceeds for two defendants” from Tuesday January 20, 2015, here

• “Sentence: Six days in jail for escape that led to gunfire in Centralia” from Wednesday January 14, 2015, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A fired Lewis County Jail guard was given a 90-day jail sentence today following a plea deal in which local prosecutors agreed not to file any charges of assault that could have occurred during his time as a corrections officer.

Trevor S. Smith was terminated last summer for mistreatment of two inmates, conduct his superiors wrote “shocks the conscience and could be viewed as violating basic civil rights possessed by all human beings regardless of status.”

Smith was arrested about two weeks later at his home in Chehalis for something unrelated however, for allegedly snooping into secure jail computer records. Computer trespass is a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Smith was hired at the sheriff’s office in 2004 and promoted to jail sergeant in 2011. The inmate issues were investigated internally.

His June 27, 2014 termination letter and related documents show Smith was disciplined for directing that an inmate be kept in a restraint chair for approximately twelve hours without food, water or restroom breaks.

Also, after Smith directed the discharge of pepper spray into the closed cell of an inmate with mental health issues, the inmate was not offered a wet towel, a shower or any decontamination for more than five hours; the cell had no running water, according to the sheriff’s office.

Mark McClain is a former Lewis County deputy prosecutor who was elected in November as Pacific County prosecutor, and returned today for Smith’s hearing.

As part of the deal, prosecutors dropped two of the five counts of computer trespass, McClain said.

McClain said the sheriff was involved in the resolution of the case, and went along with it, acknowledging “the good things Mr. Smith did for the sheriff’s office.”

McClain and Defense attorney Shane O’Rourke said the state agreed not to pursue any collateral investigations as part of the plea agreement.

McClain asked the judge to lock Smith up for 90 days.

O’Rourke recommended his client be allowed to serve his time on electronic home monitoring.

O’Rourke said Smith qualified for several reasons. He’s working, for UPS; he’s going to school, getting an online MBA; and has partial custody of his children.

O’Rourke said his client doesn’t believe there was excessive force even in the civil context or the context of his profession.

As to the reason prosecutors would agree to not pursue criminal charges:

“If I was going to speculate, it would be because it doesn’t amount to criminal assault,” O’Rourke said.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt ordered Smith to begin 90 days on home monitoring by Feb. 17.  He was given credit for one day, for the roughly 28 hours he spent in jail when he was arrested, according to his lawyer.

Smith declined a request by a reporter for comment after the hearing.
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For background, read:

• “Lewis County Jail sergeant let go for mistreating inmates, then arrested for computer snooping at work ” from Wednesday July 16, 2014, here

• “Sheriff’s Office: Fired corrections officer allowed inmates to suffer” from Friday July 18, 2014, here

Erin L. VanBrocklin doing a “super hero” pose out in the woods in an undated photo.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Erin L. VanBrocklin grew up in Bellingham.

“He’s always worked, he’s always been in the logging industry,” his younger sister said.

He was in his late 20s, or maybe early 30s, when he moved away from his family and down to Centralia to start a new life for himself, she said.

He was locked up for about six years, after he robbed or tried to rob a man in Rochester, until his release two years ago in February, Tori Banek said.

“He had an addiction, but he got cleaned up in prison,” Banek said. “And we learned so much about him in the week before his funeral.”

VanBrocklin, 41, was killed in a logging accident outside Oakville earlier this month. His funeral was held in Chehalis last Saturday.

Banek, a middle school teacher who lives in northeast Oregon, said she came to learn that her brother was very close to the three crew members who tried to save his life.

“These men lived with Erin,” she said. “They called him dad, and Erin called these three men his kids, because Erin mentored them.”

One of them told her they met in prison, when VanBrocklin gave him a cup of coffee – something unexpected from fellow inmates – and told him, that if he wanted to change his life, he would give him a place to live and a job, she said.

“Erin made him want to change, something his parents couldn’t do for him,” Banek said.

Banek so cherishes a text message sent to her by the co-worker nicknamed Spider, that spoke of how inspiring her brother was, that a longtime drug dealer who thought he would return to that life, decided not to.

VanBrocklin was the second in a line of six children, a large family that is so grateful to the logging company owners who were willing to give him a second chance.

His family has now recently gotten to know how loved he was by his crew, his pastor and many others in the Centralia area, his sister said.

“That gave us so much peace,” she said. “Because his life wasn’t always on the straight and narrow.”

VanBrocklin was working with a B and M Logging crew the morning of January 10. He was bucking a log. Others were rigging up a yarder, according to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office

A log that broke loose and rolled down the hill crushed him.

His fellow workers had to cut him out, and they placed him a stretcher and drove six miles to where they met an ambulance. Medics tried to save him but he was pronounced dead.

“Erin’s crew was one of the top crews in the company,” Banek said. “They were all the underdogs, and these three men were with him.”

Another funeral will be held next month in Bellingham, on his birthday which is Feb. 14.

There were seven work-related logging deaths in Washington state last year.

Four of them occurred in Lewis County.
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For background, read “Centralia resident dies in logging accident in Grays Harbor County” from Tuesday January 13, 2015, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – He may have used a bicycle for a getaway vehicle but the man arrested yesterday may have quite a bit of experience holding up banks.

Prosecutors say it appears Larry G. Bailey has three, maybe four, federal convictions for bank robbery, going all the way back to 1988 in Washington and Kansas.

Bailey, 52, is accused of being the man who walked into Chase Bank in Chehalis yesterday, implied to the manager he had a gun as he reached into his coat pocket and got into the bank’s vault where he was handed $36,000 to $40,000 cash.

Bailey was apprehended about 45 minutes later less than a mile from the bank, leaving his BMX-style bicycle and scaling one fence and nearly a second one ending up on the shoulder of Interstate 5 at the West Street overpass.

Police say Bailey just arrived in the area few months ago, and shows an address on the 1500 block of Bishop Road.

His federal probation officer informed prosecutors they would be placing a detainer on him, as he is in violation of his probation, according to court documents.

He was charged in Lewis County Superior Court today with first-degree robbery and possession of methamphetamine.

Prosecutors planned to ask a judge to hold Bailey on $1 million bail, given no apparent ties to the community and his history.

But he refused to be brought up from the jail.

A corrections officer told the judge this afternoon that Bailey was suicidal and not agreeing to talk to anyone.

Judge Nelson Hunt said he didn’t like to do it, but Bailey would have to be forced to come to the court room tomorrow afternoon.

“Tomorrow, if he won’t come up, we’ll need to have him brought up in the chair,” Hunt said.

The chair, according to both lawyers in the courtroom, is something they haven’t themselves seen used in Lewis County, but is something a defendant can be restrained in and moved in.

According to charging documents, Bailey made no secret of his past.

After his arrest, he was taken to see a doctor for injuries prior to being booked.

Firefighters said he hurt his forehead when he crashed his bicycle. Charging documents mention he ran through barbed wire while trying to evade authorities.

While being treated, Bailey told officers this was his fourth strike, although one of them was before the new law took effect, but he knew he would be going away forever, charging documents state.

He talked about how he had done time in prison, and how this was the first time he’d gotten a teller to take him inside the vault, the documents state.

“Bailey spoke about methamphetamine and how it was the devil,” the documents state.
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Meanwhile, for background, read “Thirty-six thousand dollars retrieved from accused bicycle bandit after robbery” from Tuesday January 27, 2015 at 10:40 p.m., here