Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 3:41 p.m.

FRIENDLY THIEF: HERE KITTY, KITTY

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a burglary to a home for sale north of Winlock in which the intruder is believed to hung around and watched television as well as feeding the victim’s cat but made off with an antique tea set, a brown curtain and a table cloth. The owner, a 56-year-old Olympia man, reported on Friday that the break-in at the 100 block of Quary Lane happened sometime between Sept. 19 and last Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s office. It appeared entry was made though a bathroom window, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. The loss is estimated at $260, according to Brown.

UNFRIENDLY THEFT

• A 21-year-old Centralia man was arrested after a wheelchair was stolen from a front porch on the 1200 block of Alder Street. Centralia police took the report yesterday. Derrek J. Larson was subsequently arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for allegedly selling the wheelchair and also for possession of methamphetamine, according to the Centralia Police Department.

THE MUSIC DIED

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports this morning that someone stole about $2,000 worth of guitars, amplifiers, speakers and other musical equipment in a residential burglary at the 100 block of Schoonover Road outside Mossyrock on Friday night. The victims are two men in their early 20s, and deputies have in a mind a person of interest, according to the sheriff’s office.

BOOZE BURGLARY

• Police were called about noon on Saturday to the 500 block of North Market Boulevard in Chehalis where money and half gallon bottles of liquor were missing from beneath the bar belonging to the American Legion group. The case is under investigation, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

GARAGE BREAK-IN

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports this morning they are referring for evaluation of charges a case in which a 23-year-old homeless man allegedly stole numerous items from a garage on the 100 block of Sheridan Street in Centralia between Sept. 15 and last Wednesday. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said deputies believe he took the skill saw, engine stand, paintball gun and tools to his sister’s house and the property was turned over to Centralia police. Still missing is a miter saw, according to Brown.

OTHER THEFT

• Centralia police were called to the 200 block of North Buckner Street on Friday afternoon about an electronic tablet missing after a friend stayed at the house.

• Chehalis police were called about 9:30 a.m. on Friday to the 300 block of South Market Boulevard where a gas can was stolen from a maintenance shed.

• Morton police were called about 6:20 p.m. on Saturday to the 500 block of Main Avenue where someone broke into a shed and stole a child’s car seat.

VEHICLE THEFT

• A green 1995 Honda Accord left about 6 o’clock on Saturday morning at the park and ride lot on the 800 block of West Main Street in Chehalis was reported missing about 2 p.m. the same day. It has a license plate of ADN 4763, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• A blue and white 199 Suzuki ATV was stolen sometime on Saturday or Sunday from an open shed on property on the 100 block of Rogers Road west of Toledo, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The value of the quad is $700, according to the sheriff’s office.

CAR PROWL

• A car was found with its door and trunk open at the Lewis County Mall about 11 a.m. Sunday. Nothing was missing, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Centralia police were called just after 1 p.m. on Saturday to the 600 block of South Cedar Street regarding a vehicle prowl in which a briefcase and flashlight were stolen.

• Someone stole a backpack from a vehicle parked at the 100 block of High Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police around 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

DOG WINS HIDE AND SEEK

• Centralia police report a 22-year-old man with an outstanding warrant was tracked down by a police dog and found hiding in a home on Saturday afternoon. The approximately 4:10 p.m. incident in connection with a location at Mellen and Marsh streets ended with Raymond C. Rhodes booked into the Lewis County Jail for burglary and his warrant, according to the Centralia Police Department.

VANDALISM

• Tires were slashed, the vehicle was scratched with something sharp and someone painted graffiti on an outside wall at the 200 block of Jastad Drive in Morton, according to a report made to police on Saturday.

PHONE THREAT

• Chehalis police were called on Saturday by an individual on North National Avenue who said they received a phone call asking them for money to prevent their power from getting shut off because their electric bill was overdue. It appeared to be a scam, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

SCAREY THREAT

• Deputies are looking for a 31-year-old Randle man who reportedly texted his ex-girlfriend on Friday night and told her to look out her front window where he was going to kill himself. He also told her not to let his children watch, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies dispatched to the area on the 9500 block of U.S. Highway 12 just before 10 p.m. did not find him and are still looking, according to the sheriff’s office. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office is referring the case to prosecutors for a violation of a protection order, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

SMOKE ALARM, CHECK, FIRE EXTINGUISHER, CHECK

• An Adna couple was awakened by their fire alarm about 1:45 a.m. today, when a Cadet-type wall heater caught fire and filled an upstairs room with smoke. “Dad put it out with a fire extinguisher and she got everyone out,” Lewis County Fire District 6 Firefighter-Paramedic Matt McCoy said. Crews called to the home on the 100 block of Frogner Road found the parents and the two children were fine; firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to confirm all the fire was out, McCoy said. The damage was contained to the wall unit, he said.

WRECK

• Chehalis police were called to the 1900 block of Snively Avenue about 5:15 p.m. on Saturday to take a report a vehicle had struck a house. There was damage to an exterior brick facade and into the drywall, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Evidence suggested someone had been driving recklessly, police said. Nobody was injured.

• A motorcyclist ended up with a broken leg after he lost control at the 1200 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia and struck a large rock and then the side of a house yesterday evening. Police called about 6:15 p.m. report the man was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, obstructing, trespassing, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, making a false statement, misdemeanor assault, driving under the influence, driving with suspended license; responses for alarms, dispute, suspicious circumstances, collisions on city streets, wrecks on county roads; complaint of someone shooting arrows into some else’s yard, loud neighbor music, barking neighbor dog  … and more.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former Lewis County sheriff’s deputy has filed a claim against the county alleging wrongful termination, discrimination, fraud, perjury, abuse of power and corruption among other issues including negligence and malpractice by his lawyer.

Douglas D. Lackey was fired in July 2007.

It’s not clear how much he is asking for monetarily, because that and almost all the other spaces in the standard tort claim form he submitted were left blank. Instead, he attached a five-page memo that mentions whistle-blower violations, mental and economic duress and states that he has lost track of the amount of damages the sheriff’s office has caused him.

“What amazes me is how successful they’ve been with lying and manipulating the courts,” Lackey writes. “The sheriff’s office, in my opinion, stole $360,000 from the taxpayers to defend this matter, predicated from the start on deceit.”

Lackey, 46 years old with a Vancouver, Wash. address, states in his memo he possesses documents to prove his case, records he says his attorney never produced to refute claims by the sheriff’s office administration.

He contends the administration lied repeatedly during his unemployment appeal hearing, during mediation and during arbitration.

Lewis County RIsk Manager Paulette Young said she has 60 days to either accept, deny or ignore the claim.

It was filed Sept. 15 and has been forwarded to Washington Counties Risk Pool for review, Young said earlier this week.

In his memo, Lackey describes his diagnosis of post traumatic stress syndrome after he was involved in an officer-involved shooting in March 2003 and states the diagnosis was ignored his superiors.

Following a high speed chase from Salkum to Onalaska, when the driver backed out of a ditch toward Lackey in an attempt to hit him, Lackey fired at him, striking him once in the upper left arm. The man survived.

Lackey’s memo describes a former best friend and supervisor from another law enforcement agency as harassing him endlessly after the incident and repeatedly characterizing the two as both “Natural Born Killers” since they were among the few in law enforcement to ever shoot someone.

He said he told the man it was causing him further stress and difficulty in dealing with the effects of his shooting.

Lackey states he reported the unwanted harassment to his supervisor because he didn’t know what else to do and didn’t want to be branded a rat, but was only advised to talk with a fellow deputy who’d also shot someone on the job.

The other deputy said the suggestion was ludicrous and told him he should seek counseling, Lackey wrote.

Lackey’s memo tells of repetitive nightmares, migraines, inability to sleep, starting to drink heavily, and how his continued complaints about the harassment were ignored and undocumented by his superiors.

“My agency repeatedly ignored my cry for help in dealing with him,” Lackey wrote.

The former deputy wrote about falling behind in his caseload, and of feeling haunted by a case involving torture and murder of two little boys, which he was pulled off of.

A document included with Lackey’s memo indicates the grounds for his termination were untruthfulness, though it doesn’t offer any detail.

Lackey appealed his firing to the Lewis County Civil Service Commission, a case that ended with an undisclosed agreement between the two sides in 2008.

In the spring of 2008, detectives with the Shelton Police Department reviewed Lackey’s files at the sheriff’s office before he was hired at a new job with them. But then after then-Prosecutor Michael Golden forwarded a Brady letter to the Mason County Prosecutor’s Office, Lackey was terminated from the new job.

The following year he filed a lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court alleging the sheriff’s office breached its 2008 agreement with him.

Lackey indicates he believed the sheriff’s office agreed to delete any references of his untruthfulness from his personnel records, but in 2011, an arbitrator sided with the sheriff’s office, stating they only agreed to leave it out of his termination letter.

Lackey’s complaints about his private attorney aren’t anything the county is responsible for, according to Young. And the rest, Young suspects won’t see any action from her office.

The 60-day deadline will likely pass without the county neither accepting or denying Lackey’s claim, she said.

“We believe he’s already argued the claim in binding arbitration,” Young said.

Updated at 5:26 p.m.

ELDERLY MAN SCAMMED

• Centralia police were called to Rite Aid yesterday morning where an 84-year-old man had said he was sending money to someone so he could collect his winnings in the Oregon lottery. Officer Patty Finch said the Centralia resident was out $3,000. The case is under investigation, according to the Centralia Police Department.

MAD AT POLICE

• A 54-year-old Rochester man was arrested during the lunch hour yesterday after he was detained for reportedly throwing fruit and vegetables at the windows of Centralia City Hall on West Maple Street. Officer Patty Finch said she understood he had a box of tomatoes, eggs and flowers. Roy A. Dever was booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree malicious mischief, according to police. Finch said he didn’t ‘t give an explanation, but said he hated police because they are killers and rapists.

THEFT

• Centralia police took a report of a burglary at the 1300 block of Crescent Street yesterday in which a laptop computer and a tablet were taken. The case is under investigation, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A tablet was reported stolen yesterday from the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia.

DRUGS

• A 24-year-old Centralia resident was arrested for a warrant and possession of heroin after contact with an officer just after 2 o’clock this morning at Tower Avenue and Main Street in Centralia. Ryan L. Knutz was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

LOST AND FOUND

• If the person who lost a decent amount of cash in Chehalis can tell police the specific amount and where they lost it, they can get it back. A woman found the money on the ground in the street and brought it to the Chehalis Police Department yesterday.

CLOSE CALL

• Firefighters were called about 7:30 p.m. yesterday to an apartment complex on the 300 block of Southwest Third Street in Chehalis where folks could smell something burning in a unit where nobody answered the door. They forced the door open and found what had been a pot of corn on the cob boiling on the stove, according to Chehalis Fire Department. Nobody was home and it was very nearly turned to popcorn, Capt. Ted McCarty said. Firefighters removed the scorched pot from the stove and opened the windows, McCarty said.

TRUCK VERSUS OVERHEAD WIRES

• Northwest Chehalis Avenue was shut down for about an hour yesterday afternoon when a truck snagged a wire, snapping off the top of a utility pole. Wires were pulled down and hanging dangerously low to the street, according to the Chehalis Fire Department. Nobody was hurt.

VEHICLE VERSUS PEDESTRIAN

• A pedestrian in his 40s suffered minor injuries when he was struck by a van at Harrison and First Avenue in Centralia yesterday afternoon. It was a fairly low-speed incident, but the patient was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to Riverside Fire Authority.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, trespassing, misdemeanor assault, driving under the influence, driving with suspended license; responses for alarms, misdemeanor  theft, suspicious circumstances, collision on city street, little dog with green coat on running through the streets … and more.