Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 6:41 p.m.

BARK PLANT FIRE EXTINGUISHED

• Firefighters were called about 12:30 p.m. yesterday when fire broke out at a bark dust mill at the end of Central Boulevard in Centralia. Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Tim Adolphsen said it was inside the auger system of the Willamette Valley Company’s structure and was fairly mild in terms of how long crews were on scene extinguishing it. “It should be minimal damage,” Adolphsen said.

ONALASKA HOME BURGLARY

• Someone broke into a home on the 1800 block of Middle Fork Road in Onalaska and stole a 55-television, jewelry and other valuables totaling about $4,100 sometime between Friday and yesterday while the residents were away, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

CHEHALIS GARAGE BURGLARY

• A 53-year-old Chehalis man called police about 11 a.m. yesterday to report someone got into his garage in the early morning hours and stole a new $1,000 Mathews compound bow and an $800 set of four Toyo tires. It happened at the 1800 block of Snively Avenue, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

MORTON BUSINESS BURGLARY

• Morton police say they are investigating a break-in to a business on the 100 block of Westlake Avenue reported last Thursday in which someone during the previous two days stole a digital camera from the lost and found and about $68 in cash, which was mostly coins.

WRONG LICENSE PLATES

• A driver of unknown age and unknown hometown was arrested for third-degree possession of stolen property when during a traffic stop a deputy discovered the license plates on his vehicle were stolen, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It happened about 6 p.m. on Friday at the 700 block of Leonard Road and when Joseph A. Vezirian was pulled over, he told the deputy he knew they didn’t belong on the vehicle but someone named Jen had given them to him, according to the sheriff’s office. The plates belonged to an Onalaska woman; Vezirian was cited and then released, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

DOMESTIC DISPUTE WINLOCK

• A 27-year-old Winlock man was arrested on Saturday after his wife’s boyfriend reported he had held her against her will at her home. Police contacted the couple separately who said earlier in the day he had put his hands on her shoulders and told her she couldn’t leave until they talked, according to charging documents. Robert M. Sutton told the officer they are going through a divorce, had a little argument and he was frustrated. Sutton was booked into the Lewis County Jail and charged today with unlawful imprisonment and fourth-degree assault. Sutton, who has an honorable service record and last worked as a contractor in Afghanistan, is collecting unemployment benefits and attending college, defense attorney Bob Schroeter told a judge this afternoon. The judge agreed he could be released on a $5,000 signature bond.

DOMESTIC DISPUTE CHEHALIS

• A 35-year-old Chehalis man was arrested and jailed after his wife said he arrived at her house on Friday afternoon, yelled at her and threatened to kill her. A deputy called to the 100 block of Johnson Place about 2:45 p.m. learned there was a court order prohibiting Bert A. Holmes from going there and he was located several hours later and arrested for residential burglary, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.  Holmes was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with that, as well as with felony harassment and violation of a no-contact order. Because the construction worker has a misdemeanor assault from earlier this month pending in district court involving the same victim, prosecutors asked he remain held on $25,000 bail. Judge James Lawler set bail at $100,000.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CENTRALIA

• The man arrested over the weekend after allegedly partially entering a Centralia home through a window and assaulting a female inside was ordered held today on $500,000 bail. Juan E. Mejia, 32, of Centralia, was dating the woman briefly he’d known for several years; she ended the relationship and he didn’t want the relationship to end, according to charging documents. The documents say after he kept calling, texting and showing up to see her, she got a temporary protection order a week ago. The documents allege that on Friday night, she awoke to knocking on her bedroom window on George Anthony Lane, and when she got up, Mejia slid the window open. She screamed for her son to get her father and struck Mejia and he struck her back, splitting open her lip, according to charging documents. “He said he loved her, that he would kill her, and that he loved her,” charging documents state. He fled when her father arrived with a pool cue and he was arrested the following day, according to authorities. Mejia has been restrained by 13 prior no-contact orders and has five prior domestic violence felonies, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke told a judge when she asked for the high bail. Mejia is charged with first-degree burglary and violation of a court order.

YOGI BEAR ON THE LOOSE?

• Morton police were called after last weekend to Gust Backstrom Park by campers who said after they went to bed, someone got into their cooler and stole $50 worth of unspecified contents. And yesterday morning, another individual reported while they were away from the park, their three coolers full of food and beverages were taken.

PARACHUTER HURT IN TOLEDO

• Lewis County Fire District 2 Chief Grant Wiltbank said Toledo area firefighters were called just after 4:30 p.m. yesterday when a parachuter collided with a tree as she landed about a half mile west of the airport. The woman in her 20s came to rest in a sitting position about eight inches off the  ground, suspended by her parachute which was tangled in the tree, Wiltbank said. She wasn’t knocked unconscious, but suffered injuries that were serious but not life threatening, he said. She was flown by AirLift Northwest to a regional trauma center, according to the chief.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrest for warrants, driving with suspended license; responses for alarms, disputes, misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor theft, suspicious circumstances, report about scam phone call, rear end collisions on city streets, rollover accident on county road, dogs left inside parked vehicles … and more.

UNRULY WITH POP CAN

• A 38-year-old Centralia man was arrested yesterday evening after allegedly throwing a full can of soda into traffic on Harrison Avenue near View Street and refusing to cooperate with police regarding the infraction. Willard Scott was cited and then released about 7:30 p.m., according to the Centralia Police Department.

WANTED MAN FOUND

• A 32-year-old man wanted for allegedly entering a Centralia home through a window and assaulting a female inside late Friday night was located yesterday and booked into the Lewis County Jail. Juan E. Mejia was arrested for  first-degree burglary, according to the Centralia Police Department.

FROM THE COURTHOUSE

• A judge disregarded a prosecutor’s recommendation an 18-year-old Chehalis resident should get 24 months in prison for stealing thousands of dollars from relatives and sent him away for five years. Dillan G. Gleason was arrested on April 10 after a burglary at his grandparents home 100 block of Alderwood Drive where he also reportedly lived. He pleaded guilty pursuant to an agreement and when he was sentenced in Lewis County Superior Court, the judge heard from his grandmother she believed there was close to $300,000 cash from her lottery winnings in a safe that went missing. Another relative who said Gleason stole thousands of dollars worth of alcohol told the judge he could not believe it when Gleason was the one arrested, but concluded since, that it was only the first time he’d gotten caught. Defense attorney Chris Baum conceded his client made grave errors in judgement and there were large amounts of money involved over the time period, but noted Gleason had not been in trouble before and asked he be sentenced as a first-time offender to zero to 90 days in jail. Baum said Gleason has a drinking problem. “He didn’t drink it all up, but he drank and he gambled some of it away,” Baum said. “We talked and he doesn’t remember; he’s a young guy who needs help.” Baum said his client had already signed back over $57,000 from a trust. Judge Richard Brosey on Friday responded by saying it was not a typical burglary and theft, it was a major economic crime. Because Gleason had pleaded guilty to the aggravating factor of a violation of trust, Brosey could have given him 10 years, but he gave him five.

• A pre-trial hearing for a 31-year-old man accused of continuing to head up a Lewis County-based drug trafficking organization primarily of Oxycodone from behind prison walls ended with the prosecutor dropping one of the two counts of leading organized crime and several gross misdemeanors. Forrest E. Amos, formerly of Napavine and Chehalis, was charged with 43 offenses after he was released from prison late last year. Defense attorney Don Blair and Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead went before a judge on Friday to deal with various issues before the Aug. 25 trial. Blair argued the state should have to split the case into two cases and hold two trials, one for Amos’s alleged activities before he went to prison and a second for his supposed activities while locked up. Judge Richard Brosey disagreed with Blair’s reasoning, but Halstead said he was filing a new “information” with just 36 counts instead of 43. He didn’t say why. Amos was additionally charged last month with four counts of intimidating a witness for allegedly hatching a plan from inside jail to get supporters to hurt or intimidate witnesses against him. Prosecutors allege he used the guise of legal mail to “continue his criminal intentions without detection”. Amos remains held in the Lewis County Jail on $1 million bail.

LITTLE WILDFIRE

• Firefighters were called about 12:35 p.m. yesterday to extinguish a grass fire along Interstate 5 near the northbound onramp at Harrison Avenue in Centralia. it grew to about 100 feet by 200 feet, according to Riverside Fire Authority.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrest for warrants, misdemeanor assault, driving under the influence; responses for collision on city street, window broken out of a vehicle, clothing stolen from business … and more.

MOTORCYCLE MISSING

• A 42-year-old Toledo man who was spending time at a river returned to a parking area at the 100 block of Highway 603 last night to find his 2010 Harley Davidson Fatboy was no longer there. This is the Willapa Hills Trail crossing, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It happened sometime after 7 p.m. and before 8:54 p.m. and the loss is $12,977, according to the sheriff’s office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown asks anyone with information to contact the sheriff’s office or Lewis County Crime Stoppers.

GARAGE THEFT

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning that at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, someone got into a garage on the 200 block of Bowen Road outside Mossyrock and stole about $1,800 worth of items including a 6HP Yamaha outboard motor, a shop vacuum and a Craftsman toolbox with tools.

SHED THEFT

• A deputy took a report yesterday from a 94-year-old Centralia man on the 2000 block of Graf Road that someone got into his locked garden shed and stole his chainsaw sometime between March 1 and July 1.

MOWER MISSING

• A black Craftsman lawnmower was stolen during the night from the 100 block of Washington Avenue in Centralia, according to a report made to the Centralia Police Department yesterday.

HANDBAG GONE

• Police were called about 1 p.m. yesterday regarding a purse getting stolen after it was left behind at a business on the 1100 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia.

DOMESTIC INCIDENT

• Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown reported this morning that a 52-year-old Winlock man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend and violating a court order at the 300 block of Hawkins Road in Winlock. Rodney Dewolf was booked into the Lewis County Jail yesterday, according to the jail’s roster.

DRUGS

• Lewis County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 37-year-old Chehalis man in connection with a search conducted about 6 a.m. yesterday at the 400 block of Southwest William Avenue, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Corey D. Hamilton had allegedly sold methamphetamine to someone associated with the sheriff’s special investigations unit, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. Evidence confiscated from the home and some found in Hamilton’s vehicle could lead to further charges, according to Brown. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail. The investigation is ongoing, she said.

VANDALISM

• Someone vandalized a motorcycle’s radiator and an air conditioner at the 1100 block of South Pearl Street in Centralia, according to a report made to police yesterday.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting, protection order violation obstructing a public servant, a pair of 17-year-old boys for having marijuana and unopened beer containers in their vehicle; responses for alarm, disputes, threatening phone call from the IRS, panting dog left alone inside parked vehicle … and more.

DOMESTIC DISPUTE

• A Thurston County resident reported she was assaulted by her husband last night as they were driving along Harrison Avenue through Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department. Since her statement was given to a Thurston deputy after she arrived home, local police don’t yet have information about the incident, according to a department spokesperson.

BURGLARY

• A deputy took a report yesterday of a theft of approximately $3,000 worth of valuables from a residence at the 1000 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Ethel. Among the items taken sometime since the day before were a generator, an air compressor, a television and an empty guns safe, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

TRAIN PROWL

• Chehalis police were called about 4:30 p.m. yesterday to the area at Northwest West Street and State Avenue where someone tried to steal the batteries from a caboose. A heavy-gauge cable was cut, the compartment was left open and the large container of batteries was removed but left behind, likely because it was very heavy, according to police.

DRUGS

• An 18-year-old Toledo resident was arrested for possession of methamphetamine about 5 o’clock today after a traffic stop in which he was found to be driving with a suspended license. An officer contacting Tavryn L. Lindsey turned up a smoking device under the driver’s seat, according to the Chehalis Police Department. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.

VEHICLE VERSUS BUILDING

• Centralia police say they were called about 4:20 p.m. yesterday to the 1200 block of Alder Street after a pickup truck hit a building. A department spokesperson said he didn’t think anyone was hurt and didn’t know anything further because the information was not filed in their regular reports.

WRECK

• Police and firefighters were called about 6 p.m. yesterday to a motorcycle accident at the 2600 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia in which the driver sustained what was described as minor road rash and an ankle injury.

WILDFIRE HELP FOR EASTERN WASH.

• One firefighter from Lewis County Fire District 5 took a water tender to Eastern Washington last night to help fight one of the wildfires burning over there and two others who had been there since last week were almost home when they were redeployed to the fire in Twisp, according to District 5 Firefighter Maria Kennedy. Two more firefighters left yesterday from West Thurston Regional Fire Authority, joining others from the south Thurston County fire department already in Eastern Washington. The Toledo Fire Department has two units over there as well.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving under the influence; responses for disputes, hit and run, collision on city street, misdemeanor theft, dog locked inside parked vehicle … and more.