Posts Tagged ‘news reporter’

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

NO TIP FOR LOUSY CUSTOMER

• Police were called about 5:10 p.m. yesterday after a woman in an older olive green van drove through a coffee stand on the 100 block of Southwest Interstate Avenue in Chehalis, grabbed the tip jar and took off. An employee had just removed the money from it, so it was empty, according to the Chehalis Police department.

CAR THEFT

• Chehalis police took a report about 1:15 p.m. yesterday regarding a white 1992 Honda stolen from where it had been parked since 8 a.m. behind Steck Clinic on the 1200 block of Bishop Road. The four-door car has a white sticker in the back window which reads “Artificial” according to police. It had been left unlocked with the keys on the floorboard, police said.

CAR PROWL

• A woman called Chehalis police yesterday when her vehicle was broken into during the short time it took her to walk from a handicapped parking spot at Wal-Mart to the store’s entrance, change her mind and walk back to her vehicle. It happened about 4:25 p.m. According to police, she had shopped and then gotten into her van and was reading something before deciding to go back into the store. She said she had set some money and gift cards either on the seat or the dashboard and when she returned, they were gone, according to the Chehalis Police Department. She had left the door unlocked and window down, according to officer Linda Bailey.

• A wallet was stolen from inside a car parked at Sierra Pacific Industries’ parking lot on Kuper Road in Centralia sometime in the 20 minutes after 1 o’clock this morning, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A window was damaged. A dark colored passenger car, similar to an older Toyota Corolla, was seen in the area around the same time, the sheriff’s office reports.

BEER RUN

• Centralia police were called about 5:40 a.m. today when a male stole a case of beer from a convenience store at Belmont and Harrison avenues and then ran off into Borst Park. Responding officers didn’t find the shoplifter but came across a homeless camp near the river where they arrested one person with a warrant, according to the Centralia Police Department.

FRAUD

• A deputy took a report yesterday from a 38-year-old who discovered $235 fraudulently charged on her Visa card from somewhere in the Philippines, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

SEX CRIME

• A 21-year-old soldier was arrested at Joint Base Lewis-McChord yesterday and booked into the Lewis County Jail for rape, in connection with an alleged encounter with an 18-year-old woman in Onalaska early last month. The woman reported last week it happened while she was at a friend’s home and the suspect, Timothy Warner, was a friend of a friend, according to the sheriff’s office.

WRECKS

• Police were called about 8:15 a.m. yesterday to the 600 block of West Main Street in Centralia where a vehicle had struck an accounting office building and then drove away. There was some structural damage but no request for aid for anyone, according to authorities.

• Three people were injured in a single-vehicle wreck yesterday afternoon on U.S. Highway 12 about 18 miles east of Packwood. Troopers called about 1:40 p.m. said the 34-year-old driver suffered an unknown medical issue and his westbound car crossed over the opposite lane into an open area before traveling partially up an embankment and then rolling onto its top. Transported to Morton General Hospital were Dave VanBrocklin, 34, and Angelique VanBrocklin, 36, both of Tacoma and James Fee, 70, from Gig Harbor, according to the Washington State Patrol. The Kia Optima was described as totaled.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, misdemeanor assault, responses for dispute, misdemeanor theft, suspicious circumstances, collisions on city street; complaints of person found sleeping in a train caboose, noisy neighbors who never sleep … and more.

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Centralia heroin death leads to criminal charge for person who allegedly supplied the drug

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014
2014.0610.tyson.anderson

Tyson Anderson holds his then-3-year-old daughter Kaylee at an Easter egg hunt a week before he died.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 36-year-old Chehalis man who police believe sold some heroin to last year to a Centralia man who died of a drug overdose that night, was ordered held yesterday on $200,000 bail.

Robert T. Lusk was already in the Lewis County Jail when he was arrested on Monday for controlled substance homicide.

He is blamed for the death on April 22, 2013 of 23-year-old Tyson J. Anderson in Centralia.

Anderson had been staying with his girlfriend at an apartment on the 500 block of Iron Street. Before that, he lived for a short time at a place called the Funny Farm – a sober living home – in south Lewis County, according to Ashlee Harris, the mother of his now 4-year-old daughter.

He was an awesome person, Harris said of the young man she was with from the time they were 16 years old until about a year before he died.

“There’s more to him than just that,” she said of the drug overdose. “That’s not him.

Anderson was the designated barbecuer at family get togethers, he enjoyed bow hunting with his many relatives, and worked as a mechanic, she said.

“People don’t understand that it’s a disease,” Harris said. “I want the fact that he was an amazing father, an amazing son, an amazing friend to define who he was; not the mistakes he made.”

Harris had little to say about his drug use, saying it’s a sensitive topic for Anderson’s family and she didn’t want to add to their grief or upset.

But he had apparently been trying to quit using and he managed to get into Lewis County Drug Court, an alternative for some people arrested for drug crimes.

He was in phase one of the program, so relatively new, according to the program’s manager, Jennifer Soper-Baker.

“Tragic situation,” Soper-Baker said.

When police were called just before 2 o’clock that morning about a possible drug overdose, they found an unconscious male later identified as Anderson. Arriving medics worked on him, but he was pronounced dead a short time later, according to authorities.

Centralia police came to learn that Anderson and his girlfriend Sarah McCutcheon had gone to dinner at Country Cousin, where Anderson had made a brief phone call or sent a text to arrange to buy them some heroin, according to charging documents.

McCutcheon told police after they got home, they each injected some and then went to Wal-Mart, eventually returning home where they injected more, charging documents state.

“McCutcheon stated after she was injected the second time, she passed out,” the documents relate. “And when she awoke, she was laying on top of Anderson who was unresponsive.”

She was confused and nervous, so she called 911 and then cleaned up the apartment by hiding the drugs, she told police.

Anderson’s cause of death is listed as acute opiate (heroin) intoxication, following injection.

Exactly why he died or why it killed him isn’t known, according to the Centralia Police Department.

There’s a variety of reasons it happens, more often than not because an individual is exposed to a more potent dose than they’re accustomed to, detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said.

Perhaps they’ve gotten it from a new supplier who has cut it, diluted it, differently, or less than expected, Fitzgerald said.

“There’s a myriad of reasons,” he said. “In this case, we don’t know.”

Fitzgerald said this is the third or fourth case of controlled substance homicide for the department, indicating it’s a charge some other agencies may or may not pursue as aggressively. For example, he said, the Bellevue Police Department only last year had their first case, even though it’s unlikely that city has never before had a fatal drug overdose.

Controlled substance homicide doesn’t have anything to do with forcibly making another person ingest drug, according to Lewis County Senior Prosecutor Will Halstead.

Prosecutors need only prove the person delivered it, the other person used it and then the other person died from it, Halstead said.

The offense has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, except for defendants who have certain previous drug convictions, the maximum time is 20 years.

Centralia police measured the distance between the apartment parking lot and a school bus stop as 517 feet, suggesting a possible more lengthy sentence if Lusk is convicted. Lusk was also charged with delivery of a controlled substance.

Centralia police investigated the for many months following Anderson’s death, questioning his girlfriend numerous times.

According to charging documents, they learned a person named Robert had shown up in the apartment’s parking lot in a greenish Ford Explorer after Anderson got a text from the drug dealer that night.

McCutcheon said she saw it from the apartment window and that Robert was known as a white supremacist who her boyfriend had had issues with in the past.

DNA testing on the wrapping from the heroin was matched to Anderson.

Two phone numbers on Anderson’s Blackberry cell phone were found as being used during the timeframe McCutcheon had outlined to police. One of them belonged to one of his longtime friends and the friend was ruled out.

The other remained a mystery until February when police were speaking with a person who knew Lusk on an unrelated matter. Police discovered that back around the time of Anderson’s death, Lusk had been using a phone that matched the mystery number.

Police also found that Lusk owned a blue Ford Explorer and has a tattoo on his inner bicep that reads “WP”, which officers understand to be an abbreviation for “White Power.”

Harris said she knew a detective was working hard on the case, but was surprised to learn an arrest was made. She attended the hearing yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court with Anderson’s sister.

“We’re thankful, we’re happy, but it’s also opening up a bunch of wounds,” she said.

Lusk has been in the Lewis County Jail for some time, in connection with driving with a suspended license, according to his temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter. He is wanted in Thurston County, in connection with another instance of the same offense, Schroeter said.

He hasn’t worked and has no income so he qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.

His arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

TREE CUTTING ACCIDENT SENDS ONE TO HOSPITAL

• A 51-year-old man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle yesterday after he was pinned by a downed tree that rolled onto him as he was cutting limbs from it outside Centralia. Firefighters called about 12:30 p.m. to Wigley Road found that others present had cut the tree in half and used a tractor to pull it off, according to Riverside Fire Authority. “They did their assessments, packaged him up and Airlift Northwest met them at Providence,” Fire Capt. Tim Adolphsen said. The patient sustained a possibly broken pelvis, he said.

KIDS AND ALCOHOL

• A grocery store customer who spotted a young girl put a fifth of vodka up her sleeve followed her out of the business, chased her down, grabbed her and returned her to Fuller’s Shop ‘n Kart in Centralia last night, according to police. Officers called about 9:45 p.m. to the 500 block of South Tower Avenue arrested the 12-year-old girl for misdemeanor theft and then released her to her father, according to the Centralia Police Department. She dropped or tossed the bottle of liquor to the ground where it broke, police said. The case is being turned over to prosecutors for evaluation of charges including minor in possession of alcohol, according to police.

KIDS AND WEED

• Chehalis police were called to Olympic Elementary School yesterday morning where a baggie with suspected marijuana turned up involving and a pair of 11-year-old students. One said the other stole the marijuana from parents and brought it to school to sell, according to the Chehalis Police Department. The case is being turned over to prosecutors for evaluation of charges of possession of a controlled substance, according to police.

MEDS MISSING IN BURGLARY

• Chehalis police say a resident at the 300 block of Southwest Third Street who left their front door unlocked called 911 just before 3 p.m. yesterday after finding someone got into a bedroom drawer and stole various medications, including Oxycodone. They had only been away about an hour and a half, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

TV TAKEN IN BREAK-IN

• Centralia police were called about 10:30 a.m. yesterday to the 700 block of West First Street when a woman returned home and found the back door open and a window shattered. Missing were a television and and Xbox, according to the Centralia Police Department.

SMOKE EMPTIES OUT CENTRALIA SCHOOL

• Centralia Middle School was evacuated for about an hour yesterday when a hand dryer in a boys’ bathroom malfunctioned, prompting a call to the fire department just before 11 a.m. “It put out a lot of smoke, whether it was on fire, it may have been at one point,” Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Terry Ternan said. “Well, I’m sure it was.” Firefighters shut off the power, removed the machine and made sure there was no fire inside the wall, Ternan said.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrant, driving with suspended license, misdemeanor assault, responses for possible phone scam, suspicious circumstances, collisions on city streets and parking lots … and more.

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Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

OH MY

• A police pursuit that began near Alder Street and Long Road in Centralia overnight reached speeds of about 60 mph and ended when the driver continued east on Cherry Street beyond where the street ends for the railroad tracks, according to police. “He apparently didn’t know that, he hit the brakes and slid past the barricade and came to stop on the east side of the tracks,” Officer John Panco said. “Then he took off running.” The reason for the attempted stop was the officer observed the 1997 Toyota Tercel driving erratically, according to the Centralia Police Department. A police dog came out to try to track the driver, but it wasn’t until someone called 911 to say there was a person on their roof that the driver was found, Panco said. Officers took Justus R. Crofton into custody at the 600 block of South Gold Street, he said. The 20-year-old Centralia resident was arrested for eluding and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department. Panco said he didn’t offer an explanation for why he fled.

BURGLARY AT MOTEL

• Centralia police were called about noon yesterday to the 1200 block of Alder Street after a motel room was broken into. Officers learned two males kicked in the door and stole jewelry and clothing and got suspect names from witnesses, according to the Centralia Police Department. The case is under investigation, police said.

NIGHTTIME DEMOLITION

• Centralia police arrested a 48-year-old Chehalis resident after he was caught allegedly taking metal roofing from an abandoned house on the 1200 block of Brotherson Road last night. A police dog from Chehalis was called in about 9:45 p.m. and helped motivate another person to come out of a building in the same area at the same time, according to police. Kelly J. Teshara was arrested for misdemeanor theft and trespassing and then released, according to the Centralia Police Department.

BOAT SPIRITED AWAY

• A deputy took a report yesterday from the Cascade Peaks RV Park on the 11,000 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Randle that a 10-foot long white boat was missing. The victim, a 76-year-old Randle resident, said it was taken some time since April 9, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The loss is estimated at $800.

FRAUD

• A 19-year-old Chehalis area woman called the sheriff’s office yesterday to report she discovered $412 worth of fraudulent transactions on her Twinstar Credit Union checking account. The seven charges originated in Portland, and there is no information as to how the account was compromised, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

WRECK

• A 49-year-old driver ended up with just a bloody lip and a scratch when his steering malfunctioned and he left the roadway struck a fence, crossed a yard and hit a ditch yesterday evening. A deputy responding to Skyhawk Drive north of Toledo after the approximately 6 o’clock wreck learned the Randle man had been traveling north along the 5100 block of Jackson Highway, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He was cited for defective steering, according to the sheriff’s office.

TRAIN WRECK SURVIVORS ARRESTED

• Genaveve R. Webb, 40, and Gary L. Bafford, 54, both of Chehalis, were treated and then released from Providence Centralia Hospital after their run in with a passenger train yesterday afternoon on Summa Street in Centralia. Police say Webb drove around a crossing arm after a freight train passed by but then lost much of the front end of her Datsun pickup to an Amtrak headed the other direction. The truck was tossed onto a signal pole, landing on its side, according to witnesses. Webb was arrested for reckless endangerment, according to the Centralia Police Department. Bafford, who left the scene, was arrested shortly after the wreck a few blocks away for outstanding warrants, police said. One was a local misdemeanor warrant and the other and out-of-county felony warrant, Centralia Police Department Officer Patricia Finch said. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail. Police and firefighters described their injuries as minor.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for driving under the influence, misdemeanor assault, responses for alarm, suspicious circumstances, broken windows at a retreat center, shoplift of a pregnancy test kit and other misdemeanor theft … and more.

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Centralia arsonist admits attempted murder of mother, grandfather

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
2014.0610.jonathan.brown.IMG_6523

Jonathan P. Brown heads back down to the jail after pleading guilty to attempted murder.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 26-year-old Centralia man pleaded guilty this morning to two counts of attempted murder, in connection with setting a fire in his home while his mother and grandfather were sleeping earlier this year.

Jonathan P. Brown admitted to a detective to starting a fire in his bedroom, opening a window to help it “breathe” and then heading down the street planning to ignite more fires until he was caught, according to charging documents. But his lighter broke and police found and detained him that morning.

Today’s action came out of a plea agreement finalized late last week, Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said. Halstead said the details would come at sentencing, which hasn’t yet been scheduled.

The standard sentencing range for Brown, given his criminal history, is roughly 20 to 32 years.

Brown has spent time in prison before for arson.

In 2009, the then-21-year-old pleaded guilty to a string of six fires and attempted fires in the Centralia area that caused or could have caused damage to buildings including a residence and a garage. He was sentenced to four and half years.

He is represented by defense attorney Don Blair.

The damage on March 23 to the family home on the 3400 block of Prill Road was limited to the bedroom.

Charging documents alleged that he doused his bed and pillows with lamp oil. His 87-year-old grandfather John Germeau and his mother were able to get out, but his mother Deborah Brown suffered burns on her hand or hands smothering burning pillows.

Brown has been held in the Lewis County Jail on $250,000 bail since his arrest. His initial charge was first-degree arson.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler this morning accepted Brown’s pleas and modified the conditions of release to a no-bail hold.

No family or friends were present in the courtroom.

Brown is expected back in court on Thursday to set a date for sentencing.
•••

For background, read “Prosecutors: Arsonist planned to continue lighting fires after leaving his burning bedroom” from Monday March 24, 2014, here

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Breaking news: Homicide arrest made in Centralia drug death

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Updated at 12:05 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An arrest has been made in connection with last year’s drug overdose death of Tyson J. Anderson, 23, of Centralia.

Centralia police yesterday re-booked a man already in the Lewis County Jail – on another matter – for controlled substance homicide.

Robert T. Lusk is scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon.

Anderson died when visiting a home at the 500 block of North Iron Street in Centralia last April 22, according to police department spokesperson Officer John Panco.

“After a long investigation we have a suspect, or somebody arrested, which is always a good thing in this kind of thing,” Panco said this morning.

Lusk, 36, from Chehalis, was also arrested for delivery of a controlled substance, Panco said.

Panco didn’t know this morning what drug was involved, he said.

Lewis County Senior Prosecutor Will Halstead said it’s not a case of forcing drugs into another person’s body, but that if someone delivers drugs to another who subsequently dies from them, that can be controlled substance homicide.

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Chehalis pair survive wreck with passenger train

Monday, June 9th, 2014
2014.0609.datsun.rainscene.mary.orlick.

Police and aid respond about 3:45 p.m. to the accident on Summa Street in Centralia. / Courtesy photo by Mary Orlik

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Two people escaped with only minor injuries when their small pickup truck collided with an Amtrak train in Centralia this afternoon.

Firefighters and police responding about 3:45 p.m. to the crossing on Summa Street near South Tower Avenue found the vehicle on its driver’s side, having struck the signal pole on the west side of the tracks.

“I’ve heard a lot of wrecks here, but nothing like this,” Centralia resident Ken Peck said.

Peck said he was outside his home a block away talking with a buddy and the sound of the impact was thunderous. He looked over and saw a pickup flipping through the air, he said.

“The train literally lifted it up and it did a twist like that,” Peck said as he described the path of the older Datsun pickup moving his hands over his head in an arc.

Centralia Police Department Officer Patricia Finch said the female driver failed to stop for the crossing arms.

The driver, a 40-year-old Chehalis woman, was headed east across Summa and hit by the southbound train, according to Finch.

“A BNSF train had just passed in the other direction, to my understanding,” Finch said.

The male passenger got himself out, and he along with bystanders helped the woman out of the truck, according to Finch.

“I thought she was dead, her arms were hanging out the window,” Peck said. But she wasn’t.

Peck said they tried to sit the couple down away from the tracks, but the man left.

Police located him a few blocks to the north, and learned he was wanted on two outstanding warrants. The 54-year-old Chehalis man was taken to the hospital by a police officer to be checked out, before he could be booked into jail, according to Finch.

The driver was transported by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital as well.

Finch said the 1984 Datsun pickup was totaled, with most of its damage to the front on the driver’s side.

Rail traffic was stopped for at least 45 minutes. BNSF is conducting its own investigation, Finch said.

Peck said it’s a crossing that needs more safety features to prevent drivers who seem to often try to beat the trains.

He got the impression the woman waited for the freight train to pass northbound, but was impatient for the crossing arms to rise, and drove around them.

“Even when she got out of the truck, she was saying, ‘I didn’t see the Amtrak’,” he said.

2014.0609.datsun.train_.janet_.stacy1_.jpg

Datsun pickup is hauled away after it met up with a train in Centralia. / Courtesy photo by Janet Stacy

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