Lewis County Sirens.com

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The man arrested in Vader smiled and thanked detectives when they complimented him on how nice his indoor marijuana growing operation was, according to court documents.

Heip D. Doan, 33, allegedly told Lewis County sheriff’s detectives he had multiple growing operations when he lived in California and had not yet started the paperwork to get permits for his ventures in Washington, the documents relate.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office had just finished seizing and loading up 674 mature plants from the property on the 700 block of B Street in Vader on Friday evening when Doan arrived to the home he said he rents from his sister-in-law. He looked at the back of the transport truck and said, “You’re taking my stuff,” court documents state.

Doan was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail.

Initiative 502 , voted into law in November 2012, made it legal for for individuals 21 or older to possess as much as one ounce of marijuana and also set up rules under which licensees may cultivate and package the greens and related products in Washington state.

Lewis County leaders chose to require applicants to provide approval from the federal government, which still outlaws marijuana, so no such businesses can operate legally in unincorporated Lewis County.

Doan was charged yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court with manufacture of marijuana, a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Temporary defense attorney Rachael Tiller asked for the bail to be unsecured, and to take into consideration her client’s prior service in the U.S. Navy in Washington, and honorable discharge.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello noted the defendant had no prior convictions or warrants but said his driver’s license indicates he lives in San Jose, California.

Judge Joely O’Rourke imposed $25,000 bail.

His arraignment was initially scheduled for Thursday, but Tiller told the judge Doan has a court date in California on Wednesday and asked for his arraignment here to be set on Dec. 21.

Masiello said there was a December 2016 arrest in California for driving under the influence.

The judge agreed Doan could fly to California for his hearing, returning on Friday but required him to check in with the court on Monday.

While the outbuilding where Doan allegedly grew marijuana was across the street from Vader City Hall, local authorities only learned about it because Doan’s driver’s license was found at a home in Pacific County where Doan’s brother was arrested two weeks ago for unlawful marijuana growing.

Lewis County sheriff’s detectives began investigating and found the brother was a previous Lewis County PUD customer at the Vader property and Doan was the current customer, according to court documents. The electricity bill was unusually high, at $600 for a two-month period, according to court documents.

Deputies conducted surveillance at the Vader location twice, observing a residence, a garage and a large green outbuilding, which had all its windows “blacked out”, according to charging documents.

Some of the clues included a detectives detecting the odor of unburnt marijuana from 200 feet away, a humming noise consistent with the use of lights and fans, and a stack of potting soil packages and containers of liquid fertilizer they saw through a garage window, according to court documents.

When they executed the search warrant on Friday, they found the green outbuilding had been divided into three rooms, filled with growing marijuana plants.

“The rooms were all set up with ventilation into carbon filters and had lighting attached to programmable timers,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joel DeFazio wrote in the affidavit regarding probable cause.

Deputies confiscated the plants and the the growing equipment, as well as more than $2,500 cash and several pieces of indicia from inside the house.

This arrest was tied to a growing operation in Grayland in Pacific County, but Sheriff Rob Snaza said it’s all tied together to the huge investigation in that began in Grays Harbor County.

On Nov. 28, the Grays Harbor County Drug Task Force oversaw a series of at least 50 search warrants getting served there, in Thurston County and in King County following an investigation into illegal marijuana growing operations by Chinese nationals. They had learned of numerous homes being purchased for that purpose, primarily for cash.
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For background, read “Illegal marijuana growing by Chinese nationals targeted in Grays Harbor County” from Tuesday November 28, 2017, here

Jose F. Chagolla Flores and his lawyer face a judge in Lewis County Superior Court

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Eighteen-year-old Jose F. Chagolla Flores of Onalaska is off to prison today, with an 18-month sentence for stabbing another teenager who punched him in the face in the Chehalis Wal-Mart’s parking lot.

Instead of going to trial, charged with first-degree assault, Chagolla Flores entered into a plea deal with prosecutors.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge the reason: It was a case of possible self defense.

“There is evidence the victim was the aggressor,” Halstead said.

Halstead’s comments came on Tuesday morning in Lewis County Superior Court in front of Judge Andrew Toynbee.

Exactly what a group of young people were doing there the night of Oct. 5 is uncertain. Chehalis police were called about two males fighting but when officers arrived they were gone.

Seventeen-year-old Bryce Friedley of Chehalis turned up at Providence Centralia Hospital and was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Chagolla Flores pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on Nov. 30, a felony with a standard sentencing range of three to nine months. But he pleaded guilty to the committing the crime with a deadly weapon, which means 12 more months.

Defense attorney Chris Baum told the judge it was a tough case in many ways, one in which everyone could acknowledge there was “bad blood.”

The victim’s mother tearfully addressed the court, her voice breaking as she described the trip to the trauma center in Seattle and the hours-long wait before she finally saw her son, on life support.

She addressed the defendant, telling him choices have consequences.

“You chose to use that knife as self defense,” she said. “That choice could have cost you my son’s life. I pray you learn to do better.”

Judge Toynbee pointed out that if Chagolla Flores had gone to trial and been convicted as originally charged he would have been facing a possible sentence of nine years plus nine months.

“Now we’re looking at 15 to 20 months,” he said.

“The injury to Mr. Friedley was so significant,” Toynbee said. “But I can’t isolate that from the facts of this case.”

Judge Toynbee chose the middle of the standard sentencing range, six months, plus an additional 12 months for the weapon enhancement.

Chagolla Flores will be subject to 18 months of community custody after his release. And the judge ordered no contact with the victim for 10 years.

The Oct. 5 episode was followed a week later with several of the victim’s family and friends arrested for allegedly taking baseball bats to Chagolla Flores’s 19-year-old friend in Adna. Then in mid-November, Friedley and his brother were arrested for allegedly being two of four males who initiated an armed encounter with other teenagers near Penny Playground in Chehalis.

Prosecutors have suggested there are gang overtones to the cases.
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For background read, “Chehalis Wal-Mart stabbing suspect says teen hit him first” from Tuesday October 10, 2017, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 47-year-old Centralia man was summonsed to Lewis County Superior Court yesterday, charged with animal cruelty in a case that was discovered by a neighbor this summer.

A Centralia animal control officer was dispatched to a home on South Buckner Street, where a woman said her neighbor had not been around for days, his dogs had been barking for hours and when she checked, she found they were without food or water, according to court papers.

Four exotic birds in cages at the front window inside the home had only empty water dishes and empty shells in their food dishes. One, an African Gray parrot, was laying face down and deceased the documents relate.

The owner, Llewellyn A. Roy, was located at the Lewis County Jail, where he been booked after an arrest more than three days earlier.

Charging documents state a necropsy showed the parrot had died of dehydration and starvation.

The neighbor described a bull dog which seemed in better condition than two very thin Mastiff’s with eye infections, one of them in an kennel with a floor compacted with feces, and open sores on its legs, according to the allegations.

Animal Control Officer Jennifer Krueger reported the shape the animals were in would have taken weeks to develop.

Roy is charged with first-degree animal cruelty and second-degree animal cruelty.

When he arrived to the courtroom yesterday afternoon, he used a walker.

Temporary defense attorney Kevin Nelson told the judge Roy owns his home and makes about $2,000 a month, but medical and living expenses take up all of it. He was assigned a court-appointed lawyer.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked that  Roy be allowed release on a $5,000 unsecured bond. Judge Joely O’Rourke agreed.

After the brief court hearing, outside the courtroom, Roy said he didn’t want to comment on his case, but said there was “more” to it.

Charging documents indicate the call to animal control came on July 19, a Wednesday at mid-morning. Centralia police had arrested for Roy for driving under the influence on Plum Street just before midnight on Saturday, July 15, and booked him into jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

Animal Control Officer Krueger reported that after she first spoke to the neighbor, and learned the dogs had been given water, she contacted Roy at the jail asking permission to go into his home to care for the animals, according to charging documents.

He told her he wanted his parents to take care of them, but when she contacted the parents, they wanted nothing to do with it, the documents relate.

Krueger stated in her report that when she and another officer entered the home, she was hit with the stench of dirty dog, cigarettes, urine and feces. She observed garbage all over the floor and a small table in front of a chair that was covered with prescription bottles and beer cans.

The bird cages had not been cleaned in a long time, which contributed to the smell in the house, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello wrote in the court documents.

The animals were taken so they could be cared for, according to Masiello.

Roy’s arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.