Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

March 22nd, 2013

Updated at 1:26 p.m.

COURT APPEARANCE TODAY FOR MOTHER OF SLAIN 2-YEAR-OLD

• The mother of Koralynn Fister, who was charged with a criminal mistreatment earlier this month after her former live-in boyfriend was sent to prison in connection with the toddler’s death, is scheduled to make her first appearance before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. Becky Heupel is not in custody but was summonsed to court to face a charge in which the prosecutor alleges she recklessly created a substantial risk of death to her child, having been warned by others her new boyfriend was abusive. James M. Reeder, 26, was convicted for the rape, assault and death of 2-year-old Koralynn last May at her Centralia home. He had only lived with the family about 10 weeks when it happened.

WOMAN FLEES ASSAULTIVE BOYFRIEND THROUGH WINDOW

• Deputies were called about 6:30 p.m. yesterday to the 100 block of Loop Road outside Centralia after a 42-year-old escaped her angry boyfriend by crawling out a window. Deputies were told the two got into an argument and when she tried to leave, he kept her in the living room and then punched her in the mouth. She managed to get away and go to her mother’s home, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A K-9 track was conduced without success, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. Law enforcement is looking for John T. Malanitch, 37, for several warrants and potential arrest for unlawful imprisonment and fourth-degree assault, according to Brown.

STOLEN CAR, OTHER ITEMS FROM NIX ROAD

• A deputy took a report yesterday from a 51-year-old Lewis County Jail inmate who said while he’s been locked up, someone stole his 1989 Honda Accord, a red rollaway toolbox, tools and 18 fishing poles from his residence at the 100 block of Nix Road west of Chehalis. The deputy was told the theft occurred sometime between Feb. 10 and 20, but the inmate could not verify all that is missing until he is released, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office did not release the name of the theft victim, but the age, location and timing correlate to Brian L. Creed who was during that period hospitalized but in sheriff’s office custody after he was shot inside someone else’s nearby residence.

BURGLARY CENTRALIA

• A deputy took a report about 11:10 p.m. yesterday of a burglary that occurred that day at a residence on the 100 block of Tri Mountain Drive outside Centralia. Someone forced their way inside and pilfered through the home, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Two suspicious vehicles had reportedly been seen in the area, according to the sheriff’s office. The victim wasn’t able to say what was missing was she was not in the area when she called, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

FRAUD

• Centralia police say they took a report yesterday from the 200 block of West Oakview Avenue in which a female reported someone used her PayPal internet account to fraudulently spend about $2,000. PayPal investigated and reversed the transaction, according to the Centralia Police Department.

DRUGS

• A 47-year-old homeless man contacted about 7:30 a.m. today at the 2000 block of Borst Avenue in  Centralia was arrested for a warrant and possession of methamphetamine. Rodney D. Oleachea was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Centralia police served a search warrant at the 1000 block of Eckerson Road on a room where a 26-year-old local resident was staying overnight, arresting him for possession of methamphetamine.  It happened about 1:30 a.m. Daniel Castro was booked into the Lewis County Jail, as was a 24-year-old Centralia man – Spencer R. Barney – with outstanding warrants, according to the Centralia Police Department.

VEHICLE PROWL

• Chehalis police took a report yesterday from an individual who said their car was prowled while parked at Jack-in-the Box on Southwest Interstate Avenue on Sunday morning.

VANDALISM

• Police were called about 10:35 p.m. yesterday regarding tires slashed on a work van at the 1000 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia. The case is under investigation, according to the Centralia Police Department.

BIRDWELL AUTO SALES TRIAL POSTPONED

• Attorneys in the case of the Toledo couple charged with major theft in connection with their used car business got permission yesterday to push the trial out to this summer. Keith A. and Lorrine D. Birdwell have pleaded not guilty in the case in which prosecutors allege the couple used various deceptions to avoid paying back a local bank on loans for the vehicles at Birdwell Brothers Auto Sales. A new trial date has been set for the week of August 26 in Lewis County Superior Court.

AND MORE …

• And more, such as arrest for misdemeanor domestic assault, shoplifting, multiple citations for driving with a suspended license; responses about suspicious circumstances  … and more.

Read about drug suspect drives into undercover police vehicle …

March 22nd, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Olympian reports a drug dealing suspect used his car to run into an undercover Centralia police van during a buy-bust operation in Olympia on Wednesday.

News reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes the officer was unhurt but two suspects were jailed for allegedly trying to sell about 1,000 Oxycodone pills.

Read about it here

Bookkeeper accused of theft of thousands of dollars from Morton business

March 21st, 2013

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A bookkeeper from Raintree Nursery in the Morton area is charged with stealing more than $12,000 from her employer.

Debora S. Barnett, 55, was fired after suspicious transactions on the business credit account were reported to the owners and subsequently to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Barnett made a first appearance before a judge yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court. She is not in custody. Criminal charges were filed earlier this month.

She is charged with one count of first-degree theft.

The owners of the nursery, Maida Richman and Samuel Benowitz, told a deputy in June 2011 they were contacted by a representative of Merchant Card Services, who said the company was alarmed by unusual activity they found, according to charging documents.

Merchant Card Services is the credit card company Raintree used to make refunds to customers.

Raintree is well-known for its mail order business of fruit trees and other edible vines, bushes and plants. It is located on the 300 block of Butts Road west of Morton.

According to charging documents, the owners were told that 18 times between October 2010 and May 2011, refunds went from Raintree, via Merchant Card Services, to a TwinStar Credit Union account which had never made purchases from the nursery. The TwinStar account belonged to Barnett, according to the documents.

The allegations go on to give the following account: The Merchant Card Services representative said she called the nursery several times about it and spoke with Barnett.

When confronted by her bosses, Barnett said there must be some mistake and vowed to investigate. Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg writes that Barnett was hostile, combative and showed no remorse about the situation.

Benowitz fired her and said if she discovered a mistake, she could come back to work and he would apologize.

When contacted by a deputy, Barnett said she was aware of unusually high amounts of money coming into her account, but did not ask any questions about it; and spent it.

“Barnett had no explanation for why the deposits were made to her account, why she spent it or what she spent it on,” Eisenberg wrote.

The sheriff’s office was notified of the discrepancies in June 2011, the day after Raintree was contacted by its credit card service. Barnett was fired and then interviewed by the sheriff’s office that same month but the results of an examination of a computer didn’t come back to local authorities until this past October, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

The Washington State Patrol’s crime lab took 11 months to analyze the computer, Meyer said. Charges were filed on March 5 of this year.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told a judge yesterday afternoon that Barnett lives in Morton, where she collects about $1,400 a month of unemployment checks, as well as food stamps.

The charges against her include so-called aggravating circumstances of using a position of trust, involving a high degree of sophistication and displaying an egregious lack of remorse.

Barnett’s arraignment is scheduled for March 28.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

March 21st, 2013

THEFT OF TV

• Centralia police were called about 3 p.m. yesterday to the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue about a shoplift involving a flat screen television.

CAR PROWL

• An officer was called yesterday regarding an overnight vehicle prowl at Southwest First Street in Chehalis. A black attache case was stolen from an unlocked vehicle, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

OOPS

• Police were called about 10:20 p.m. yesterday by a woman who said she accidentally put her bank deposit in to the mail slot at the Chehalis Post Office. Detective Sgt. Gay Wilson said when that sort of thing occurs, all an officer can do is advise people to contact postal staff in the morning.

VEHICLE VERSUS PEDESTRIAN

• Chehalis police were called about 4:45 p.m. yesterday to Providence Centralia Hospital about a teenage patient who had been reportedly hit by a truck earlier in the day. Further details were not readily available.

INMATE ARRESTED FOR BREAKING GUARD’S FINGER

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning that a jail corrections officer’s finger was broken when he was kicked in the hand by an inmate. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said staff was trying to move the 25-year-old woman to a medical observation cell but she got upset, was uncooperative and refused to follow directions. It happened on Tuesday evening at the Lewis County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office. Felicia Lane, who appeared before a judge yesterday seven and half months pregnant on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, was re-booked for second-degree assault, according to Brown. A deputy prosecutor yesterday attempting to get her held on high bail told a judge Lane assaulted a number of corrections officers, but Brown indicates only one victim.

AND MORE …

• And more, such as arrest for warrant; responses for multiple non-injury collisions; complaints about neighbors cats, neighbor’s trash; calls about suspicious circumstances such as a woman who said her car was stolen in January and yesterday saw a customer at a local nail salon with what looked like her missing purse and keychain; another woman who thinks someone is repeatedly stealing her car during the night … and more.

Chehalis police point to forged checks in high school senior class fund

March 21st, 2013

Updated at 11:25 a.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police have asked prosecutors to charge a 43-year-old Chehalis man with multiple counts of forgery and theft in connection with W.F. West High School’s senior class fund.

Detectives have been investigating a complaint from students’ parents the account had less money in it than they thought there ought to be, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

The fund comes from a tradition of parents collectively starting fundraising during their children’s freshman year to pay for graduation-related activities. The school is not involved in the account.

Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson this morning issued a news release stating police discovered the husband of a woman in charge of the money signed 14 checks from the account totaling $8,200. The wife replaced the money back into the account after she learned of the losses, according to Wilson.

An independent audit will be conducted, according to Wilson.

Wilson states that Robert N. Downs Jr., a Chehalis resident, wrote checks from the account between last June and September in amounts ranging from $275 to $950. He wrote them out to himself and signed his wife’s name, WIlson said.

Police are asking the Lewis County Prosecutors Office to consider 14 counts of forgery and 14 counts of theft, according to Wilson.

Tonya Burk, a Chehalis woman whose son is a senior, said parents were surprised a few months ago to learn there was less than $8,000 saved up, when they thought it would be closer to $16,000.

Burk said she conducted an audit which she turned over to police. She said the account wasn’t set up with a requirement of having two signers for withdrawals, which she called a mistake.

Parents began more aggressively fundraising in January, and now have more than $14,000, according to Burk.

Police said their investigation began Jan. 22. The account was closed and a new account opened, according to Wilson.

•••

For background read “High school senior class fund in Chehalis under scrutiny” from Tuesday March 19, 2013 at 9:45 p.m., here

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

March 20th, 2013

MAN BLAMED, ARRESTED FOR $10,000 MISSING CASH

• The 51-year-old man arrested Monday evening at his home on the 200 block of Young Road in Mossyrock for first-degree theft was picked up because he was suspected in an incident in which $10,000 cash went missing from his 89-year-old employer, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The theft victim, a Morton resident, had contacted the sheriff’s office on Aug. 25 and said he had $38,000 with him to purchase a new truck that day. He’d stashed the cash in what he thought was a safe place, in a tool bag behind the seat of his vehicle, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. He told a deputy he suspected Daniel S. Beaty, who he’d hired to do grounds maintenance, Brown said. A subsequent investigation showed Beaty used hundred dollar bills to purchase $200 in lottery tickets and cigarettes at a Morton service station, as well as paid his electric bill with hundred dollar bills, according to Brown. An examination of his bank account suggested Beaty’s spending habits had changed noticeably, Brown said this morning. Deputies couldn’t find Beaty until Monday, when they booked him into the Lewis County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office. He was also booked for first-degree trafficking in stolen property because he spent some of the cash on lottery tickets, Brown said.

POLICE: MAN TRIED TO SELL STOLEN GOODS

• A 21-year-old Centralia man was arrested yesterday afternoon in an ongoing case for alleged shoplifting at Wal-Mart in Chehalis and attempting to sell the merchandise to a video game retailer across the street. Aaron M. Perez was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree trafficking in stolen property and charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with two counts of the same offense. A judge was told he works for and lives at housing associated with Reliable Enterprises, and earns less than $1,000 per month. Perez qualified for a court-appointed attorney and bail was set with an unsecured $5,000 signature bond.

JAIL ASSAULT BY PREGNANT WOMAN ALLEGED

•  A judge was told today a 26-year-old pregnant inmate at the Lewis County Jail reportedly assaulted a number of corrections officers, even breaking someone’s finger. Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke asked for Felicia D. Lane to be held on $100,000 bail, even though he was not yet charging her with assault, but had charged her with possession of methamphetamine from her arrest yesterday morning at a Centralia motel. O’Rourke said he only learned of the jail incident late this afternoon. Lane, who is said to be seven and a half months pregnant, was brought to the courtroom in a wheelchair. Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler set her bail at $25,000.

FROZEN FOOD BANDIT

• Chehalis police were called just before 1 p.m. yesterday when someone came home for lunch and found a strange man rummaging through a freezer in the garage at a residence on Southeast Magnolia Drive. The intruder, who was a white male about 30 years old, took off running, according to the Chehalis Police Department. The resident said he had previously noticed a tool bag missing, according to police.

BREAK-IN AT AUCTION BUSINESS

• Centralia police were called about 8:45 p.m. yesterday to a burglary at an auction yard on the 1100 block of North Pearl Street. Some equipment and keys were missing, and a list is still being compiled of what was taken, according to the Centralia Police Department.

RECOVERED STOLEN VEHICLE

• A 2011 Hyundai Sonata stolen in December from a Shelton resident was reported found yesterday parked in a field behind a gas station at U.S. Highway 12 and Interstate 5, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

CAR PROWL

• Centralia police took a report about 2:30 p.m. yesterday regarding a car prowl at the 100 block of South Washington Avenue in which a purse was stolen from a locked vehicle.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called about 7 a.m. today when an employee at the Holiday Inn  Express discovered the window to her car shattered at the 700 block of Northwest Liberty Place.

• Police were called about 2 p.m. yesterday about a grave stone vandalized at the 1800 block of Van Wormer Street in Centralia. The complaint was turned over to the cemetery authorities, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WALKING IN THE ROADWAY LANDS WOMAN IN JAIL, AGAIN

• A 49-year-old Centralia woman was arrested for disorderly conduct around 11:20 a.m. yesterday when police discovered she was walking in the middle of the street at the 300 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia. Barbara A. Heppe was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WRECK

• A collision this afternoon on a state highway about 10 miles west of Hoquiam sent a 47-year-old Centralia resident to the hospital. Troopers called about 1:30 p.m. learned that Anthony M. Fruchella was traveling southbound on state Route 109 in a Ford Escort when a northbound pickup truck turned left in front of him. The Escort was described as totaled; the Chevrolet Silverado described as having “reportable” damage. The pickup driver, a 75-year-old Hoquiam resident, was uninjured, according to the Washington State Patrol.

AND MORE …

• And more, such as arrests for DUI, warrants, violation of no contact order; responses for possibly suicidal subject, fender bender, hit and run, misdemeanor thefts, threatening note left on a building, reported assault between two youths at Green Hill School; and complaints of cars idling or parking in no parking zones, as well as a trash can stolen one day and returned the following day … and more.

News brief: Flames consume mobile home near Toledo

March 20th, 2013
2013.0319.toledofire.nathan.summers_2.jpg

Toledo-area mobile home is fully engulfed in flames when crews arrive. / Courtesy photo by Nathan Summers

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The cause of a blaze last night outside Toledo that destroyed an unoccupied residence is under investigation.

Lewis County Fire District 2 was called at 8:48 p.m. to the 1500 block of state Route 505, about a half mile east of town.

Arriving firefighters found flames coming from three sides of the older double-wide mobile home, according to Capt. Tracy Summers.

Nobody was hurt, Summers said.

Crews were assisted by fire departments from Winlock, Vader-Ryderwood and Toutle. It was extinguished in about 45 minutes, Summers said.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office responded as well, because a person was seen walking west on state Route 505 shortly after the fire was reported.

Chief Criminal Deputy Stacy Brown said an eviction notice was posted on the home on Jan. 15.