Posts Tagged ‘news reporter’

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

THEFT

• Centralia police yesterday morning learned a Plymouth Voyager van stolen from the 1000 block of South Pearl Street was recovered by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• Police were called just before noon yesterday to the 100 block of Railroad Avenue in Centralia about a car prowl. Somebody broke out a window and removed a car stereo face plate, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A car prowl was reported just before 11 a.m. yesterday on the 1000 block of Roosevelt Avenue in Centralia, according to police. Someone broke through the door lock and stole  a car stereo face plate, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WRECK

• A 34-year-old woman escaped serious injury when her car crashed into an embankment and fence along Interstate 5 south of Chehalis this morning. Troopers were called about 10:15 a.m. to the northbound lanes at milepost 66 after the driver of a Kia Spectra lost control and wrecked her car, according to the Washington State Patrol. The car was totaled, according to the state patrol. The driver, Felisha R. Talk, of Tacoma, declined aid although she advised of a sore back, according to the investigating trooper.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, November 18th, 2011

TEEN HUNTERS STRANDED IN SNOW NEAR CINEBAR

• A pair of teenagers were rescued overnight after getting their pickup truck stuck in the snow northeast of Cinebar where they went hunting yesterday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The 17-year-old boy from Onalaska and 16-year-old girl from Toledo gone up the 73 Road near Rooster Rock where their F150 pickup got stuck, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning. The pair walked to where they could get a cell signal and called for help, summoning a pair of adults who also got their vehicle stuck in the snow, Brown said. An acquaintance responded to another call for help and arrived and gave shelter in his truck to the males, and a deputy called out arrived about 2:20 a.m. and picked up the females who were asleep in the original stuck truck, Brown said. They were all able to get out safely, Brown said. Brown did not know how early in the day on Thursday the hunting trip began.

DRUG BUST IN CENTRALIA

• Four people were arrested when Centralia police searched a mobile home on the 1700 block of Harrison Avenue yesterday in connection with a drug investigation. Officers went to the home about 2:45 p.m. and spent several hours there in a search, according to Centralia police. Exactly how much and what they found isn’t clear this morning, but it included suspected methamphetamine “chards” and a pipe with residue, according to Sgt. Kurt Reichert. Arrested for delivery of methamphetamine was Ronald W. McNeal, 51, of Chehalis; for possession with intent to deliver was Roxanne I. Chipman, 27, of Oakville; and for possession was Donald R. Pender, 56, of Centralia, according to police. A 46-year-old Centralia woman, Tracy L. Hensley, was arrested for an outstanding warrant. All were booked into the Lewis County Jail.

COMPUTER HELD FOR RANSOM

• A computer stolen Wednesday morning from a Centralia motel room by a female acquaintance when a man left to get breakfast was recovered by police last night after a reward was offered and someone demanded the reward plus additional money for the return of the laptop computer, according to police. A female – a friend or relative of the victim – offered a reward on Facebook, and notified police when she got the response, according to Sgt. Kurt Reichert. A meeting was arranged for about 8:45 p.m. at a parking lot on South Tower Avenue, Reichert said. Instead of the victim, 22-year-old Marcus J. Inman was met by an undercover officer, as well as another officer and his K-9 partner, Reichert said. Inman fled but was apprehended by Lobo, the police dog. Lobo also tracked down Inman’s backpack which he discarded while running. The computer was inside. Inman was arrested and booked for trafficking stolen property, according to the Centralia Police Department. A 19-year-old who was with Inman and waiting nearby was also detained, according to police.

THEFT

• A 35-year-old Mossyrock man was arrested last night during a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 12 in Mossyrock in which he was found to be driving a stolen truck, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Anthony C. Burchfield was pulled over about 10:45 p.m. for not using a turn signal and found to be driving with a suspended license, according to the sheriff’s office. The deputy learned the 1985 Nissan pickup was stolen from Marysville and Burchfield was booked into the Lewis County Jail for possession of a stolen vehicle, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning.

• Police were called about 7:15 a.m. yesterday to a business on the 1100 block of Mellen Street in Centralia where someone had gone inside and stolen cash and sun glasses, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WRECKS

• A Curtis resident was injured when he lost control of his car in the hail and slush and and ran into an oncoming semi truck on state Route 101 just north of Raymond yesterday afternoon, according to the Washington State Patrol. Danny I. Harner, 31, of Curtis, was transported to Willapa Harbor Hospital after the approximately 2 p.m. collision, according to the state patrol. His passenger, a 54-year-old Aberdeen resident was reportedly uninjured. The driver of the 2007 Kenworth, Bernard D. Blake, 64, of Centralia, was also uninjured, according to the patrol.

• A Centralia driver escaped injury when his log truck rolled onto its side and lost its load on state Route 101 just north of Hoquiam on Wednesday morning, according to the Washington State Patrol. Nicholas R. Gibbons, 40, was traveling southbound just before 9:45 a.m. when his 1991 Kenworth struck a guard rail and a light pole near milepost 93, according to the state patrol. The truck was totaled. The wreck was blamed on a mechanical failure; a broken walking beam, according to the investigating trooper. The highway was blocked for most of seven hours, the patrol reported.

News brief: House catches fire in Doty

Friday, November 18th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Doty family was chased out of their home by a house fire last night.

Nobody was hurt and the cause is under investigation, according to Lewis County Fire District 16.

Firefighters called just before 10:30 p.m. to the one and a half story house on Front Street extinguished the blaze but it reignited about 5:30 this morning, Fire Chief Greg Feuchter said.

The fire damage was confined to the upstairs, he said.

The mother and two children are staying with relatives next door, according to Feuchter.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

SUSPICIOUS FIRE DAMAGES TWO HOMES

• A carport and two adjacent mobile homes caught fire yesterday evening in Centralia in an incident the police department is calling suspicious. Firefighters were called just after 5 p.m. to the 1400 block of Harrison Avenue where the carport was fully involved in flames, according to Riverside Fire Authority. The blaze spread and did minor damage to a vacant trailer on one side, but more severe damage to the other, according to  Fire Capt. Casey McCarthy. Nobody was home when it happened, McCarthy said. One firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital where she was treated and then released, he said. The cause is under investigation.

THEFT

• An orange and silver backhoe was reported stolen from the 200 block of Jerrells Road in Mossyrock, along with a cable and lock blocking the driveway, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning. It appeared somebody drove onto the Portland man’s property with a with a trailer and took the tractor sometime before Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office. The amount of the loss is unknown, the sheriff’s office said.

• A $3,000 hand-held, gas operated compactor was reported stolen from the back of a trailer on the 1800  block of Van Wormer Street in Centralia sometime between Sunday and Monday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The Wacker brand compactor is black and aluminum, the sheriff’s office said.

• A heavy-duty load tarp valued at $600 was stolen from where it was covering hay stacks on the 700 block of Independence Road in Rochester sometime between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• Centralia police took a report from the 1000 block of Eckerson Road at 7:30 a.m. yesterday and told by a male that his female acquaintance stole his computer and cell phone when he left to get breakfast.

• A laptop computer was stolen from a vehicle around 4:30 a.m. today at the 300 block of West Summa Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.

INTRUDER

• Police were called about 4:20 p.m. yesterday when workers went to a home being remodeled on the 1400 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia and found someone had been “squatting” there. The subject, who apparently had gotten inside through a window ran out the back door when workers arrived, according to the Centralia Police Department.

POWER POLE SNAPS

• Riverside Fire Authority reported they were called yesterday morning to the 1200 block of Alder Street where a power pole broke in half and fell when a transformer on it blew out. Nobody was hurt, Fire Capt. Scott Snyder said. Snyder said the pole was “eroded” and snapped. Firefighters isolated the area while city light workers made repairs, he said. Centralia police were called and concluded the pole had possibly been struck by an unknown vehicle. Electricity was knocked out to several area homes, according to police.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called about 4:45 p.m. to Southwest 11th Street where someone had smashed a window out of a vehicle.

WRECK

• A 21-year-old Centralia woman totaled her car when she lost control of it at the 400 block of River Heights Road outside Centralia yesterday, running into a ditch and a utility pole, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s office. It happened just after 1 p.m. and was described as a “possible injury accident” by the sheriff’s office. The driver was taken by private vehicle to the hospital, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. The driver was cited for traveling too fast, Brown said.

News brief: Burial fund established for family that lost three men

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Friends of the wife of one of the three men killed Saturday morning in the wreck on U.S. Highway 12 in Ethel have set up a memorial fund to help the families with the costs for funerals and burials.

Elvis Garcia-Ortiz, 44, of Centralia, died, along with two of his uncles when their small pickup slid on ice into a log truck just before 6:30 a.m. near Larmon Road.

Garcia-Lopez leaves behind a wife Victoria Garcia and five children, according to a friend, Jean Tennihill. His uncles, Javier Ortiz-Valdovinos, 49, and Rigoberto Ortiz, 46, both of Rochester, have children as well, she said.

Tennihill, who works with Victoria Garcia in Tumwater, said she doesn’t believe the mothers in the other two families work.

“The financial expense of it is just huge on them,” Tennihill said.

It’s a large family and her friend Victoria Garcia is overwhelmed, she said. She and her co-worker Desiree Rosenberg thought opening an account for possible donations made more sense than people sending flowers, given the needs right now.

Donations can be made at any branch of Washington State Employees Credit Union, by writing a check out to WSECU and noting “Elvis Garcia Memorial Fund” in the memo line, according to Tennihill.

Troopers were told the three men were headed out hunting before the wreck that totaled their truck and ended their lives. The log truck driver, James K. Chenoweth, 35, of Glenoma, was reportedly uninjured.

Tennihill can be reached at 360-259-4120.

Police asked to investigate finances of Lewis County Historical Museum

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Chehalis police have been asked to get involved in reviewing the financial records of the Lewis County Historical Museum, following revelations its endowment fund of more than $400,000 was spent.

The four officers on the 13-member museum board were replaced last night by four new individuals, in a change that came after a general membership meeting of the museum last week when members learned there was no money left in the endowment fund, according to new board president, John Panesko.

It’s a fund meant to be left untouched, so it could generate interest which could be used, according to Panesko.

Panesko said the money should not have been spent without the knowledge of the board or museum members and now they are looking for answers.

“Was it done for the right reasons, or the wrong reasons,” Panesko said. “That’s why we’re looking through the records to see where the money went and who spent it.”

Dennis Dawes, a continuing board member, asked the police department to look at the finances of the museum, Chehalis detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said today.

Dawes, accountant Tom Bradley and McNamara met yesterday to discuss four years worth of records, according to police.

“It’s something we’re looking at right now,” McNamara said. “I don’t know what’s going to transpire, if anything.”

Police Chief Glenn Schaffer and McNamara said the department won’t be doing anything further with the financial records until after the accountant goes through them and puts them in a format that can be evaluated.

“What they’re doing is getting our office involved, early on, at the beginning,” Schaffer said. “(In case) if it does go that route.”

Dawes, a non-elected board member who represents the city of Chehalis, had been asked by the board to secure the records and have them reviewed by a certified public accountant, according to Panesko. Dawes is a Chehalis City Council member and a former deputy police chief.

Bradley volunteered to go over the books, Panesko said. Bradley will reconcile them, and another accountant will audit them afterward, he said.

The museum, which resides in a former rail station on Northwest Front Way, is in the red by about $14,000, according to Pansko. The books haven’t been in balance since 2008, he said.

Panesko said the board’s bylaws aren’t clear as to what authority the officers have in spending, without the approval of the rest of the board. He suggested the radical changes may not have taken place if the answers the membership were given were not evasive and incomplete.

The former officers are president Kathy Gavin, vice president Walt King, treasurer Aileen Carlson and secretary Pam Elder.

The museum has been shut down temporarily, and it’s bank accounts have been closed, Panesko said.

“We’ve locked down everything to have impartial people look at it,” he said.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

DEPUTY WAKES UP MAN IN BURNING HOUSE

• A Bucoda home was destroyed by fire yesterday morning and a resident sleeping in a virtually sound proof room escaped injury when an early-arriving deputy woke him up. The Bucoda Fire Department was joined by three other departments to answer the approximately 9 a.m. call at the 200 block of Market Street, according to Fire Chief Jim Fowler. The resident had sound proofed a bedroom in the backside of the house to keep the noise of trains out and a Thurston County Sheriff’s deputy broke a window to wake him up, Fowler said. The front half of the single-story wood home was burning, Fowler said. The house was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived, Fowler said. The cause is under investigation.

ASSAULT

• A man reportedly picking fights with other patrons at a downtown Centralia drinking establishment was arrested after he allegedly rammed an arriving police officer with his shoulder yesterday evening in Centralia. Jimmy H. Mayfield, 56, was arrested for third-degree assault after his contact with an officer at the 100 block of North Tower Avenue, according to the Centralia Police Department. The Centralia resident was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.

• A Chehalis man was given a citation yesterday for “prohibited acts by dogs” after a woman walking along the 2300 block of Jackson Highway was bitten in the hip by a Boxer dog and then an arriving deputy was charged by the Boxer and a Mini Pinscher, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy then witnessed the canines run after another woman walking by, the sheriff’s office reported.

THEFT

• A pistol was among more than $3,000 of valuables stolen in a burglary at a home on the 700 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Napavine sometime between Nov. 7 and Monday, according to Lewis County Sheriff’s office. Taken was a .357 Colt Python with custom grips, an air conditioning unit, an area light and binoculars, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday.

• A 1997 Honda Accord, with its keys in the ignition, went missing from the 2500 block of North Pearl Street sometime between Friday and Monday, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported yesterday. It has a license plate reading 521 UBX and belongs to a Marysville woman, according to the sheriff’s office.

• Police are investigating the theft of prescription methadone from a room at Providence Centralia Hospital yesterday morning. An officer called to the facility on the 900 block of South Schueber Road was told the victim was visiting his wife and left the medication in her room while the couple left briefly. When he returned, the methadone was gone, according to police.

• Centralia police took a report of a a prowl on the 900 block of North Tower Avenue on Monday night. Two propane tanks were reported taken.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called about 3:40 p.m. yesterday to Southwest Cascade Avenue where they were told someone had shot out the window on a canopy of a pickup truck. Further details were not readily available.

• A deputy was called yesterday to the 1800 block of little Hanaford Road in Centralia where a man reported someone shot out two windows of his house with what appeared to have been a BB gun.

DUI MISHAPS

• Chehalis police were called about 1:40 a.m. yesterday by a motorist and told a vehicle was stopped in the intersection of National and Chamber of Commerce Way and the driver was “passed out.” The driver was woken up and drove away, but was found nearby where his vehicle had driven off the road into the brush along the 1600 block of National Avenue, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Brent A. Laughlin, 34, of Centralia, was arrested and booked for driving under the influence, according to Chehalis police.

• A 63-year-old Doty resident was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital yesterday with shoulder and neck pain after a single-vehicle wreck on state Route 6 just east of Pe Ell. A trooper called just after 10 a.m. reported John L. Case had been traveling west when his pickup truck left the road to the right, struck an embankment and came to rest in a ditch, according to the Washington State Patrol. The Ford Ranger pickup was totaled, according to the state patrol. Case was to be cited for driving under the influence, according to the investigating trooper.

PEDESTRIAN STRUCK BY VEHICLE

• Police were called about 8:15 p.m. on Monday after a pedestrian was hit at the southbound onramp to Interstate 5 at Harrison Avenue in Centralia. The individual walked away, telling the driver he was not hurt, according to the Centralia Police Department. Officers contacted him a few blocks away and he declined aid, police reported. Police concluded he had stepped into the path of the vehicle and it struck his leg.

DRUGS

• Two people were arrested Monday night for possession of drugs from the 1100 block of Scammon Creek Road in Centralia. Just after 9 p.m., officers contacted Tracy A. McGee, 44, about a felony warrant and when she was booked into the jail, suspected methamphetamine was discovered hidden in her bra, according to the Centralia Police Department. A 16-year-old boy was arrested for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia and taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, according to police. It’s not clear if they were at the same address.

• Three Rochester residents were among those arrested yesterday when drug detectives served search warrants at store fronts operating as marijuana dispensaries in Grand Mound and four other locations in Thurston County. Rochelle L. Deloe, 36, Roberta E. Johnson, 50, and Donald E. Smith, 31, were arrested for unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, according to the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force. According to a news release, law enforcement officers from four agencies, working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, served warrants at “illegal dispensaries” after a five-month local investigation that included numerous purchases of marijuana from the various places. They included “Triple D’s” on the 21500 block of Old Highway 99 in Grand Mound. Spokesperson Lt. Greg Elwin said. Elwin today said he didn’t know how much marijuana was seized at Triple D’s, because although law enforcement officers arrived there around 11 a.m., they hadn’t finished “processing” the store front by the time he went home yesterday. Elwin said that while the state’s medical marijuana law allows patients to grow their own or have a caregiver grow it for them, the law “clearly prohibits the sale of marijuana by anybody, to anybody.” Read about the other locations searched in today’s Olympian, here. Read about federal involvement in coordinated raids in Thurston, Pierce and King counties, here

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CORRECTION: The name of one of the three individuals arrested in Grand Mound has been updated to reflect her correct first name. (An “a” was inadvertently left off the end of Roberta E. Johnson’s name)