Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated 6:43 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod quashed his own arrest warrants following the coroner’s inquest into Ronda Reynolds death out of concern of getting sued, he indicated in a news release yesterday.

Warren McLeod, Lewis County Coroner

McLeod said he issued arrest warrants for her husband, Ron Reynolds, and his son, Jonathan Reynolds, last Wednesday evening, following the conclusion by the inquest jury the pair were responsible for the homicide of the former state trooper in 1998.

He delivered the warrants to the sheriff’s office that night so they could be served, he said.

McLeod said he was notified first thing Thursday morning by the prosecutor’s office a legal issue had been brought to their attention.

“I was also advised that if the warrants were served prior to the legal issue being investigated and resolved the county could be liable for lawsuits,” McLeod wrote. “Based on this information I quashed the warrants and began an investigation into the legal issue.”

The coroner won’t reveal what the issue is.

He does say he will disclose it on Friday morning, speak about his investigation into it and it will be resolved that day.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has given himself until Thursday morning to decide if any criminal charges will be filed against the Reynolds’ men. He’s said he’s spent numerous hours going through the sheriff’s office case file and the evidence heard by the inquest jury.

Meyer plans to announce his decision on Thursday morning at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center.

Under state law regarding coroner’s inquests, if a jury panel returns with a conclusion of homicide and also names the person or person responsible, the coroner is required to issue an arrest warrant, unless they are already in custody.

McLeod didn’t say who might sue Lewis County. He said today he’s not even sure who raised the issue with the prosecutor’s office.

It wasn’t attorneys for Ron or Jonathan Reynolds, he said.

McLeod, elected last November, conducted the inquest – a rarity in Washington state – in hopes of finding a resolution in the controversial case.

Reynolds, 33, was preparing to leave her husband of less than a year when she was found fatally shot in the head, on the floor of their walk-in closet, with a turned-on electric blanket covering her in their Toledo home.

Ron Reynolds, principal at Toledo Elementary School, told authorities he was asleep and did not hear the gunshot.

The Dec. 16, 1998 death was closed as suicide despite protests from Lewis County Sheriff’s Office lead detective Jerry Berry, and within a week after Ron Reynolds’ attorney had threatened to file a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office if they didn’t cease the investigation.

McLeod today called it a “major” legal issue, perhaps better described as a constitutional issue.

“It there is a multi-million dollar lawsuit and we lose, it could bankrupt the county,” McLeod said. “Just defending those can bankrupt the county.”

The coroner indicated he’s not comfortable having set aside his statutory obligation.

“Let’s just say had the arrest warrants been served, and the folks gone before a judicial officer, a judge, and the legal issue brought up, more likely than not the judge would have put everything on hold,” he said.

The coroner said his suspension of the warrant process and his decision to sort through it publicly on Friday is entirely independent of the Prosecutor Meyer’s timing and decision about any potential criminal charges.

“Even if he announces on Thursday he will not prosecute, that does not relive me of my statutory obligation to issue the warrants,” McLeod said.

McLeod plans to reconvene the inquest at 9 a.m. on Friday.

He’s not asking the jury to deliberate further.

He plans to disclose the details of the legal issue, and put any offering of information about it on the record and have it given under oath.

He said he could have done it sooner, but chose Friday in part to lessen the hardship on the inquest jurors “employment-wise.”

“If it turns out it’s not an issue at all, the warrants will go forward,” he said.
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Read background on the inquest, here

Read state statutes regarding county coroner, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer issued a statement today assuring the public he is working diligently to make a charging decision in Ronda Reynolds’ death, and he will announce it the day before the coroner’s announcement explaining why the arrest warrants were suspended.

Jonathan Meyer, Lewis County Prosecutor

After telling a packed courtroom on Wednesday afternoon he would issue arrest warrants within 24 hours for the two men just named as responsible for Reynolds’ 1998 homicide, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod suddenly this morning announced he put the warrants on hold.

McLeod said only a legal issue “came to light”.

The seven-day coroner’s inquest in Chehalis ended this week with a panel of five concluding the death almost 13 years ago was homicide; and Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan Reynolds were responsible.

McLeod acknowledged this morning he is required under state law to issue the warrants.

The attorney representing Jonathan Reynolds, indicated today he didn’t file any legal documents to stop the process. Ron Reynolds’ attorney hasn’t returned calls for comment.

Warren McLeod, Lewis County Coroner

The attorney representing Ronda Reynolds’ mother, Barbara Thompson, said he had no idea what was going on.

Royce Ferguson, designated by the coroner as “an especially interested party” to the inquest, sent an electronic letter to McLeod’s legal counsel today inquiring about the delay.

In it, Ferguson noted, state statute provides that following a finding of homicide by an inquest jury, “the coroner shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the person charged, returnable forthwith to the nearest magistrate.”

“Forthwith commonly means ‘without delay’,” Ferguson wrote.

Ferguson’s inquiry didn’t get him any answers.

Coroner McLeod has said he would provide the answers a week from today in a courtroom when his inquest is “reconvened.”

That is scheduled for 9 a.m. next Friday morning in a Lewis County District Courtroom.

Prosecutor Meyer in his news release today said he has not made a charging decision in the case.

He’s spent numerous hours reviewing the case file and inquest materials and will continue to use the “methodical and diligent process” his office strives for in every case, he wrote.

But Meyer will know his answer by next Thursday, he wrote.

He will announce it at a press conference on the ground floor of the same building at 10 a.m. that day.
•••

Read background on the inquest, here

Read state statutes regarding county coroner, here

Read “Ex-trooper’s husband put on leave from school principal post” from KOMOnews.com today at 2:41 p.m., here

Read “Ruling on trooper’s death: more suspense in unprecedented case” from Crosscut.com today, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County coroner has temporarily suspended the process regarding the arrest warrants following the coroner’s inquest into Ronda Reynolds 1998 death.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod

Coroner Warren McLeod acknowledges he is required under state law to issue the warrants after his inquest jury determined Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan Reynolds were responsible for the homicide, but indicates a legal issue has arisen.

In a news release this morning, McLeod writes a “complete public disclosure” will be made a week from today when his inquest is reconvened in Lewis County District Court.

McLeod calls it a temporary suspension to allow for resolution of the issue.

He stated no further details will be provided at this time.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer is still reviewing the evidence heard by the inquest jury regarding former trooper Ronda Reynolds’ 1998 death.

Ron Reynolds

When the coroner’s inquest adjourned yesterday afternoon, its presiding officer Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said he would issue an arrest warrant for Reynolds’ husband and step-son – as state law requires – within 24 hours.

The jury determined her death was homicide and not suicide as McLeod’s predecessor long claimed. The jurors then named Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan Reynolds as responsible for her death.

Meyer said neither Ron or Jonathan Reynolds had been booked into the jail when he left for the day.

He referred questions about their arrest warrant to McLeod.

McLeod said today he won’t make any public statements until his inquest is officially closed, something he will consider done when he issues his “final order”.

Ronda Reynolds

Yesterday afternoon from the bench, McLeod told the courtroom he would do that within the “next few days”.

As for who will serve the arrest warrant, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield’s only public statement came on the day the inquest began: His office “will assist in the same professional, non-biased way that we always have.”

While the coroner is responsible for the inquest and its outcome – changing the manner of death on the death certificate – whether and if any criminal charges are filed is up to the prosecutor.

The inquest jurors only had to find it was more likely than not the two men were responsible, a different standard than would be applied in a criminal case.

Prosecutor Meyer said he’s still looking at the evidence to make his decision.

The Toledo School District’s superintendent issued a formal statement today saying only they are “doing everything possible to maintain the integrity of the educational process.”

•••

Read about the inquest jurors decision and what it means, or doesn’t mean, here