Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Whether Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds and his sons will be required to appear and give testimony at next month’s coroner’s inquest into Ronda Reynolds 1998 death remains an open question.

Ron Reynolds

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod has indicated he won’t challenge the written motions each has made invoking their fifth amendment rights not to incriminate themselves.

They’ve asked that their subpoenas be quashed so they don’t have to attend the inquest, according to McLeod. The attorney representing Ronda Reynolds’ mother, Barb Thompson, has taken issue with the coroner’s position on the matter.

“If they say I’d like to plead the fifth, I’m certainly going to honor that,” McLeod told news reporters on Friday.

McLeod indicated the public, his inquest jury and members of the news media probably shouldn’t expect to see or hear the four at the inquest.

Not so fast, attorney Royce Ferguson said in essence with his filing over the weekend. There are several reasons the Reynolds family ought to and can be compelled to take the stand at the inquest, according to Ferguson.

Ronda Reynolds

McLeod, elected last November as the first new Lewis County coroner in decades, is moving through ambiguously charted territory as he convenes the October coroner’s inquest.

He said on Friday he thinks the last one held in the county was in 1961, but that’s all he knows about it, he said.

Coroner’s inquests in Washington state are rare, and McLeod, with assistance from Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor David Fine, has created and adopted a set of rules to guide the proceedings.

One of McLeod’s first acts after he took office in January was to change the death certificate from suicide to undetermined in the case of the former trooper whose death has been the subject of near continuous controversy for almost 13 years.

Reynolds, 33, was found with a bullet in her head and covered by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet in the Toledo home she shared with her husband of less than a year, Ron Reynolds. He and his three sons – then 18, 17 and 10 – were present when the first sheriff’s deputy arrived the morning of Dec. 16, 1998.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod

McLeod says he would like a final resolution on the death.

While a judicial review, with an advisory panel of jurors, was held two years ago seeking answers about the manner of Ronda Reynolds’ death, the coroner’s inquest is an entirely different kind of proceeding and more details can be expected to be aired during the inquest.

For the judicial review, then-Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson and his attorney chose to not call any witnesses to defend Wilson’s reasoning for choosing suicide. The panel, the judge and the audience heard days of testimony from the opposite side, Thompson’s witnesses who offered many reasons to show it was likely not a suicide. Even Thompson’s lawyer chose not to call upon those who presumably believed it to be suicide.

For the coroner’s inquest, a big difference is the elected coroner says he is striving to call upon all individuals who have first-hand or expert information about the death, and he has subpoena power.

Under McLeod’s inquest rules, Thompson as the decedent’s mother is deemed one of several “persons especially interested in the matter”. As such, Thompson is allowed by McLeod’s rules to submit a “brief” in opposition to the motions requesting quashing of the subpoenas.

Barb Thompson

Her lawyer’s brief claims Ron, David, Jonathan and Joshua Reynolds do not have the right under the terms of the subpoenas to refuse to appear at the coroner’s inquest.

Since the corner’s inquest is not a criminal proceeding, there is no prejudice to the witnesses and they should not be excused from appearing, even if they invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in front of the jurors, Ferguson writes.

Further, attorney Ferguson claims, whether they may properly invoke the privilege must be determined by an inquiry; Ferguson suggests, for example, “… not all of the Reynolds witnesses are suspects of homicide (for which there is no statute of limitations), but they may only be suspects of having rendered criminal assistance or committed perjury (crimes for which the statute of limitations has run) and so there is no jeopardy upon which to base the exercise of the privilege.”

McLeod’s rules say his decisions on subpoena quash requests will “ordinarily” be made without oral argument; he said on Friday he expects to decide by Sept. 27.

Thompson’s lawyer Ferguson also notes in his filing he objects to leaving suicide on the table as one of the choices the inquest jury may choose from. His reasoning is the 2009 judicial review already concluded the label of suicide was incorrect, arbitrary and capricious.

Ferguson suggests not enforcing the subpoenas or keeping suicide as an option could result in another judicial review proceeding.

McLeod last month released a list of 36 witnesses he expects for the inquest, and on Friday said he sent out two more subpoenas, to Dr. John Demakas and Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds.

There’s one witness he wouldn’t name to whom he’s sent subpoenas to four addresses and still can’t locate, he said.

McLeod, when he held a press conference on Friday at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center, said he’s been asked if he intends to call former Lewis County Sheriff John McCroskey and former Lewis County Coroner Wilson to testify.

He won’t, McLeod said, as neither man was at the scene, and what they know is only what others told them or is their opinion.

The coroner’s inquest is set to begin on Oct. 10, and could last a week or could go on for six weeks, McLeod said.

“This will take as long as it takes,” he said.

McLeod said the jurors determination will be the verdict, as long as it doesn’t seem unreasonable to him.

It will be held in a Lewis County District Court room and begin at 9 a.m. each week day, according to his schedule. However, today he told the Lewis County board of commissioners he’s planning for only half days during the second week.

The courtroom is expected to have seating for 60 persons. Twenty are reserved for the news media and another 20 will be available to the public on a first come, first served basis each day.

Members of the public who want a seating pass may line up outside the courthouse no earlier than 6 a.m. each day, according to the coroner.

How long those lines will be can only be imagined: When true crime writer Ann Rule traveled to Centralia College in November to speak about and sign her book on the controversial death, more than 500 individuals filled the auditorium, and more were turned away.

McLeod expects a courtroom audio tape of the proceedings to be made and a transcript from it will be placed in a file available to the public.

On Friday, he estimated the cost of the coroners inquest to be somewhere around $35,000.

•••

See the rules governing the procedures for McLeod’s coroner’s inquest, here

Read most recent news story, “Breaking news: Witnesses subpoenaed for Reynolds’ coroner’s inquest” from Wednesday August 31, 2011, here

For more background, read “Jury finds coroner erred in ruling former trooper’s death a suicide”, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The cause of the fire that killed a 94-year-old Centralia man over the weekend is likely to remain a mystery, according to authorities.

Robert Richard Zorn was found dead in his home Sunday morning of smoke inhalation, and a good-sized hole had burned through his dining room floor.

It had burned itself out and was cool when firefighters arrived, Riverside Fire Authority Assistant Chief Rick Mack said this morning.

“It just appears to be some tragic accident that we can’t define,” Mack said.

From the outside, the only evidence there had even been a fire at the house on the 1400 block of Johnson Road was the windows were sooted over, according to the fire department. Inside, there was heat and smoke damage to much of the single-story house.

The situation was discovered when one of Zorn’s brothers went to check on him Sunday morning. Investigators determined it had occurred sometime in the previous 24 hours, based on when Zorn was last seen.

Mack said the remains of a chair were found in the approximately 5-foot by 3-foot hole that burned through the carpet, the hardwood floor and the subfloor. It had self-extinguished for lack of oxygen, he said.

Investigators couldn’t find any reason electrical or otherwise for the fire, Mack said, and the cause will be listed as undetermined. Nothing was missing from the home to suggest an intruder or any foul play, he said.

There was evidence Zorn had tried to escape; he was found in a back room, Mack said.

An autopsy yesterday concluded he died from asphyxiation due to inhalation of toxic and combustible materials; the manner is accidental, according to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Chehalis police officer resigned in the midst of investigations into possible misconduct during his assignment as a school resource officer involving a high school student.

Officer Jeff Elder quit the department last month, as his superiors were preparing to launch an internal investigation into whether he violated ethical standards and policies involving alleged sexual contact with a girl from W.F. West High School.

A criminal investigation was completed at the end of July and the prosecutor determined no crime occurred and no charge should be filed. If a crime did occur, the statute of limitations has passed, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes wrote in a memo to the investigating detective.

The allegations came at the end of June from a now-22-year-old woman who disclosed incidents that occurred when she was a freshman and a sophomore, according to law enforcement incident reports.

Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer said the planned internal investigation won’t be done now.

“Jeff’s resignation was completely voluntary,” Schaffer said. “The reason we did not get into an administrative review is he resigned before it began.”

Schaffer said this week he wouldn’t speculate as to whether any department rules had been broken, as those answers could only come from a review.

The allegations came to light when the young woman reported to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office in June she may have been drugged and raped, and then also mentioned an unrelated incident, that years earlier she had an intimate encounter with a law enforcement officer – she said she was certain she was 14 or 15 years old when it happened, according to documents from the Mason County Sheriff’s Office.

They contacted the Chehalis Police Department, which in turn asked the Washington State Patrol to investigate.

State patrol detectives concluded the encounter in question, sexual intercourse, at Elder’s home occurred days after the girl’s 16th birthday in 2005.

According to case documents, the girl – whose identity is blacked out – had left W.F. West midway through her sophomore year and moved to Thurston County, but sometimes babysat for the Elder’s children.

She said she met and came to to know Elder when she was a freshman and he was the school resource officer.

In a transcript of her interview with a Mason County sheriff’s detective she describes Elder as tapping or grabbing her buttocks “often” at school (and once at the police department), sneaking her through the back into school dances and and one time bringing animal crackers to her when she was at home and suspended from school.

She also told of a time when she was at the Elder’s home with his wife and children when he allegedly pushed her against a wall and started “making out” with her.

She described the same day, across the street at a baseball field, the two had “wrestled” for her purse and he kissed her “really quick.”

She told the detective Elder gave her his old handcuffs as a gift.

He would also say to her a lot “You make me hard” and also, “You know, 16’s the age of consent”, she told the detective.

Elder, now 41, declined to comment.

Elder was the school resource officer until the end of March 2004, according to Schaffer, while she was a freshman.

She graduated from high school in 2007.

Elder had asked to step down at the same time he was reprimanded for taking two female students off campus so one could pick up her homework and making a traffic stop with the girls in his car, according to documents from the Chehalis Police Department.

He was suspended for two days. At the time, the high school principal told Elder’s superior she hoped Elder would still continue with that assignment.

The school resource officer works primarily at the high school as a resource for the school district and a representative for the  police department, interacting with the students, according to Schaffer. They’re there to teach and be a positive role model, he said.

Officer Troy Thornburg had been in the position the past several years, but last year because of budget issues, the program was put on hold.

Both Schaffer and Chehalis School District Superintendent Ed Rothlin this week gave both Thornburg and the program high praise and said if it weren’t for the finances, they would continue it and hope to in the future.

The young woman who made the allegations couldn’t be reached for an interview.

Also in the state patrol’s investigation is a letter from the young woman’s husband, that says he is deployed in Afghanistan, and asks them to write a letter to get him a compassionate reassignment to Joint Base Lewis McChord so he can be back by his wife’s side as quickly as possible during this time.

A sergeant of the investigating state patrol detective said yesterday he didn’t know if such a letter had been generated.

A sergeant at the Mason County Sheriff’s Office said the young woman’s other allegation – that she may have been drugged and raped in an unrelated case – was investigated and their prosecutor declined to file any charges.

Elder started with the police department in November 1994, was put on administrative leave July 7 and resigned Aug. 17.