Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County’s now-former chief deputy coroner fell asleep repeatedly during her contact with a state trooper this summer when she was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of depressants, according to charging documents.

Carmen Brunton’s arraignment is set for Tuesday in Lewis County District Court. She was charged Nov. 12 after the results of blood tests came back.

Brunton was let go from her job after the July traffic stop on Interstate 5 south of Chehalis; it was just before 8 a.m. on her way to work.

The Winlock resident told a sheriff’s deputy she was on numerous prescription medications and had taken Oxycodone about an hour earlier, according to charging documents. Oxycodone is a synthetic narcotic prescribed for pain.

Brunton, 56, was the coroner’s office only full time employee and was responsible for its day to day operations. She had been a county employee since 1993.

Driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs is a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Charging documents give a similar account to a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office incident report, which was available soon after Brunton’s arrest.

Deputy Jason Mauermann wrote that he responded to a citizen report in Napavine that a Black Expedition was “all over the road” and had pulled into the Chevron station on Rush Road. He followed it onto Interstate 5 where he described the vehicle as repeatedly drifting between lanes.

When he contacted Brunton near the Labree Road interchange, the deputy wrote, she had very slow speech and heavy, sleepy eyes but he didn’t detect any odor of liquor. When asked, she said she was on numerous prescription medications, including muscle relaxers, heart pills and pain medication, according to Mauermann.

Upon further questioning, she told him she had taken Oxycodone for pain that morning, but not a muscle relaxer, according to Mauermann’s report.

Deputies requested a trooper take over the investigation to avoid a conflict because they worked closely with her.

Charging documents say Trooper Weaver responded and conducted an evaluation, noting Brunton also had slurred speech and was unsteady when she walked.

“Weaver observed that Brunton was lethargic and drowsy and fell asleep multiple times during his contact with her,” charging documents state.

Weaver, a drug recognition expert, concluded she was under the influence of a central nervous system depressant.

Brunton was put on administrative leave that day, July 15. Her boss, elected Coroner Terry Wilson, said her leave ended and she wouldn’t be returning on Aug. 3, the same day a front page news story was published about the arrest.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh said the drugs found with the blood test are Oxycodone, a pain pill; lorazepam which is often used for anxiety; as well as citalopram, amitriptyline and nortiptyline

Beigh said the last three can be used as antidepressants and one of them was a component of one of the others.

There’s no allegation Brunton was taking any medication not legally prescribed to her.

Beigh said she didn’t know if they were all prescribed, but it doesn’t matter.

“What matters is if a drug of some sort has impaired your driving,” Beigh said.

Brunton’s duties for about the previous 12 years included managing the office, assisting in death investigations, arranging autopsies and notifying the next of kin when deaths occur that are under the jurisdiction of the coroner’s office.

Coroner Wilson said in early August he had not seen anything breaking the protocol for safe storage and eventual destruction of the wide variety of medications his office confiscates, something it is required to do by state law.

Last month, however, in a meeting with Lewis County commissioners, the newly appointed chief deputy coroner Dawn Harris described a new policy she said was established last May.

The coroner’s office still collects any medications they find belonging to the deceased individuals they are responsible for, but all narcotics are counted and put into an evidence bag at the scene, which is witnessed by a law enforcement officer, according to Harris.

The coroners office also has put into writing a policy that deputy coroners don’t take possession of weapons at death scenes, Harris said at the same meeting.

Come January, Wilson will end 28 years of his job as elected coroner.

Community college forensics instructor Warren McLeod of Chehalis won the office in this month’s election with 54.5 percent of the vote running against retired DEA agent Micheal Hurley of Mossyrock.
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Read “Coroner’s top employee out after arrest for driving under the influence of pain pills” from Wednesday Aug. 4, 2010 here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 21-year-old male was arrested after he allegedly crawled under the closed door of an occupied public bathroom stall in Morton where an 8-year-old boy started screaming drawing the child’s grandfather and then police.

The incident happened in June.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges earlier this month and summoned the 21-year-old suspect from Morton to Lewis County Superior Court.

Steven R. Moulton appeared before a judge on Wednesday, but has not yet been arraigned.

Charging documents in the case describe that on June 25, the child was with his family who were camping in Gust Backstrom Park.

The boy went to the public restroom, according to his grandfather, who said he then saw a dark-haired male enter.

About 20 seconds later, the child started screaming, the grandfather told police.

The grandfather ran to the bathroom, forced open the stall door and threw Moulton out, according to charging documents.

The boy told police he was sitting down behind the locked door when it happened, and said Moulton covered his mouth with his hand and punched him twice in the face, according to charging documents.

Moulton denied hitting the boy, and told police “he could see someone was in the locked stall, but he had to go to the bathroom,” according to charging documents.

Defense attorney Robert Schroeter who represented Moulton at his first appearance in court on Nov. 16 said, “Without question, there are developmental delays.”

The 21-year-old was scheduled to make his plea on Wednesday, but court-appointed defense attorney David Arcuri told Judge James Lawler he first needed to get an order to have Moulton evaluated.

“I represented him a couple of years ago and he was found not competent related to a developmental disability,” Arcuri said.

Lawler agreed and scheduled the two to return to the Chehalis court next week.

He is free on a $25,000 signature bond co-signed by his father, Michael R. Moulton.

The senior Moulton is the Morton School District teacher whose teaching certificate was suspended at the beginning of this school year after having been under review for nearly a year in connection with his arrest for allegedly assaulting students by touching them.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office charged the younger Moulton with first-degree burglary for the June incident in the park restroom.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said “… the good news is, nothing really bad happened. I don’t know what his motive was.”

Meagher explained the unusual charging decision saying it technically fits the elements of burglary, a class A felony.

That is, he unlawfully entered or remained in a building with the intent to commit a crime, and he did assault the boy; he put his hand over his mouth, Meagher said.

“You have a public restroom, but he crawled under  locked stall,” Meagher said. “So that is impliedly not open.”

“It fits legally, it’s just not something you typically see,” he said.