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GF4OSSENBACHER
BROS INC
; 106 NESIST AVE
PORTLAND OR 97232
" i
: =4(" '-- . .....
i
.... i :
#
:#
MOoN'SuITED MEN from the state's instant-response team Work to
dismantle an alleged methamphetamine lab discovered in a trailer
in the county's south end last week.
Kerr, Taylor lead in city;
District 5 EMS levy fails
Barring a major turnaround in
yet-to-be-counted ballots, Dick
Taylor and Carolyn Kerr will vie
in November h)r a seat on the
Shelton City Commission.
Following Tuesday's primary
election, the first primary to be
conducted here by mail, Taylor
led Kerr by 64 votes. Kelly
Buechel trailed Kerr by 111 votes
and apparently is out of the race
to replace John Tarrant as com-
missioner of finance. Tarrant is
running unopposed to replace
Scott Hilburn as mayor. Hilburn
is stepping down at year's end af-
ter one term ill office.
Meanwhile, it looks as if Diana
Goldy and Mike Brown will con-
tinue on to the November ballot
in one of two heavily contested
races for seats on the Mary M.
Knight School Board. Brown led
the next contender, Ira Brehmey-
er, by just two votes at the end of
ballot-counting Tuesday. In the
other race, incumbent Kurt King-
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIll
th lab probe here is Primary
State s 182nd this year election
MADDUX
about as hot
r afternoon can get,
Mason County
Yard on Johns Prairie, a
silver-colored plastic
and air-purifying
t wields a
a screwdriver on a
the box yields and
out a number of items,
before handing
md col-
under an impro-
awning. He's been
going from a small,
trailer that re-
Sun like a radiant heat-
advises him to
take off the helmet,
plenty more to do
his five teammates
real shade, decon-
showers, relaxation.
lrs and beakers and
all stained with
sort and boxes of as-
to catalogue as
the apparent clan-
amphetamine labo-
182nd meth-lab in-
year for members
Instant Re-
I Says Detective Cory
s OVerseeing the ef-
NOT THE only
out the afternoon.
5 firefighters
and a District 5
an aid vehicle are
mandated standby,
medic is soon to be
the Scene of a brush
that happens, she
rangements for
do the neces-
checks on the
both first-re-
that the chemi-
team members are
of making the
the lab ill. They
e of the chemicals
explosive, and
Sheriffs Detec-
Nick Patterson is
With the county's
Steve Ellison,
Two de-
the
arcotics Enforce-
keeping a techni-
the inside
cal eye on the follow-up to their
arrests, made west of Shelton the
previous Friday.
This one is the result of a war-
rant arrest.
ACTING ON information that
Jerry L. Morris and Carrie A.
Hyder, both wanted on bench
warrants, were living in the little
travel trailer on, SE Highland
Drive, south of Shelton, sheriffs
deputies went to the site to serve
the warrants on the two, accord-
ing to Mason County Sheriff
Steve Whybark.
When they saw motion inside
the trailer but no one answered
their knock, and officers "detected
paraphernalia and a smell con-
sistent with a clandestine lab,"
Whybark said Friday, the depu-
ties got a search warrant and
brought Morris, 39, and Hyder,
35, out of the residence.
They then called WESTNET
agents into the action.
whybark said the investigation
will involve potential charges of
manufacture of a controlled sub-
stance against Morris and Hyder,
who were identified in Mason
County Superior Court and or-
dered held pending their sentenc-
ings, Morris on an escape charge
and Hyder on a forgery convic-
tion. The sentencings were set for
September 23.
WESTNET personnel hauled
the subjects' car and trailer off to
the impound yard to continue the
investigation.
"It's pretty unbelievable people
were living in there," Drake said.
"It's not a huge operation, but any
of these operations can be pretty
toxic. We can't tell the scale of
this one at this point, but we sus-
pect that the whole process isn't
done here."
He explained that often the
first stages of methamphetamine
manufacture will be done at one
location, the final stages at anoth-
er.
The undercover detectives who
work investigating the drug scene
are at risk, he acknowledged.
They're in and out of the places
where people who have no under-
standing of the dangers of the
substances they're dealing with,
like lithium from batteries, mix
them in a chemical stew that
makes a witches' brew sound be-
nign.
And they're in daily contact
with people whose thinking is
skewed to the next hit, the next
high and where they'll get the
dollars, or the ingredients, for the
one after that. "Their decision-
making processes are not conse-
quence-based," one of the detec-
tives said as he watched workers
carry out contaminated items
from the trailer.
"And they won't be, not unless
our jail and prison systems start
providing treatment," he added.
"METE[ IS A social epidemic,"
observed Ditmer as he doled out
water to one dehydrated worker
and advised another to get into
the shade. "It started in Califor-
nia, and it's been moving up the
coast."
His team, he said, is trained in
strategic weapons work as well as
drug investigations, and they
used to be called in a few times a
year. Now they're working full
time dismantling clandestine lab-
oratories. "We're trained to know
the chemicals, to use the protec-
tions and the tactics: fingerprint-
ing, assessment of chemicals, tak-
ing samples - and decontamina-
tion," he said.
Yet another agency was due on
the scene to take dangerous resi-
dues and contaminated materials
away, Patterson said. "We're not
even starting to estimate the cost
of all the hours, all the agencies"
that would be involved before the
case is completed, he said.
And Ellison, after the moon-
suited, ventilated SIRT team peo-
ple head off on other calls else-
where, will be left with the task of
husbanding the evidence as the
case begins its long process
through the court system.
"who knows about the long-
range effects of these things?" he
queried. He laughed grimly when
someone pointed out that the
dark-gray bird circling overhead
was a vulture, its turkey-red head
bright in the hot sun as it checked
out the scene.
Firefighters kept busy;
burning ban instituted
By JEFF GREEN
Fire crews around Mason
County and in the Olympic Na-
tional Forest were kept hopping
this week by a rash of fires that
broke out in the tinder-dry condi-
tions that prompted a countywide
burning ban order.
The 90-acre fire in a steep and
rocky area of the national forest
drew a crew of 11 smoke jumpers
who parachuted in to the area, as
well as a four-member rappelling
team that was airlifted in to the
area aboard a helicopter.
The fire was reported around
midday Sunday in the Olympic
National Forest in a steep area
near The Brothers in southeast-
ern Jefferson County. The cause
remains under investigation by
the U.S. Forest Service.
However, a Forest Service
spokesman said the probable
cause was a lightning strike from
an earlier storm that may have
been smoldering for as long as
several weeks and was kicked up
Sunday by high winds.
BY WEDNESDAY morning,
the fire had consumed approx-
imately 90 acres and was burning
next to a conifer forest, said
Verne Farrell, a Forest Service
information officer. There was
very little chance the fire could
spread into nearby Olympic Na-
tional Park, he added. A total of
(Please turn to page S.)
results
Shelton City Commision
Dick Taylor 488 39.5%
Carolyn Kerr 424 34.3%
Kelly Buechel 323 26.2%
MMK School Board
(including Gray ttarbor County)
Pusilion 2
Diana Goldy 84 35.7%
Mike Brown 62 26.4%
Ira Brehmeyer 60 25.5%
Jim Compton 20 8.5%
Boyd Fite 9 3.8%
l)i:;lrct 3 '
Kurt Kingman 87 37.2%
Patsy Scott 50 21.4%
Dante Elliott 39 16.7%
Jenny Keesey 34 14.5%
Pat Sykora 24 10.3%
Fire District 2
Position 3
Jim LeBlanc 535 41.2%
Ralph Herth 316 24.4%
Kathryn Klusman 228 17.6%
Marcia Hamilton 218 16.8%
Fire District 5
Position 1
Thomas Brokaw 1,083 39.5%
David Tagye 798 29.1%
Lorne Hauser 519 18.9%
Terry Eastman 341 12.4%
Fire District 9
Position 2
"Sandi" Kvarnstrom 76 46.3%
Edward Bish 54 32.9%
Chuck Belander 34 20.7%
Port of Dewatto
District 1
Lorraine Kelly 44 58.7%
Pennie Edwards 19 25.3%
Stephen Vogt 12 16.0
Fire District 5
EMS levy
Yes 1,457 45.7%
No 1,728 54.3%
IIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIIIHUUlUlIIIIIHlUlUl
Arrest story
challenged
A story in last 'week's Journal,
detailing how a Grapeview wom-
an will test the state's medical
marijuana law after being arrest-
ed, was in error, according to a
friend of the woman.
Helen E. Gardner was stopped
by a guard at the Shelton Fred
Meyer and accused of shoplifting,
and a policeman arriving at the
store found her in possession of
drugs, according to the police.
Last week's story said that
when the guard detained Gard-
ner, he asked her if there was
anything else he should know
about and she told him she had
marijuana and cocaine in her fan-
ny pack to be used for medical
purposes.
Gardner's friend said this
week, in asking The Journal to
correct the story, that Gardner
never told the security guard she
had cocaine in the fanny pack.
"*,,,o,o, ...... ,.,,,.,30
.......... 36
g ..... 29
....... 15
............ 28
°°°tessos°*loe4
.......... 20
............... 26
......... 28
man and Patsy Scott were leading
the pack. In all, five candidates
filed for each of the two positions.
"I can't complain," Taylor said.
"Now is the time when the real
race starts. It's going to take
some work and we'll have at it."
Kerr said the results were
about what she and her campaign
committee expected them to be.
"Our goal was to survive the
primary," she said. "Obviously I'm
pleased. I appreciate people sup-
porting me. (The general election)
should be interesting."
ELECTIONS OFFICE staff
processed 6,381 mailed-in ballots
in the various races and one bal-
lot measure across Mason County
Tuesday. Another 113 ballots
came in too late Tuesday to be
counted that day and Mason
County Elections Supervisor Bill
t{uennekens said he expected
another 400 to 500 ballots to
come in Wednesday's mail.
Those ballots are due to be
counted Thursday morning and
whether they will change any of
the current results won't be
known until then. Huennekens
said elections officials are predict-
ing a turnout of 38 to 40 percent.
"We're happy with the
turnout," Huennekens told The
Journal. Primary elections ordi-
narily don't bring out a lot of vot-
ers. In the 1995 primary, just 25
percent of the registered voters
cast ballots. In 1997, 35 percent
voted, drawn to the polls that
year by a partisan state senate
race.
A recap of Tuesday's election
results follows this article.
IN OTHER RACES on Tues-
day's primary ballot, subject to
change by additional votes to be
counted:
• Thomas Brokaw and David
Tagye were the leading vote-get-
ters for a position on the Fire Dis-
trict 5 (Allyn) Commission.
Theyll advance to the November
ballot.
• Fire District 5's ballot propo-
sal for a permanent property tax
levy for emergency medical ser-
vices was heading for defeat. It
garnered just 45.7 percent "yes"
votes and needed 60 percent to
pass.
• Rose "Sandi" Kwmstrom
and Edward Bish received the
most votes in a race for a seat on
the Fire District 9 (Skokomish
Valley) Commission and will op-
pose one another in November.
• Also moving on to the No-
vember ballot will be Jim LeBlanc
and Ralph Herth in the race for a
position on the Fire District 2
(Belfair) Commission.
• Lorraine Kelly and Pennie
Edwards received the most votes
among ballots counted Tuesday
for a seat on the Port of Dewatto.
They'll advance to the November
ballot.
Thursday, September 16, 1999
113th Year - Number 37 4 Sections - 40 Pages
50 Cents
Youth, 19, receives
52 years for murder
James Wayne Anderson, 19, of
Shelton was sentenced Thursday
in Mason County Superior Court
to 52 years and eight months in
prison for murder in the first de-
gree.
Judge Toni Sheldon gave the
youth double the standard range
sentence for his role in the Janu-
ary 4 beating and strangulation
murder of 70-year-old Ronald
Kerr, a trapper from Olympia.
His cousin, 15-year-old Nathan C.
Hughe, s of Centralia, was sen-
tenced last month to 46 years and
seven months for the same crime.
Kerr was killed after he
knocked at the door of Anderson's
Shelton home and asked permis-
sion to trap beavers in the SWamp
behind 2241 East Agate Road. Po-
lice say Hughes hit Kerr with the
bowl of a blender and that he and
Anderson then strangled him
with an electric cord.
THE TWO KILLED Kerr so
they could steal his 1988 Ford
Ranger pickup truck, according to
confessions made by the two teen-
agers.
Hughes and Anderson were ar-
rested in Port Townsend January
6 after law officers there spotted
Kerr's pickup in the parking lot of
the QFC Store.
"The victim was a vibrant,
alive individual," Deputy Prosecu-
tor Reinhold Schuetz said.
Schuetz argued for an exceptional
sentence based on evidence that
the youths continued to attack
Kerr after he was rendered defen-
seless.
l'hey committed a series of as-
saults with attempts to smother
him, attempts to choke him and a
series of brutal and vicious kicks
to the head," he said.
DEFENSE ATTORNEy Rob-
ert Quillian said a few words
about the victim to Kerr's family,
who attended the sentencing of
Anderson and Hughes. "By all ac-
counts he was an exceptional man
and on behalf of James and my-
self yoh have our condolences," he
said.
Quillian noted that Anderson's
parents split up when he was a
few months old and that he hasn't
had much contact with his father.
"James has certainly not had the
best upbringing, the best family
life in the world," he said.
He compared the kille,rs..to
Lennie and George, the drifters in
Of Mice and Men, a novel by John
Steinbeck in which a big man of
limited intelligence kills a woman
by mistake. Hughes is slender
and said to be quite intelligent
while Anderson is said to weigh
nearly 300 pounds.
"George was a little-guy con
man and Lennie was this big guy
who was along for the ride and
was manipulated by George. Len-
nie, not knowing the bounds of
his power, killed Somebody. [
think that James was Lennie and
Mr. Hughes was George,,, Quil-
lian said.
Quillian said that Hughes ma-
nipulated Anderson. "It Wasn't
James Anderson who said as they
were leaving the scene of this hor-
rible crime, 'Score one for the
Bear,'" Quillian said. That re-
mark was attributed to Hughes, a
(Please turn to page 2.)
Speaks off to Cambridge
to acquire her doctorate
Recent University of Washing-
ton graduate Rachel S. Speaks is
off to England this fall to pursue
her doctoral studies in science at
Cambridge University.
Speaks, the daughter of Jerry
and Suzy Speaks of Union, gradu-
ated August 20 from the Univer-
sity of Washington College of En-
gineering with a bachelor of sci-
ence degree in ceramic engineer-
ing from the UW Materials Sci-
ence and Engineering Depart-
ment.
She received $85,000 in schol-
arships to pursue an accelerated
three-year PhD degree in the ma-
terials science and metallurgy de-
partment. Speaks received a Na-
tional Science Foundation gradu-
ate research fellowship to do re-
search work on nanofabrication of
functional devices.
HER SUBJECT, nanofabrica-
tion, Speaks explained, has to do
with manufacture of minuscule
items, "One nanometer is 50,000
times smaller than the diameter
of a human hair, and nanotech-
nology is the ultimate manipula-
tion of matter," Speaks said. "The
two biggest areas of research are
mechanical and medical," she
added, instancing computer chips,
gears and motors in the former
Rachel Speaks
w#
area and, for the latter, medica-
tion delivery systems and biocom-
patible tissues for artificial or-
gans.
Speaks will work with both
areas of research and develop-
ment, she said, though she will
likely make a commitment to one
area or the other in the course of
her studies.
Her awards were the latest in
a series of academic distinctions
for Speaks, who was valedictorian
of her 1994 North Mason High
School class. At the University of
Washington, she received both
the James I. Mueller Award for
the most outstanding junior in
her department and the Richard
L. Norrist Award for the most
outstanding senior in her depart-
ment.
She was active in clubs and ac-
tivities on campus, serving as the
professional mentoring co-chair
for the Women in Science and En-
gineering Center.
SPEAKS GAVE presentations
at three national conferences and
is working on her third publica-
tion. She received the University
of Washington's Mary Gates Stu-
dent Leadership Grant for her
outreach work in developing
hands-on experiments for high-
school teachers to use to help stu-
dents learn science and engineer.
ing concepts.
She was also honored for her
volunteer work by receiving one
of four S. Sterling Munro Public
Service Awards.
She worked for over a year at
Intel as a process engineer in waf-
er fabrication plants in Oregon.
GF4OSSENBACHER
BROS INC
; 106 NESIST AVE
PORTLAND OR 97232
" i
: =4(" '-- . .....
i
.... i :
#
:#
MOoN'SuITED MEN from the state's instant-response team Work to
dismantle an alleged methamphetamine lab discovered in a trailer
in the county's south end last week.
Kerr, Taylor lead in city;
District 5 EMS levy fails
Barring a major turnaround in
yet-to-be-counted ballots, Dick
Taylor and Carolyn Kerr will vie
in November h)r a seat on the
Shelton City Commission.
Following Tuesday's primary
election, the first primary to be
conducted here by mail, Taylor
led Kerr by 64 votes. Kelly
Buechel trailed Kerr by 111 votes
and apparently is out of the race
to replace John Tarrant as com-
missioner of finance. Tarrant is
running unopposed to replace
Scott Hilburn as mayor. Hilburn
is stepping down at year's end af-
ter one term ill office.
Meanwhile, it looks as if Diana
Goldy and Mike Brown will con-
tinue on to the November ballot
in one of two heavily contested
races for seats on the Mary M.
Knight School Board. Brown led
the next contender, Ira Brehmey-
er, by just two votes at the end of
ballot-counting Tuesday. In the
other race, incumbent Kurt King-
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIll
th lab probe here is Primary
State s 182nd this year election
MADDUX
about as hot
r afternoon can get,
Mason County
Yard on Johns Prairie, a
silver-colored plastic
and air-purifying
t wields a
a screwdriver on a
the box yields and
out a number of items,
before handing
md col-
under an impro-
awning. He's been
going from a small,
trailer that re-
Sun like a radiant heat-
advises him to
take off the helmet,
plenty more to do
his five teammates
real shade, decon-
showers, relaxation.
lrs and beakers and
all stained with
sort and boxes of as-
to catalogue as
the apparent clan-
amphetamine labo-
182nd meth-lab in-
year for members
Instant Re-
I Says Detective Cory
s OVerseeing the ef-
NOT THE only
out the afternoon.
5 firefighters
and a District 5
an aid vehicle are
mandated standby,
medic is soon to be
the Scene of a brush
that happens, she
rangements for
do the neces-
checks on the
both first-re-
that the chemi-
team members are
of making the
the lab ill. They
e of the chemicals
explosive, and
Sheriffs Detec-
Nick Patterson is
With the county's
Steve Ellison,
Two de-
the
arcotics Enforce-
keeping a techni-
the inside
cal eye on the follow-up to their
arrests, made west of Shelton the
previous Friday.
This one is the result of a war-
rant arrest.
ACTING ON information that
Jerry L. Morris and Carrie A.
Hyder, both wanted on bench
warrants, were living in the little
travel trailer on, SE Highland
Drive, south of Shelton, sheriffs
deputies went to the site to serve
the warrants on the two, accord-
ing to Mason County Sheriff
Steve Whybark.
When they saw motion inside
the trailer but no one answered
their knock, and officers "detected
paraphernalia and a smell con-
sistent with a clandestine lab,"
Whybark said Friday, the depu-
ties got a search warrant and
brought Morris, 39, and Hyder,
35, out of the residence.
They then called WESTNET
agents into the action.
whybark said the investigation
will involve potential charges of
manufacture of a controlled sub-
stance against Morris and Hyder,
who were identified in Mason
County Superior Court and or-
dered held pending their sentenc-
ings, Morris on an escape charge
and Hyder on a forgery convic-
tion. The sentencings were set for
September 23.
WESTNET personnel hauled
the subjects' car and trailer off to
the impound yard to continue the
investigation.
"It's pretty unbelievable people
were living in there," Drake said.
"It's not a huge operation, but any
of these operations can be pretty
toxic. We can't tell the scale of
this one at this point, but we sus-
pect that the whole process isn't
done here."
He explained that often the
first stages of methamphetamine
manufacture will be done at one
location, the final stages at anoth-
er.
The undercover detectives who
work investigating the drug scene
are at risk, he acknowledged.
They're in and out of the places
where people who have no under-
standing of the dangers of the
substances they're dealing with,
like lithium from batteries, mix
them in a chemical stew that
makes a witches' brew sound be-
nign.
And they're in daily contact
with people whose thinking is
skewed to the next hit, the next
high and where they'll get the
dollars, or the ingredients, for the
one after that. "Their decision-
making processes are not conse-
quence-based," one of the detec-
tives said as he watched workers
carry out contaminated items
from the trailer.
"And they won't be, not unless
our jail and prison systems start
providing treatment," he added.
"METE[ IS A social epidemic,"
observed Ditmer as he doled out
water to one dehydrated worker
and advised another to get into
the shade. "It started in Califor-
nia, and it's been moving up the
coast."
His team, he said, is trained in
strategic weapons work as well as
drug investigations, and they
used to be called in a few times a
year. Now they're working full
time dismantling clandestine lab-
oratories. "We're trained to know
the chemicals, to use the protec-
tions and the tactics: fingerprint-
ing, assessment of chemicals, tak-
ing samples - and decontamina-
tion," he said.
Yet another agency was due on
the scene to take dangerous resi-
dues and contaminated materials
away, Patterson said. "We're not
even starting to estimate the cost
of all the hours, all the agencies"
that would be involved before the
case is completed, he said.
And Ellison, after the moon-
suited, ventilated SIRT team peo-
ple head off on other calls else-
where, will be left with the task of
husbanding the evidence as the
case begins its long process
through the court system.
"who knows about the long-
range effects of these things?" he
queried. He laughed grimly when
someone pointed out that the
dark-gray bird circling overhead
was a vulture, its turkey-red head
bright in the hot sun as it checked
out the scene.
Firefighters kept busy;
burning ban instituted
By JEFF GREEN
Fire crews around Mason
County and in the Olympic Na-
tional Forest were kept hopping
this week by a rash of fires that
broke out in the tinder-dry condi-
tions that prompted a countywide
burning ban order.
The 90-acre fire in a steep and
rocky area of the national forest
drew a crew of 11 smoke jumpers
who parachuted in to the area, as
well as a four-member rappelling
team that was airlifted in to the
area aboard a helicopter.
The fire was reported around
midday Sunday in the Olympic
National Forest in a steep area
near The Brothers in southeast-
ern Jefferson County. The cause
remains under investigation by
the U.S. Forest Service.
However, a Forest Service
spokesman said the probable
cause was a lightning strike from
an earlier storm that may have
been smoldering for as long as
several weeks and was kicked up
Sunday by high winds.
BY WEDNESDAY morning,
the fire had consumed approx-
imately 90 acres and was burning
next to a conifer forest, said
Verne Farrell, a Forest Service
information officer. There was
very little chance the fire could
spread into nearby Olympic Na-
tional Park, he added. A total of
(Please turn to page S.)
results
Shelton City Commision
Dick Taylor 488 39.5%
Carolyn Kerr 424 34.3%
Kelly Buechel 323 26.2%
MMK School Board
(including Gray ttarbor County)
Pusilion 2
Diana Goldy 84 35.7%
Mike Brown 62 26.4%
Ira Brehmeyer 60 25.5%
Jim Compton 20 8.5%
Boyd Fite 9 3.8%
l)i:;lrct 3 '
Kurt Kingman 87 37.2%
Patsy Scott 50 21.4%
Dante Elliott 39 16.7%
Jenny Keesey 34 14.5%
Pat Sykora 24 10.3%
Fire District 2
Position 3
Jim LeBlanc 535 41.2%
Ralph Herth 316 24.4%
Kathryn Klusman 228 17.6%
Marcia Hamilton 218 16.8%
Fire District 5
Position 1
Thomas Brokaw 1,083 39.5%
David Tagye 798 29.1%
Lorne Hauser 519 18.9%
Terry Eastman 341 12.4%
Fire District 9
Position 2
"Sandi" Kvarnstrom 76 46.3%
Edward Bish 54 32.9%
Chuck Belander 34 20.7%
Port of Dewatto
District 1
Lorraine Kelly 44 58.7%
Pennie Edwards 19 25.3%
Stephen Vogt 12 16.0
Fire District 5
EMS levy
Yes 1,457 45.7%
No 1,728 54.3%
IIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIIIHUUlUlIIIIIHlUlUl
Arrest story
challenged
A story in last 'week's Journal,
detailing how a Grapeview wom-
an will test the state's medical
marijuana law after being arrest-
ed, was in error, according to a
friend of the woman.
Helen E. Gardner was stopped
by a guard at the Shelton Fred
Meyer and accused of shoplifting,
and a policeman arriving at the
store found her in possession of
drugs, according to the police.
Last week's story said that
when the guard detained Gard-
ner, he asked her if there was
anything else he should know
about and she told him she had
marijuana and cocaine in her fan-
ny pack to be used for medical
purposes.
Gardner's friend said this
week, in asking The Journal to
correct the story, that Gardner
never told the security guard she
had cocaine in the fanny pack.
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man and Patsy Scott were leading
the pack. In all, five candidates
filed for each of the two positions.
"I can't complain," Taylor said.
"Now is the time when the real
race starts. It's going to take
some work and we'll have at it."
Kerr said the results were
about what she and her campaign
committee expected them to be.
"Our goal was to survive the
primary," she said. "Obviously I'm
pleased. I appreciate people sup-
porting me. (The general election)
should be interesting."
ELECTIONS OFFICE staff
processed 6,381 mailed-in ballots
in the various races and one bal-
lot measure across Mason County
Tuesday. Another 113 ballots
came in too late Tuesday to be
counted that day and Mason
County Elections Supervisor Bill
t{uennekens said he expected
another 400 to 500 ballots to
come in Wednesday's mail.
Those ballots are due to be
counted Thursday morning and
whether they will change any of
the current results won't be
known until then. Huennekens
said elections officials are predict-
ing a turnout of 38 to 40 percent.
"We're happy with the
turnout," Huennekens told The
Journal. Primary elections ordi-
narily don't bring out a lot of vot-
ers. In the 1995 primary, just 25
percent of the registered voters
cast ballots. In 1997, 35 percent
voted, drawn to the polls that
year by a partisan state senate
race.
A recap of Tuesday's election
results follows this article.
IN OTHER RACES on Tues-
day's primary ballot, subject to
change by additional votes to be
counted:
• Thomas Brokaw and David
Tagye were the leading vote-get-
ters for a position on the Fire Dis-
trict 5 (Allyn) Commission.
Theyll advance to the November
ballot.
• Fire District 5's ballot propo-
sal for a permanent property tax
levy for emergency medical ser-
vices was heading for defeat. It
garnered just 45.7 percent "yes"
votes and needed 60 percent to
pass.
• Rose "Sandi" Kwmstrom
and Edward Bish received the
most votes in a race for a seat on
the Fire District 9 (Skokomish
Valley) Commission and will op-
pose one another in November.
• Also moving on to the No-
vember ballot will be Jim LeBlanc
and Ralph Herth in the race for a
position on the Fire District 2
(Belfair) Commission.
• Lorraine Kelly and Pennie
Edwards received the most votes
among ballots counted Tuesday
for a seat on the Port of Dewatto.
They'll advance to the November
ballot.
Thursday, September 16, 1999
113th Year - Number 37 4 Sections - 40 Pages
50 Cents
Youth, 19, receives
52 years for murder
James Wayne Anderson, 19, of
Shelton was sentenced Thursday
in Mason County Superior Court
to 52 years and eight months in
prison for murder in the first de-
gree.
Judge Toni Sheldon gave the
youth double the standard range
sentence for his role in the Janu-
ary 4 beating and strangulation
murder of 70-year-old Ronald
Kerr, a trapper from Olympia.
His cousin, 15-year-old Nathan C.
Hughe, s of Centralia, was sen-
tenced last month to 46 years and
seven months for the same crime.
Kerr was killed after he
knocked at the door of Anderson's
Shelton home and asked permis-
sion to trap beavers in the SWamp
behind 2241 East Agate Road. Po-
lice say Hughes hit Kerr with the
bowl of a blender and that he and
Anderson then strangled him
with an electric cord.
THE TWO KILLED Kerr so
they could steal his 1988 Ford
Ranger pickup truck, according to
confessions made by the two teen-
agers.
Hughes and Anderson were ar-
rested in Port Townsend January
6 after law officers there spotted
Kerr's pickup in the parking lot of
the QFC Store.
"The victim was a vibrant,
alive individual," Deputy Prosecu-
tor Reinhold Schuetz said.
Schuetz argued for an exceptional
sentence based on evidence that
the youths continued to attack
Kerr after he was rendered defen-
seless.
l'hey committed a series of as-
saults with attempts to smother
him, attempts to choke him and a
series of brutal and vicious kicks
to the head," he said.
DEFENSE ATTORNEy Rob-
ert Quillian said a few words
about the victim to Kerr's family,
who attended the sentencing of
Anderson and Hughes. "By all ac-
counts he was an exceptional man
and on behalf of James and my-
self yoh have our condolences," he
said.
Quillian noted that Anderson's
parents split up when he was a
few months old and that he hasn't
had much contact with his father.
"James has certainly not had the
best upbringing, the best family
life in the world," he said.
He compared the kille,rs..to
Lennie and George, the drifters in
Of Mice and Men, a novel by John
Steinbeck in which a big man of
limited intelligence kills a woman
by mistake. Hughes is slender
and said to be quite intelligent
while Anderson is said to weigh
nearly 300 pounds.
"George was a little-guy con
man and Lennie was this big guy
who was along for the ride and
was manipulated by George. Len-
nie, not knowing the bounds of
his power, killed Somebody. [
think that James was Lennie and
Mr. Hughes was George,,, Quil-
lian said.
Quillian said that Hughes ma-
nipulated Anderson. "It Wasn't
James Anderson who said as they
were leaving the scene of this hor-
rible crime, 'Score one for the
Bear,'" Quillian said. That re-
mark was attributed to Hughes, a
(Please turn to page 2.)
Speaks off to Cambridge
to acquire her doctorate
Recent University of Washing-
ton graduate Rachel S. Speaks is
off to England this fall to pursue
her doctoral studies in science at
Cambridge University.
Speaks, the daughter of Jerry
and Suzy Speaks of Union, gradu-
ated August 20 from the Univer-
sity of Washington College of En-
gineering with a bachelor of sci-
ence degree in ceramic engineer-
ing from the UW Materials Sci-
ence and Engineering Depart-
ment.
She received $85,000 in schol-
arships to pursue an accelerated
three-year PhD degree in the ma-
terials science and metallurgy de-
partment. Speaks received a Na-
tional Science Foundation gradu-
ate research fellowship to do re-
search work on nanofabrication of
functional devices.
HER SUBJECT, nanofabrica-
tion, Speaks explained, has to do
with manufacture of minuscule
items, "One nanometer is 50,000
times smaller than the diameter
of a human hair, and nanotech-
nology is the ultimate manipula-
tion of matter," Speaks said. "The
two biggest areas of research are
mechanical and medical," she
added, instancing computer chips,
gears and motors in the former
Rachel Speaks
w#
area and, for the latter, medica-
tion delivery systems and biocom-
patible tissues for artificial or-
gans.
Speaks will work with both
areas of research and develop-
ment, she said, though she will
likely make a commitment to one
area or the other in the course of
her studies.
Her awards were the latest in
a series of academic distinctions
for Speaks, who was valedictorian
of her 1994 North Mason High
School class. At the University of
Washington, she received both
the James I. Mueller Award for
the most outstanding junior in
her department and the Richard
L. Norrist Award for the most
outstanding senior in her depart-
ment.
She was active in clubs and ac-
tivities on campus, serving as the
professional mentoring co-chair
for the Women in Science and En-
gineering Center.
SPEAKS GAVE presentations
at three national conferences and
is working on her third publica-
tion. She received the University
of Washington's Mary Gates Stu-
dent Leadership Grant for her
outreach work in developing
hands-on experiments for high-
school teachers to use to help stu-
dents learn science and engineer.
ing concepts.
She was also honored for her
volunteer work by receiving one
of four S. Sterling Munro Public
Service Awards.
She worked for over a year at
Intel as a process engineer in waf-
er fabrication plants in Oregon.