This letter is in response to a recently published article titled “Lewis County groups aim to coordinate plan for cases of domestic, sexual violence.”
First, I wanted to commend The Chronicle for reporting this important information on coordinated efforts to better serve vulnerable people locally.
However, a particular quote was included in this article from Centralia police chief and 2024 county commissioner candidate Stacy Denham that raised my eyebrow. When discussing other potential local partnerships and how to get more local law enforcement agencies to participate in these regional talks, the article states:
“Denham then alluded to ‘a certain chief’ from Morton who he ‘wouldn’t put a lot of stock into’ to correctly train his officers on domestic violence responding. Denham was alluding to the recent resignation of former Morton Police Chief Roger Morningstar, who is facing charges from the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC), among which are mishandling an investigation into an attempted burglary by a registered sex offender and sexual harassment of employees.”
As the original complainant in Morningstar’s investigation, it is an affront to me on a very personal level that Mr. Denham would trivialize his participation in these important regional conversations by seizing the moment to make some sort of finger pointing cheap shot at his career colleague to make up for his personal insecurities on the same subject.
If we are weighing the record as it relates to “correctly training officers on domestic violence responding,” the Centralia Police Department, while under Denham’s leadership, does not have the best report card. I do want to commend Mr. Denham for sitting down to a hard conversation for once, but I personally would put less stock in Denham correctly training his officers on domestic violence responding then Denham would put in Morningstar.
In June 2021, four Centralia officers, supervised by Mr. Denham, failed to respond to a domestic violence call, one of them left the station to return with milkshakes and then only after repeated calls and finishing their milkshakes did these officers respond to the domestic violence call. Mr. Denham is currently being investigated by the CJTC for his potential mishandling(s) in that situation, something he admitted in a brief public conversation some time ago. The CJTC has a public database of active complaints as well as a separate page showing their upcoming hearings. The next scheduled decertification hearing on Oct.18-19 is for Phil Reynolds, the last of the Centralia milkshake squad still fighting to retain certification. Morningstar’s recent statement of charges can also be viewed on this public hearings page.
Next year, Mr. Denham is asking Lewis County residents to give him a much larger platform to speak from than he currently has. I can only hope that he quickly learns to be more sensitive as to how his words and actions impact compatriots and how he can often make others feel their experiences are being diminished.
Kyle Wheeler
Toledo
