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A 46-year-old Ellensburg woman has been charged with a felony after allegedly breaking a door and damaging a room at the Mountain View Lodge in Packwood on Sunday, Oct. 25.
Brittany Carone Choyce made her initial appearance in Lewis County Superior Court via a video feed from the Lewis County Jail on Monday afternoon.
Choyce has been charged with second-degree malicious mischief, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, as well as resisting arrest, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Noting Choyce has no criminal history aside from a “minor traffic offense,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Bradley Meagher asked Judge Joely Yeager to set bail at $10,000 unsecured, meaning she could be released from jail without posting bail as long as she followed the court’s conditions for her release.
Defense attorney Rachael Tiller, who represents most Lewis County defendants during their initial court appearances, asked that Choyce be released on her personal recognizance without posting bail.
Yeager settled on $5,000 unsecured. Choyce was granted permission to return to her home in Ellensburg, but she is not allowed to contact witnesses in the case.
Choyce was released from the Lewis County Jail at about 8 p.m. Monday. Her next court appearance will be on Thursday, Nov. 5, for an arraignment and trial setting hearing.
On Sunday, Oct. 25, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the Mountain View Lodge at 13162 U.S. Highway 12, Packwood, after a man reported that his girlfriend, Choyce, “was destroying the room and broke the door to the hotel room.”
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by prosecutors, the man told the responding deputy “his girlfriend was having some kind of mental/psychotic break and she broke the door to the motel room. He said she ran outside and went towards the woods while wrapped in a blanket.”
The man said Choyce might have been using mushrooms. He later noticed Choyce had also consumed “an entire bottle of alcohol,” according to the affidavit.
The deputy observed the entire frame piece of the door was broken. The manager of the lodge said the cost of repairs would be approximately $2,000.
The deputy located Choyce hiding behind a tree, but she did not respond to initial attempts to speak with her, later telling the deputy to “f-ck off.”
“Choyce then asked the deputy if she wanted her to run into traffic and get hit,” the affidavit states. “Choyce continued to yell and scream but denied needing crisis help.”
Choyce pulled away from deputies as they attempted to take her into custody, while allegedly yelling and calling a deputy a racial slur. Once cuffed, she allegedly tried to throw herself at one of the deputies, according to the affidavit.
She was placed in a patrol vehicle and transported to the Lewis County Jail for booking.
“During the drive, Choyce continued to berate the deputy by calling her a ‘dumb b-tch’ and saying she ‘hopes my man beats me at home,’” the affidavit states.
Choyce’s only previous criminal history was for first-degree negligent driving.
