Bail is set at $50,000 for a man accused of strangling a woman at a Centralia residence and preventing her from calling 911 on Sunday.
Kevin Lee Gordon Jr., 27, of Chehalis, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at approximately 7:02 a.m. on Feb. 9 after Centralia Police Department officers responded to a report of a dispute in the 300 block of Diamond Street about an hour prior, according to jail records and court documents.
Officers had responded to the same residence at approximately 4:14 earlier that morning for a 911 hangup call. When an officer arrived, a woman reportedly answered the door and refused to allow the officer inside the residence. She reportedly “appeared hesitant to talk to (the officer) about what was going on,” said she was alone “but refused to allow the officer to look,” and “appeared upset but said she was fine,” according to court documents.
The responding officer reported that he “eventually left the property as no crime had been established.”
Officers returned to the property after a neighbor called at 6:07 a.m. to report “banging and knocking around” that had been going on for about 15 minutes, according to charging documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court.
“When officers arrived at the residence, they could hear yelling from the residence and the front door was partially open,” the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office stated in charging documents.
The door was “opened enough to reveal a male and female on the floor of the kitchen/living room area,” and an officer observed that both subjects had blood on them, according to court documents.
The man, who was later identified as Gordon, exited the residence when ordered to by officers.
The woman was identified as the same person an officer contacted when responding to the 4 a.m. call., though an officer who responded to the 4 a.m. call noted that she had new injuries, including “bloody hand/finger marks and early signs of bruising on her neck area,” according to court documents.
Medics later confirmed that the woman “had been strangled and she had a broken blood vessel in her neck,” according to court documents. Officers later confirmed that she had sustained “a notable abrasion or contusion on the left side of her neck as well as a contusion to her left temple region and her left eye.”
The woman repeatedly declined to go to the hospital, told officers that “nothing really happened and she was fine” and “would not give any specifics as to the physical fight.” She reportedly “became upset” as officers spoke to her and “would not say what happened.”
The most the woman said about what happened, according to officers, was she “did not want Gordon to get in trouble.”
She did later tell officers that Gordon had prevented her from calling 911 during the incident, according to court documents.
Gordon allegedly refused to identify himself at the scene and prohibited officers from entering the residence.
He reportedly had a laceration on his hand, which he said was from squeezing a glass to the point that it broke in his hand.
When questioned, Gordon denied assaulting the woman but allegedly said she had slapped him, according to court documents. He allegedly said the woman was “bitching at him” and told the officer “you know how women are.”
When asked about the woman’s injuries, the blood on her neck and the physical evidence of the dispute, including damage to the wall, broken furniture and blood that could be seen inside the residence through the open door, Gordon allegedly “denied that such conditions existed” and said “he was just talking to (the woman),” according to court documents.
Officers arrested Gordon for second-degree assault “based on the evidence of strangulation,” according to court documents. He was identified during his booking at the jail, where officers noted he had an outstanding Lewis County District Court warrant for a DUI.
The woman was provided with domestic violence resources and was contacted by officers a couple times throughout the day on Feb. 9 to take updated photos of her injuries.
The woman’s mother called the police at about 2:24 p.m. that afternoon to report that Gordon was contacting the woman from the jail. When officers contacted the woman again, she reportedly confirmed that Gordon had called her and said “Gordon had been flippant about the event and was not remorseful,” the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office states in charging documents. “She did not indicate that he threatened her, but she was upset that he was more concerned about himself.”
Gordon was charged Monday, Feb. 10, in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of second- and fourth-degree assault and interfering with domestic violence reporting. Each charge carries a domestic violence enhancement.
While acknowledging Gordon has no felony history and no domestic violence-related convictions on his record, Judge Paul Strophy granted the prosecution’s bail request due to community safety concerns and concerns for the safety of the victim.
A no-contact order protecting the victim is in place.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20.
