Allegations of exploitation of the elderly, guilty assault convictions and multiple arrests are included in the past conduct of a Centralia City Council candidate running for office this November.
Court documents show Lisa Striedinger, 51, of Centralia, pleaded guilty in 2002 and in 2005 to assault charges stemming from two separate incidents.
In September 2004, Striedinger was accused of throwing her 5-year-old stepson against a bed and wall. The child was later taken to the hospital by his mother, who shared parenting rights with father Steven Hubbard, who was in a relationship with Striedinger at the time. It was revealed the child sustained a broken collarbone from the incident.
Striedinger ultimately served 46 months in jail, plus time in community custody, for a single charge of second-degree attempted assault of a child. She entered a guilty plea in that case.
In a separate incident, she’s accused of having pushed the child down concrete stairs, resulting in skinned knees. The child, in drawings and statements provided to the court, wrote that “it was Lisa’s job to be mean to me” and that he hoped “she has to eat lots of casserole that she doesn’t like, every day.”
Speaking with The Chronicle, Striedinger denied ever having thrown the child against a wall or bed. She said her stepson has a “weak collarbone” and the injury was sustained during a trampoline accident.
In 2002, Striedinger was also convicted of two counts of third-degree assault after she attempted to strike three teenagers with her car. The children, one of whom was allegedly involved in a physical dispute with Striedinger’s daughter, were able to dive into a ditch to avoid Striedinger, then 32, and her vehicle.
As she drove by, she allegedly yelled out the window at the teenagers, “you better watch yourself, little girl.”
Striedinger entered Alford and In ReBarr pleas, meaning she did not admit guilt and pleaded guilty to different charges than what actually occurred to accept the benefit of a plea deal, to two counts of third-degree assault. Because she had no prior felony history, she was allowed to serve her 30-day jail sentence in the form of 240 hours mandatory community service. Prior to that, she had one previous gross misdemeanor from her juvenile record.
Striedinger is running against incumbent Cameron McGee for Centralia City Council’s District No. 1 in the upcoming Nov. 2 general election. Her husband, Steven Hubbard, is also running for a different vacant city council seat next month.
Following the incidents in 2002 and 2004, Hubbard detailed Striedinger’s abuse in restraining orders filed with the court. He wrote in a 2004 filing that she’d “hit me on three different occasions in heated arguments, left marks on my face. The police have shown up at my house with me being bloody and saying nothing happened.”
Divorce proceedings were eventually started in 2007 in a Thurston County court. Marriage filings show the couple had been married for about four years up until that point. The couple still remains together, despite Striedinger reassuming her maiden name.
A housing advocate working as a peer housing case manager, who’s also founded her own nonprofit to connect homeless individuals with resources, Striedinger has spoken openly about her past struggles and a past alcohol dependency in previous stories with the community and The Chronicle.
Striedinger said she was undergoing a lot of stress at the time of the incidents. She was a newlywed and was in the process of having a child. There was a lot of “emotional unregulation” within their household that she had previously never learned to cope with.
Striedinger said she wasn’t drinking during this time.
“I went from being a single mother of two to a stay at home mother of four. It was a very big change for me,” she said, adding that despite what they’ve gone through they’re “still a very close family.”
Allegations of financial exploitation and threats were also levied against Striedinger in two cases in 2012.
The first one involved Hubbard’s mother, who’d made allegations that Striedinger and Hubbard had withdrawn money from her personal bank account. She’d been staying with the couple and their family for about a year when she filed for a vulnerable adult protection order in October 2012.
She claims Striedinger threatened her life and assaulted her, and that Hubbard had threatened to destroy her personal property. Striedinger denies those claims as lies, noting there was friction within the family at that time.
Similar concerns of financial exploitation were made just weeks later by the daughter of a resident at Cooks Hill Manor, who was dating Striedinger’s mother. The resident, who was deemed a vulnerable adult, had spoken about moving out of the facility with Striedinger’s mother.
Striedinger denied those allegations.
In November 2017, Striedinger was also cited for allegedly throwing coffee at a worker in a fit of anger at a Chehalis store, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Though she said she has a “colorful past,” Striedinger looks at it as something of a blessing for her and her family. During her incarceration, she earned two degrees and worked as a peer mentor. Her 46 months in jail helped realign who she was and who she wanted to be, she said.
Striedinger eventually renewed her vows with Hubbard. Though it’s been rocky, the two have stuck through thick and thin together, she said.
“All the classes and information that I’ve been going through, Mr. Hubbard has been alongside with me,” she said. “We really tried to keep our family close and try to make sure we work through the traumas in our family to heal our family as a whole.”
Her current work as a case manager also requires that lived experience, which she’s previously characterized as invaluable.
“It is who I am and has given me the amazing tool belt I have today, and if anybody really suffered as much it was my children,” she said.
