Lewis County Superior Court is continuing to hear new cases against Green Hill School inmates stemming from evidence the Joint Narcotic Enforcement Team (JNET) seized from the facility in August of 2023.
Local law enforcement agencies have also continued referring possession of contraband, prison riot and custodial assault cases stemming from incidents that occurred after that August raid.
During the execution of the search warrant on Aug. 31, JNET detectives reportedly located lockers where Green Hill staff stored contraband found within their facility dating back to 2017, including illegal controlled substances, cellphones, vape pens, improvised knives, handwritten documents arranging illegal drug transactions, and hand tools, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Green Hill sent a large volume of incident reports related to the seized evidence to the Centralia Police Department in early September.
So far, eight cases stemming from that September batch of incident reports have had hearings in Lewis County Superior Court.
Three of those cases had hearings scheduled between Jan. 17 and Feb. 1.
On Jan. 10, 2021, Green Hill staff reportedly “detected the odor of burnt marijuana” coming from a bathroom that “had just been vacated by” Tyree Garrett Jr., 21. Staff subsequently searched Garrett’s room and found “suspected marijuana inside a black rubber glove tip, rolling papers, and two Bic lighters.”
Garrett was charged Nov. 15, 2023, with one count of possession of a controlled substance while in a state correctional facility. Because he was released from Green Hill before this case was filed, the court sent Garrett a summons notice requiring him to come to court for a Jan. 17 preliminary hearing. A judge issued a $50,000 bench warrant after Garrett failed to appear for that hearing.
On March 4, 2022, Green Hill staff reportedly found “rolling papers and a bindle of brown THC extract powder” inside a room occupied by
On Sept. 29, 2022, a Green Hill staff member reportedly “heard an audible cellphone notification” come from a room occupied by Michael Jeavoni Smith, 22. Staff searched Smith’s room and found “a purple Motorola cellphone and two charging cords.”
Smith was charged Dec. 29, 2023, with one count of possession of a cellphone by a prisoner, which is a class C felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Smith pleaded not guilty to the charge on Jan. 18 and trial is scheduled to begin April 8.
On Dec. 13, 2022, Green Hill staff reportedly found “a white pill and a tied off glove tip with an unknown substance inside” inside a room occupied by Xavier R. Cravens, 19, that tested positive for an analog of fentanyl.
Cravens was charged Dec. 14, 2023, with one count of possession of a controlled substance while in a state correctional facility. His preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for Jan. 17, but after learning Cravens has been released from Green Hill, the court sent Cravens a summons notice for a Feb. 6 hearing.
The state Department of Children, Youth and Families, which runs Green Hill School, reportedly entered an agreement with the Chehalis Police Department in September 2023 to set up a process for transferring evidence from Green Hill to local law enforcement.
Under that agreement, confiscated items are given to law enforcement as a “package” along with a monthly report, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Since September, four cases stemming from contraband-related incidents at Green Hill School that occurred after the Aug. 31 raid have had hearings in Lewis County Superior Court.
One of those had a hearing scheduled for Feb. 1.
An officer with the Chehalis Police Department reportedly responded to Green Hill on Oct. 26 to follow up on an Oct. 13 incident report involving Ali Jamaal Sharif. Green Hill staff had reportedly found an iPhone hidden inside a DVD case in Sharif’s cell, according to court documents.
Sharif was charged Dec. 29 with one count of possession of a cellphone by a prisoner. Sharif, who is in custody at Green Hill, failed to appear at a Feb. 1 preliminary hearing. The hearing was rescheduled to Feb. 8.
A case stemming from an assault that occurred at Green Hill in late 2023 also had hearings in Lewis County Superior Court in late January.
On either Oct. 12 or Dec. 12, an officer with the Chehalis Police Department responded to Green Hill School to take a report on a fight between two inmates. Court documents did not consistently list the date of the fight.
While a staff member was trying to break up the fight, another inmate, identified as Jamael Barajas-Torres, allegedly “(c)ame out of nowhere and threw a forceful elbow right on top of me, striking the back of my head,” according to court documents. The strike reportedly “left an egg-shaped contusion on the back of (the staff member’s) head.”
Barajas-Torres was charged Dec. 29 with one count each of prison riot and custodial assault. He pled not guilty to both charges on Jan. 25 and trial is scheduled to begin April 15.
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Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, and Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham called “the current situation” at Green Hill School in Chehalis “a complete failure, not just for the staff and inmates, but also for communities across Washington,” and again called for additional investigation into the facility in a joint statement.
Gov. Jay Inslee has previously said the institution had taken steps to improve security at the facility, which has seen heightened scrutiny in recent months.
In May 2023, Denham joined other local officials in a letter to Inslee’s office that asked the governor to direct the Washington state attorney general to investigate the facility “for their ongoing practices and procedures.”
After a representative for the governor declined and noted recent security improvements, JNET served a search warrant at the facility on Aug. 31, 2023, while investigating whether staff members had provided narcotics to inmates.
“JNET detectives located lockers where Green Hill staff was storing contraband found within their facility dating back to 2017,” a JNET news release stated at the time. “In these lockers, JNET detectives found illegal controlled substances, cell phones, vape pens, improvised knives (shanks), hand written documents arranging illegal drug transactions, and hand tools. The illegal controlled substances include green leafy substance believed to be marijuana, crystal substances believed to be methamphetamine, powder substances believed to be fentanyl, and pills believed to be fentanyl. These substances will be sent to a lab for testing as needed as part of this ongoing investigation.”
The investigation came after four arrests in November 2022 following the overdose of an inmate who was found unconscious in his cell.
A Green Hill School employee was arrested Jan. 19 for allegedly bringing marijuana into the facility on Dec. 31. He has since been charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance in a correctional facility by a person not a prisoner. His arrangement is scheduled for Feb. 8.
Following the most recent criticism from Braun and Denham, a spokesperson for Inslee disputed the assessment and said the state DCYF would “soon” provide additional information “contradicting other falsehoods,” including on inmate supervision and a recent incident where “contraband in a football thrown over the fence” was successfully handled by DCYF.
“Outside of misleading politically motivated broadsides, Braun and Denham haven’t even taken up DCYF on an offer to talk more about their concerns,” Inslee spokesperson Mike Faulk wrote in an email Jan. 12. “Fortunately, the state has a healthy and collaborative relationship with others locally, including the Chehalis Police Department.”
