A Tacoma woman has been charged with second-degree assault after she allegedly raised a knife against a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy on Thursday.
According to court documents, Deputy Sam Schouten had been dispatched to an address on U.S. Highway 12 the morning of April 29 regarding a disabled vehicle.
When he arrived, a woman later identified as Tara C. Shane “appeared to be burning two cellphones and a tablet on a propane stove on the side of the road.”
The reporting party stated that Shane “had tried to get into his car and tried to get ahold of his keys,” according to court documents.
Schouten reported that while he and Shane were speaking, Shane “was agitated” and allegedly “returned to her vehicle and obtained a large jagged knife, grasped it with a fist, turned toward Deputy Schouten and began raising it approximately waist-high when Deputy Schouten had to lunge at Shane to disarm and arrest her,” according to court documents.
The original reporting party witnessed the incident, according to court documents, and both he and Schouten reported that “Shane was two to three feet from Deputy Schouten when she raised the knife toward him” and “given the circumstances, he (Schouten) had no opportunity to retreat.”
Neither Shane or Schouten reported injuries.
Shane was booked into the Lewis County Jail at approximately 11:20 a.m. on April 29.
Shane reportedly told defense attorney Rachael Tiller that she did not wish to be represented by an attorney during her April 30 preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court.
While Shane told Judge Joely O’Rourke that she understood the charge — second-degree assault — Shane questioned the validity of the case against her, requesting “footage from her vehicle” and stating that the court documents only detailed “what the opinion of the officer was.”
Due to Shane’s use of profanity in her argument against the charges and the arresting deputy and repeated insistences that O’Rourke was “too young to be a judge,” Shane was found in contempt of court and her preliminary hearing was rescheduled for Monday, May 3.
While in contempt of court, Shane can be held for a maximum of 30 days with no bail.
