Winlock Woman Finds Herself in Jail in Brouhaha Surrounding Woodworking Shop and Building Permits
<h5 align="left">By Andy Campbell
[email protected]</h5>
Published:
Friday, September 18, 2009 11:55 AM PDT
A
Lewis County District Court judge will decide today if a woman who
refused to sign a sentencing agreement will get out of jail before her
next hearing.
On Tuesday, Lana Massa was convicted of two
counts of a criminal violation of the building code after the court
found she and her partner kept operating their woodworking shop in
Winlock following a citation for lack of a permit.
The crime
is a misdemeanor, but Massa allegedly refused to sign an agreement to
appear in court for sentencing on Sept. 25, according to the Lewis
County Prosecutor’s Office. Judge R.W. Buzzard ordered her detained
until that date.
She refused to comment from Lewis County
Jail, but her partner Allen Dionne said their attorney set up today’s
hearing and will be pursuing a slew of allegations in court.
Dionne agreed that he didn’t have a building permit to begin with, but
said building code enforcement officers entered the property illegally
and covertly before the two were cited.
He also accused the
court of denying Massa due process, including an arraignment hearing
and the ability to plead in the case.
“We know the rules,
and the court has broken them,” Dionne said Wednesday. “They have their
teeth in this bone. They’re worried if we get through the net of
building code law anybody can.”
He said it was ridiculous
Massa is in jail over a misdemeanor offense, but that Massa will
probably be inclined to sign the agreement today.
Both
Dionne’s attorney and code enforcement officers were unavailable for
comment by press time, but said they’d be available for comment after
today’s hearing.
http://www.chronline.com/articles/2009/09/18/news/doc4ab3c36009160018310207.txt