Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
After hearing the news Sunday of the Powell boys of western Washington who lost their lives through the actions of their father, not to mention their still-missing mother, I needed to express how grateful our family is to be on the receiving end of very caring, protecting local police. If not for the actions of Marshall Mike Wren and Officer Bryce Peterson, we could be a similar story.
The day after harvest, July 2008, we received a frantic call from our daughter Korianne, at the time in Spokane, to come move her and her infant daughter home. She was in danger. That she is alive today is a miracle.
It turns out her then-husband of two years is psychopathic, a con- artist, a man with a long criminal history and a long pattern of victimizing women. Within the week after the move home he called repeatedly and threatened to kill our entire family, and burn down our home and farm.
Wren began investigating, and we learned the guy has a criminal history beginning at age 12. He has records in Washington and California. Peterson did all followup work and put in countless hours for months on end as new situations arose for nearly a year. He also took testimony from other women victimized by this man and interviewed the perpetrator himself.
We learned just how careful and detailed reports had to be to hold up in court. These guys were relentless in doing what had to be done in order to ensure the safety of our daughter and our precious grandbaby Alyx. Sometimes their hands were tied as to just what they could do, due to state laws and county jurisdictions, but they never gave up on finding ways to get us the protection we needed then and still do.
Peterson helped Korianne get her car back from X, including inspecting the car for her safety. They found a military assault rifle, along with a case of ammunition belonging to X. When Family Law was pushing on his behalf for unsupervised full weekend visits with Alyx, it was the hard work of both officers that caused the decision to be changed. The fact that the former husband’s father is a criminal and family law lawyer has made our fight that much harder. If not for the extra measures by our local police, our grandbaby would frequently be in the arms of danger, and the rest of us might well be history.
The front page of the November 2008 Odessa Record showed a photo of Wren and Peterson posing with several large marijuana plants confiscated at a bust in Spokane. When picking up my mail at the post office the next day, I overheard two locals pointedly trashing our police. One said, “Yeah that figures, they’ll go to Spokane for a big drug bust, but won’t do a darn thing about the drug problems in Odessa.” I ran out and burst into tears! Little did they know this was about my family! For our protection at the time, that could not be stated.
Our officers obtained a warrant to search the home to which X had moved and look for items related to the domestic violence case, as well as photographic evidence. While searching, they came upon a hidden room, built within a room, and full of pot plants. Spokane PD’s Drug Unit was called to assist, as the warrant was only for weapons, photographs and camera memory cards. This find was one more key to bringing changes for the protection of my family. Due to their efforts, Korianne now has a Criminal Protection Order (which unfortunately expires a few short years from now) and Alyx’s visits were changed from unsupervised overnights to supervised day-time meetings. Unfortunately, the state mandate is to allow a non-custodial parent visitation rights, despite their dangerous criminal behavior, until there is evidence of the child being abused – not so comforting after what just took place with the Powell children.
Instead of bashing local police, I hope that after hearing our story, folks will think a little more before speaking negatively about issues they know nothing about. We all need to asking ourselves: 1) Was I there to witness? 2) Do I know how all the laws for each situation work? 3) Do I know if there are jurisdictions which prevent our police from doing what they wish they could do if allowed? 4) Could I, would I do better? 5) Do I really know the whole story? 6) Is it really necessary for me to add to local gossip on issues when I don’t know the truth?
As for the Scheller family, we understand, respect and are most grateful to have our local police. We don’t want our daughter to be the next missing mother or our grandchild to be the child forced by the state to be in the arms of a dangerous man. The best thing we can do for our officers is pray for their safety, while they do their best to provide for ours!
Marshall Mike Wren and Officer Bryce Peterson, to us you have been heroes !
Kerry Scheller
Odessa
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