Crime & Courts

Fight outside CHOICE graduation ends with arrests

Shelton police arrested three men fighting outside the June 6 CHOICE High School graduation at the Shelton High School Performing Arts Center, according to court documents.

Damien Castellane, 21, James Elmund, 19, and Malique Ekstein, 20, were arrested for assault and obstructing a law enforcement officer, according to a probable cause document.

Shelton Police Officer M. Mullins got called for a “verbal disturbance” at the center at 6:10 p.m. and en route, MACECOM told him it escalated to a “physical altercation,” the document states.

When Mullins arrived, he saw a man later identified as Castellane “with a bloody lip, disheveled clothes and a missing shoe,” he wrote.

Castellane was not cooperative and did not want to be identified as a “victim,” according to Mullins.

“Upon preparing to leave the high school I audibly heard the sounds of an altercation on the north side of the Performing Arts Center in the grass next to Shelton Springs Rd. I observed Elmund strike an unknown male in the chest area. Elmund then ran across the street where I observed Castellane chase Elmund and strike him with a closed fist multiple times in the face and head area,” Mullins wrote.

Another officer saw Ekstein “chase and strike Elmund in the head with a baseball bat. This caused Elmund to bleed from his ears,” according to the probable cause document.

Officers ordered the men to stop fighting multiple times, but they continued to brawl and “remained uncooperative,” Mullins wrote.

While all three were arrested, only Ekstein is currently facing pending charges. Judge Monty Cobb appointed an attorney and released Ekstein on personal recognizance at a preliminary hearing in Mason County Superior Court on June 7.

Tahuya man’s assault caught on video

A Belfair man was filmed allegedly assaulting a Tahuya man June 7 in a road rage incident, according to the Washington State patrol.

Trooper Eric Cunningham said there was probable cause to arrest Casey Parkhurst, 37, for assaulting Tom Crosswhite, 65, after viewing a video of the altercation, according to court documents.

“Tom stated Casey began yelling about how he was cut off by Tom earlier,” Cunningham wrote in a probable cause document.

The incident happened at the Old Belfair Highway and state Route 300. Kole Crosson was working across the street from where the two cars stopped and filmed the alleged assault, according to Crosson’s Facebook post.

Crosson posted the video hoping someone would recognize the driver, he said.

Cunningham said the video showed Parkhurst “exchange words and assault him [Crosswhite], pushing him to the ground.”

Parkhurst said he knew what he did was wrong, Cunningham wrote.

Parkhurst was arrested June 9 on assault charges.

His trial is scheduled for July 26 in Mason County District Court.

Police: Sex offender failed to register

A man living at the Community Lifeline emergency shelter for several months has been arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, police say.

Daniel Chilson, 51, was convicted three other times for failing to register, according to court documents.

Chilson was convicted of second-degree child molestation in Cowlitz County Superior Court in 1994, initiation a requirement to register as a sex offender under state law.

He was convicted for failing to do so in Cowlitz County in 1998, in Maui County Circuit Court in 2009 and in Honolulu Circuit Court in 2012.

Shelton Police Officer G. Portillo was investigating an unrelated matter involving a sex offender when he asked a sheriff’s detective about Chilson, according to a probable cause document.

Portillo learned Chilson “was listed as an absconded registered sex offender in Cowlitz County,” the document states.

The officer said he first encountered Chilson in February, when Chilson was kicked out of a sober living facility on Railroad Avenue in Shelton for drinking alcohol.

“After that incident, I frequently saw and/or contacted Chilson within the city limits of Shelton. I recently contacted Chilson on June 1, 2024, during a medical call in which he was inebriated in public,” Portillo wrote.

Chilson was arrested at Callanan Park June 10, where he told Portillo he had been spending nights at Community Lifeline since he was removed from the sober facility, the probable cause document states.

Chilson “acknowledged that he hadn’t registered as a sex offender with Mason County,” Portillo wrote.

Chilson is being held on $2,500 bail. His initial arraignment is June 24 before Judge Daniel Goodell in Mason County Superior Court.