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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 26, 2014 | $1.50
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Drowning victim mourned ‘Textbook Woman was well-known in Brinnon BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
BRINNON— A woman whose body was found last week after she died of drowning was well-known and liked, said one her knew her. The body of Collete Scotta
Russell, 46, who was reported missing Jan. 16, was discovered by a hiker on Blake Island, which is about midway between Seattle and the Kitsap Peninsula, on Tuesday, and identification was made Wednesday, Russell Kitsap County sheriff spokesman Scott Wilson said. “Everybody out here is so sick about this,” said Melissa Westervelt, owner of the Geo-
duck Tavern, where Russell was a regular customer. “There was not a bad thing you could say about her,” Westervelt said. “She was a wonderful person, and it hurts to lose her.” Westervelt said Russell worked as a cook on fishing trawlers and was often away from her home in Brinnon for months at a time. Westervelt didn’t have infor-
mation about Russell’s family aside from a longtime companion whom she declined to name. “He’s just devastated,” she said. “He doesn’t know what to do right now. “I’m sure if you called him up, he’d tell you exactly where to go.” Wilson said his office received a report about the body at about 3 p.m. Tuesday from a hiker, who had first called his wife “and then determined that he’d better call 9-1-1.” TURN
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DROWNING/A6
Super Bowl XLVIII Week Begins
Good cheer from the Peninsula Port Townsend graduate to be part of Super Bowl BY CHARLIE BERMANT
freak accident’
Investigators ponder why motorcyclist went off road, died BY JEREMY SCHWARTZ PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — LaDona Wilson was preparing to go to work the night she found out her 25-year-old son was dead. “We knew that Chaz was due home, and he was late,” Wilson said Friday. Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Laticia Wells arrived at Wilson’s home on Black Diamond Road on Thursday night to tell her that her son, Chaz Sands, had just died in Sands a motorcycle wreck not far from Wilson’s home. “It just happened about a half-mile from our house, actually,” said Wilson, a charge nurse at Port Angeles’ Olympic Medical Center emergency room, where she generally works at night. Authorities say they don’t know why the wreck happened. “Textbook freak accident,” said Deputy Josh Ley, the lead investigator of the wreck, “just merely left the roadway for no apparent cause or reason.”
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Found by passers-by
PORT TOWNSEND — ALSO . . . Although no North Olympic ■ 12th Man evident on Peninsula high school graduOlympic Peninsula/C1 ates will play in the Super ■ Culinary Super Bowl Bowl, the school and the recipes/USA Weekend town will be represented on the field at next week’s championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. Brita Guthrie, who graduated in 2008, is a member of the Sea Gals, a 33-member squad that performs dances and cheers in between plays. She and the other Sea Gals will travel to New Jersey on Thursday to cheer on the team as it fights to win the Super Bowl next Sunday, Feb. 2. “I am superexcited,” said Guthrie, 24. “This is an amazing opportunity. “This is the most televised event in the world, and is something that I can tell my grandchildren.”
Passing motorists found Sands next to the 2008 Buell 1125R motorcycle he had been riding at 6:49 p.m. that night in a roadside ditch along the 2200 block of Black Diamond Road, Sgt. Randy Pieper said. Deputies Shaun Minks and Wells, along with medic personnel, came to the scene and found Sands unresponsive, Pieper said. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the wreck. Ley said Saturday there is no clear evidence of the reason Sands’ motorcycle left the road. “Outside of mere speculation, there’s no indication as to why,” Ley said. There was no ice, or even road salt, on the road surface, Ley said, and there were no tire friction marks indicating hard braking or acceleration.
TURN
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BRITA/A6
N. WALLER
Brita Guthrie, who grew up in Port Townsend, is one of the 33-member Sea Gals cheer and dance squad that will entertain at next Sunday’s Super Bowl.
TURN
Budding marijuana businesses in quandary over banking laws BY JOE SMILLIE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT TOWNSEND –– Every day, Gracen Hook takes stacks of cash from his medical marijuana businesses to a secret, off-site storage facility. He staggers the time to prevent potential crooks from picking up his habits. “I’ve had to bring in a special
team of people to count cash,” said Hook, owner of the Alternative Clinic medical marijuana dispensaries in Port Townsend and Port Hadlock. For the North Olympic Peninsula’s legal marijuana industry — as elsewhere in the nation — day-to-day duties such as paying utility bills, taxes and employees include toting around stacks of
TO
WRECK/A5
Gracen Hook, owner of Alternative Clinic medical marijuana dispensaries in Port Townsend and Port Hadlock, measures medical marijuana. He says federal marijuana prohibitions still place retailers like him between conflicting state and federal laws.
cash since federal law prevents banks from providing them with business accounts. “Until the federal government clears the way, I’m stuck using cash,” Hook said. And since he can’t accept credit cards without banking services, all of Hook’s revenues come in cash. TURN
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POT/A5
JOE SMILLIE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
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