Drugs and contraband were found inside Green Hill School. Why didn't administrators tell police?

Green Hill, operated by the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), has faced similar criticism in the past.  

In 2019, the KING 5 Investigators exposed hundreds of assaults — many of them on staff — inside the institution that had not been reported to police. DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter blamed staff shortages and said the problem had been fixed.

Now, DCYF administrators are again accused of keeping secrets from the police.

Secretary Hunter answers to the office of Washington Governor Jay Inslee.

“I think there was some miscommunication that occurred that was really unfortunate. But I can tell you the good news is that out of that has come stronger measures to keep drugs out,” Inslee told the KING 5 Investigators.

Gov. Inslee and a DCYF spokesperson deny that Green Hill has not cooperated with local police, and they say a search warrant was not necessary.

“If they called a little higher in the food chain, I think that would have got resolved,” Inslee said.

But a letter sent by Lewis County leaders — more than two months before the search warrant was executed — went straight to the top, right to the office of Inslee himself.

The May 30 letter addressed directly to “Governor Inslee” warned about the “practices and operating procedures” at Green Hill. It detailed drug smuggling and overdoses in the school, employee misconduct and lax security measures. It asked Inslee to appoint the Office of the Attorney General to investigate. The letter was signed by the mayors and police chiefs from Centralia and Chehalis, the city where Green Hill is located.

The response came in a letter two months later, “…the Governor’s office is declining to refer this matter to the Attorney General’s Office for further investigation.” 

“I didn’t even get a courtesy phone call,” said Denham.  “I was actually expecting someone to call me and say, 'Chief, what is the problem?'”

In August, JNET proceeded with a search warrant and found the types of evidence that the tipster had described.

A bank of twelve lockers in the laundry room contained bags full of drugs such as marijuana and blue fentanyl pills. There were numerous cell phones, and notes that appeared to reference drug contacts outside Green Hill's fences. There were vape pens, gummies and heroin. 

The lockers were padlocked, but Green Hill’s security supervisor led JNET detectives to an office where other contraband was stored in desk drawers and in bags on the floor.

Police say they found contraband that was seized as far back as 2017 that had never been reported to law enforcement, even though each incident is a felony violation. They seized 114 bags of contraband with their search warrant.

“JNET detectives will be working on…sixty-two (62) cases in hopes of charges being filed,” a detective wrote in a report following the search. Many of the other cases were too old to prosecute, and one case against a then-17-year-old student caught with marijuana has already been declined by the prosecutor’s office because it occurred nearly three years ago.

“I’m confident that going forward that this is going to be taken care of,” Inslee told KING 5.

A DCYF spokesperson echoed that statement and said the police have been providing “inaccurate or incomplete” information, and that Green Hill and its staff are the ones who initiate many of the drug investigations.  

In the case of a thousand fentanyl pills recovered earlier this year, “We requested JNET’s assistance in investigating the lead,” said DCYF’s Jason Wettstein. He said policy changes have been made since JNET raised concerns in the May letter to the governor.

“Nothing has been corrected, which is incredibly frustrating,” said Denham, who pointed to an example he witnessed in Green Hill’s lobby as detectives executed their search warrant.

Green Hill has an X-ray scanner and body scanner, like those you see at an airport security checkpoint. Denham watched employees set down large cups of coffee on a counter and then walk through the scanning devices. They came back to retrieve their cups.  

“Screening of those people is incredibly important,” Denham said, pointing out that drugs could easily be hidden in a coffee cup.

Employees are a concern to the police. In addition to being caught smuggling contraband into Green Hill, employees have been caught have sex with students and violating other rules, according to the letter sent to Gov. Inslee. 

“While many employees at the Green Hill School are beyond reproach, an investigation will undoubtedly reveal compromised employees,” the May letter to Inslee stated.

Two employees have been connected to drive-by shootings allegedly committed by former Green Hill students, according to the letter, which is signed by Centralia and Chehalis police and mayors. 

The letter also details how one former student used a gun registered to his former Green Hill counselor.

The other student, Daniel Recinos, is accused in a drive-by shooting in Centralia in 2022. Police say Recino fired rounds randomly from a car, two weeks after his release from Green Hill. Investigators determined that Recino was driving a white Subaru owned by his former Green Hill counselor.

Leandra Calhoun was Recino’s counselor in Willow, the maximum security unit at Green Hill. When she was approached by police, she claimed that Recino had stolen her car at gunpoint and that she had nothing to do with the shooting. 

But it was clear to investigators that Calhoun had a relationship with Recino that lasted beyond his term in Green Hill.

Through an attorney, Calhoun declined to speak with KING 5.

During their investigation, police learned Calhoun served prison time with the state Department of Corrections on a robbery conviction in 2011. It’s unclear how soon after her release from prison she was hired as a counselor by Green Hill.

Centralia homeowner Bill Kale found a bullet hole in his window the morning after the drive-by shooting for which Recino is charged. 

He’s an example of how the problems inside Green Hill can spill out into the community.

“Obviously," Kale said, "if they’re not doing their job over there, they need to get it taken care of."