The Associated Press
KEY CENTER, Wash. — A local fire commissioner was charged with assaulting a fellow commissioner with a coffee mug, the latest outbreak in a feud that a sheriff’s spokesman says needs to end “before someone gets killed.”
The commissioners, 71-year-old Allen Yanity and 64-year-old Jim Bosch, both of Lakebay, got into a heated exchange Tuesday during a break in a meeting as they were standing with their wives, sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said.
Yanity bashed Bosch repeatedly on the head with a coffee mug, Troyer said. A cut on Bosch’s head required staples to close, prosecutors said.
Yanity said he didn’t know exactly what happened during the struggle but that he might have hit Bosch with a coffee mug, according to prosecutors.
Yanity, elected to the Fire Protection District 16 panel last year, has accused Bosch of trying to force him off the commission by extortion. Bosch, first elected in 1998, has accused Yanity of harassing and intimidating him.
“They need to figure out how to get their organization in order,” Troyer told the News Tribune of Tacoma. “We want this stopped before someone gets killed.”
Bosch, 64, was taken to Tacoma General Hospital for stitches and other treatment.
Yanity pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault Wednesday and was released after posting $10,000 bail. He declined to comment after the hearing.
Yanity’s wife, Lanetta Yanity, said Bosch was saying nasty things to her during the break, “pushing and pushing and pushing, and I told him to just shut up and leave us alone, and if he didn’t, I would beat the crap out of him.”
She said that when Bosch raised his arm, she flinched and her husband stepped in because he thought Bosch was going to hit her.
Troyer said other witnesses told deputies that Yanity got involved after Bosch asked Yanity’s wife if she was threatening him.
“Either way, they ought to be embarrassed,” Troyer said.
The district, west of Tacoma, serves about 18,000 residents and has 21 full-time firefighters, 30 volunteers and six stations.