Supreme Court uses law school to hear cases
The Oregon Supreme Court
held two hearings
on Wednesday in the
law school auditorium
By Moriah Balingit
Freelance Reporter
The Knight Law Center auditori
um was transformed into a court
room Wednesday when the Oregon
Supreme Court visited to hear two
criminal cases.
A silence fell over the room and
an audience of mostly first-year law
students stood as the bailiff com
menced the hearing with a "hear ye,
hear ye" and rap of a gavel, to which
the six judges then entered.
The first case heard was State v.
Miglavs, a case in which a concealed
weapon was found on the defendant
after a pat-down. The officer who re
quested the pat-down did not have a
warrant but said she felt an immediate
threat from the defendant, which
would validate her search because of
his apparent association with the 18th
Street gang, a local gang whose mem
bers had previously been found with
concealed weapons.
Attorney Garrett Richardson rep
resented the defendant and argued
that the officer's assumptions were
based on unfair presumptions about
the defendant's clothing, including
baggy pants. *
"These days, baggy is in," Richard
son said.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan
Fussner represented the state.
"Let's assume bulky police officers
... encounter a slightly inebriated
law student from Lewis and Clark or
Willamette," he said, describing the
hypothetical student as wearing a
dance leotard, thus preventing him
or her from concealing a weapon.
"Did you stay awake at night
thinking about this?" Associate Jus
tice W. Michael Gillette asked of the
fictional example.
Fussner's point was that in such
an instance, a claim of an immediate
threat would not be valid. He argued
that the officer's experience with the
gang and the neighborhood justified
her actions, and furthermore, he
said, the officer's assumption was
fair based on the defendant's attire
because he was wearing a shirt that
read "18th Street".
The decision for the case was not
determined at the hearing.
The next case, State v. Ventris, had a
markedly serious tone to it. The case
involved a set of sentencing questions
that many of the law students admit
ted they did not understand.
Joseph Ventris had been involved
in an incident in which he and two
other men burglarized an apart
ment, and the apartment's owner
was later found murdered. Wednes
day's hearing dealt with issues that
would alter the length of the sen
tence, and whether or not Ventris
could serve some of the sentences
concurrently.
In a tense question-and-answer
session after the case, Karen Friend,
the defendant's mother, implied that
Associate Justice Rives Kistler had
a conflict of interest, and she gave
Chief Justice Wallace Carson an arti
cle from The Oregonian that sup
ported her case.
"Judges have no personal stake in
the case, * Kistler said.
Moriah Balingit is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
NEWS BRIEFS
Board affirms EMU budget
The EMU Board of Directors ap
proved the EMU's 2004-05 budget at
its meeting Wednesday, sending it to
the ASUO Student Senate for ap
proval next week. The $3,569,746
budget is an increase of 4.76 percent
from 2003-04, but is less than the
board's 4.8 percent benchmark.
"The process that the budget com
mittee followed was very good and very
thorough," EMU Board Chairwoman
Christa Shively said.
The budget, which had been recalled
to allow the board to reconsider how it
calculates reserve funds, passed by a
vote of 13-0. It indudes funds for reno
vating the Outdoor Program's bam
roof and allowed the board to change
how it will pay for the remodel of 71
EMU, a large office vacated by a branch
of the University Child Care and Devel
opment Centers.
The board also debated a new policy
on the allocation of space for publica
tion distribution. After much discus
sion, the board dedded to delay ap
proval of the policy for another week to
allow time to "wordsmith" it.
As the policy currently reads, it puts
forth a set of criteria for how the
board will determine whether a pub
lication is "suitable" for distribution
within the EMU. Among these criteria
are the availability of space for the
publication's distribution needs,
whether the publication is relevant to
students and whether it presents a dif
ferent perspective from publications
already distributed in the EMU.
The policy states that all publica
tions must comply with the Student
Conduct Code and other relevant
University policies, but specifies that
the board "shall not consider the mes
sage of the publication."
— Chuck Slothower
Senate approves extra funds
for Campus Recycling
The ASUO Student Senate ap
proved special requests from Campus
Recycling, the Chinese Student Schol
ar Association and the Vietnamese
CAMPUS
M W mmmmmm
inursday
"Save The Willamette" art show, runs March 4 and
5, Wilkinson House, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Candidate interview dropin session with Director
erf Faculty Development candidate Mary Fechner,
Century Room E, EMU, 10:30-11 a.m.
Comparative Literature lecture entitled “The Act of
Writing and Literary Experience: Some Conse
quences of the Understanding of Language in MaL
lame, Blanchotand Heidegger," Browsing Room,
Knight Library, 4 p.m.
Romance Languages lecture entitled "The Italian
Job: Manuscripts of Old French from Medieval
Italy," 221 Friendly, 5 p.m.
Author Wayne Besen reads from and discusses his
new book, "Anything But Straight Unmasking the
Scandals and Lies Behind the 'Ex-Gay1 Myth," 110
Willamette, 7 p.m.
Art History lecture entitled "The Discovery of
Tsagaan Got - A Petrogiyphic Complex in the Mon
golian Altai Mountains," 177 Lawrence, 7:30 p.m.
UO Ensembles Concert, Beall Concert Hall, 8 p.m.
\\TSTHRN ORI-GON
U N I V E R S 1 T Y
Wednesday, March 10
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Werner University Center
Oregon Room
Division of Extended Programs
503-838-8483 • extend@wou.edu
www.wou.edu/summersession
Win Free Tuition:
Register for summer session by
March 19 and you'll be entered
in a grand prize drawing for six
credits of WOU summer session
tuition.
Student Association in a one-hour
meeting Wednesday.
Campus Recycling requested
$16,477 for a small electric-powered
utility truck and trailer to add to its
fleet of vans. Operations Recycling
Coordinator Jim Fleck said the elec
tric-powered vehicle is better than a
gas-powered vehicle.
"There's no doubt in my mind that
it'd be cheaper than a gas-powered ve
hicle," he said.
Program Manager Karyn Kaplan
added that the new vehicle would also
be safer and emission-free.
The program has also seen in
creased requests for special-events
recycling, for which a smaller vehi
cle is generally necessary.
ASUO Senate President Ben Strawn
said the purchase of an environmentally
friendly vehicle is in line with Campus
Recycling's mission and goals statement
but "asking them to purchase a gas
powered vehicle probably isn't."
Sen. Kevin Day motioned to make
the transfer. The funds were taken
from the over-realized fund, and the
motion was approved unanimously.
The Chinese Student Scholar Asso
ciation had little difficulty obtaining
an additional $142 for its program
ming account. The motion passed 12
0 with one abstention.
The Vietnamese Student Associa
tion requested $1,095 for food for
Vietnamese Culture Night.
The Senate eventually decided to
transfer $982 from surplus to the
group's food-holding account. The dif
ference will be covered by a transfer
from the group's fall event account
Moriah Balingit is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
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