2A — THE OBSERVER
MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019
LOCAL
DA asks to
consolidate
stalking,
indecency
cases
D aily
P lanner
TODAY
Today is Monday, Dec. 2,
the 336th day of 2019. There
are 29 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Dec. 2, 1859, militant
abolitionist John Brown
was hanged for his raid on
Harpers Ferry the previous
October.
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
ON THIS DATE
In 1816, the first savings
bank in the United States,
the Philadelphia Savings
Fund Society, opened for
business.
In 1823, President James
Monroe outlined his doctrine
opposing European expansion
in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1942, an artificially cre-
ated, self-sustaining nuclear
chain reaction was demon-
strated for the first time at
the University of Chicago.
In 1954, the U.S. Senate
passed, 67-22, a resolution
condemning Sen. Joseph R.
McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he
had “acted contrary to senato-
rial ethics and tended to bring
the Senate into dishonor and
disrepute.”
In 1957, the Shippingport
Atomic Power Station in
Pennsylvania, the first full-scale
commercial nuclear facility in
the U.S., began operations.
(The reactor ceased operating
in 1982.)
In 1969, the Boeing 747
jumbo jet got its first public
preview as 191 people, most of
them reporters and photogra-
phers, flew from Seattle to New
York City.
In 1970, the newly cre-
ated Environmental Protection
Agency opened its doors under
its first director, William D.
Ruckelshaus.
In 1980, four American
churchwomen were raped and
murdered in El Salvador. (Five
national guardsmen were
convicted in the killings.)
In 1993, Colombian drug
lord Pablo Escobar was shot
to death by security forces in
Medellin.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
““When your work speaks
for itself, don’t interrupt.””
— Henry J. Kaiser, American
industrialist (1882-1967)
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Denny Langford of Union shows one of his journals on Friday to Olivia Akers, second from right, and her son
Mason and daughter Jamie. The Akers, who live in Western Oregon, are friends of Langford and his family.
48,000 pages and counting
■ ■ Union’s Denny
Langford has kept
a daily journal
since March 1982
By Dick Mason
The Observer
UNION — It was a small
step, taken quietly without
fanfare.
Thirty-seven years ago,
Denny Langford of Union
picked up a plastic black
ink pen and began writing
a daily journal.
That pen soon disap-
peared but not Langford’s
growing passion for writing.
Now, 48,000 pages later, he
has an inspiring tale to share
with fellow journal writers.
Langford, 81, has written
almost every day since
March of 1982. His prose
is rich in detail about his
life, his family, local history,
wildlife, the two bands he
plays in, local rodeos and
more. Langford speaks
humbly of his work.
“I am not a writer by any
means, but I like to keep a
record of events,” he said.
The records he has kept
now fill 96 250-page spiral
notebooks. Both sides of all
of the pages are filled, all
with printed words. No cur-
sive words are to be found.
“I print because my
handwriting is like a phar-
macist’s. Nobody could read
it,” Langford said.
The only days Langford
has missed writing since
1982 was during hunting
trips. His journals do not
reveal this, though, for he
filled in the details of those
days upon returning.
Langford began keeping
a journal when The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints encouraged he
and the rest of the member-
ship to do so. He had never
written extensively when
he was younger.
“I didn’t like writing
when I was in high school,”
Langford said.
Now, though, he sees the
benefits.
“It helps me unwind,” he
said. “I feel fulfilled after
writing.”
His journals often come
in handy when his family
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Denny Langford looks over a portion of his 96 journal notebooks. Langford has
been writing journal entries almost every day for almost four decades
is debating details about
things such as where they
went on trips together
years ago.
“The journals have solved
a lot of family arguments,”
Langford said.
Denny and Colleen
Langford, who have been
married 61 years, have four
children, 11 grandchildren
and 21 great-grandchildren.
His journals also provide
a look at wildlife and traffic
in the High Valley Road
area. For 17 years, the life-
long Union resident walked
2 miles almost every day
on High Valley Road and
recorded how many deer
and vehicles he saw.
“Sometimes I saw cows
chasing coyotes,” said Lang-
ford, who worked for Union
Pacific Railroad for 35 years
before retiring about a
dozen years ago.
Information about major
national events, such as the
9/11 terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center and
the Pentagon building, also
are in Langford’s journals.
Langford said he was talk-
ing to a neighbor when the
man received word of the
World Trade Center attacks
from a phone call from
his wife. The neighbor he
was talking with was not
alarmed at first.
“He said his wife thought
it was probably an airplane
that had gone off course,”
Langford said.
Langford’s journals also
are a treasure for informa-
tion about the two bands
he has played in for many
years, the Blue Mountain
Old Time Fiddlers and
the BlueMountaineers.
Both groups play old-time
country music and give a
combined total of more than
100 performances a year.
He recalled when some-
one conducting an event
the BlueMountaineers were
performing at tried to pay
the band, but Langford, one
of its leaders, refused.
“I said the applause and
smiles we get is our pay,”
he said.
He also writes extensive-
ly about Dottie Brown &
Company, another old-time
music group he played in.
It became the BlueMoun-
taineers after Brown died
several years ago.
Langford’s love of writing
is stronger than ever, but
he admits there are times
when he has to battle
fatigue at the end of a long
day to make sure to get
his writing in. The Union
resident does not foresee a
day in which he will not be
penning journal entries.
“If I don’t write,” Lang-
ford said, “something is left
out of my day.”
LA GRANDE — The Union
County District Attorney’s
Office seeks to join two public
indecency and stalking cases
involving the same defendant,
Denver Lane Knowlton.
According to court records,
the state has accused Knowl-
ton, 31, of Caldwell, Idaho,
of masturbating in public in
front of a woman on March
28 in La Grande, and of
following her in a vehicle, fol-
lowing other females, includ-
ing children, and of trying to
entice a girl into a sexual act.
The state charged Knowlton
in one case with a single
count of public indecency and
four counts of stalking and in
the second case charged him
with one count each of stalk-
ing, public indecency, luring
a minor and endangering the
welfare of a minor.
Circuit Judge Wes Wil-
liams on Wednesday will
consider the state’s motion
to consolidate the cases. But
Knowlton’s defense attor-
ney, Michelle Bartov of La
Grande, is asking the court to
deny the consolidation. She
also wants the court to break
up most of the charges into
separate cases.
Bartov in court documents
asserted “Knowlton stands
falsely accused” of the crimes
and argued the court should
create separate cases so her
client could get fair treat-
ment.
If the charges were
bundled under one case, she
argued, the jury could ignore
Knowlton’s claims of inno-
cence with so many accusers
telling similar stories. Those
accusations, Bartov asserted,
“will inevitably seem more
credible when grouped to-
gether than when evaluated
on their own merits.”
Deputy district attorney
Ryan Rodighiero in his mo-
tion to consolidate argued
the cases involve the same
defendant doing the actions
on the same day with the
only difference being there
are different victims.
Court records also show
Knowlton remains free on a
release agreement and can
appear for the 9 a.m. hearing
via phone.
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