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Thursday, april 8, 2021
ThE OBsErVEr — 5A
BAILEY: ‘I SPENT MY LIFE STAYING AWAY FROM OLD MEN THAT I DIDN’T KNOW’
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family members. He spent a night
in the Umatilla County Jail and
will serve five years probation. He
wasn’t required to register as a sex
offender.
If DeYoe had been a coach, he
might have been convicted of a
Class C felony, a crime that car-
ries sentences up to five years in
prison and a $125,000 fine. But
DeYoe wasn’t technically a coach.
Pushing for change
During the hearing, Munck
urged the senators to amend
existing law to include teachers.
“What is the significant dif-
ference between a teacher and
a coach? Do coaches somehow
carry more authority than a teacher
might?” she asked the senators.
“Coaches and teachers should be
prosecuted equally as they both
have responsibility for students’
safety and they both have positions
of authority and power over their
students and players.”
Others speaking in favor of the
bill included Taylor and Hansell,
Umatilla County District Attorney
Dan Primus and retired Weston
Middle School teacher, coach and
athletic director John Bartron,
who originally urged Hansell to
consider sponsoring a bill that
would fix the discrepancy.
Primus testified that sexual
abuse in the third degree is a mis-
demeanor that involves “touching
of an intimate part for sexual grat-
ification.” If the defendant is a
coach, the charge is elevated to
sexual abuse in the second degree,
which is a felony. He said the
addition came during the 2009
legislative session. Legislators
discussed including teachers, but
ultimately didn’t.
Primus, whose office handled
the prosecution, expressed frus-
tration at not being able to charge
DeYoe with a felony the same as
a coach.
“The relationship between a
teacher and a student is really no
different than a coach and an ath-
lete,” Primus said. “It should not
Ben lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Weston-McEwen’s Bailey Munck (14) goes up for a shot against the heppner Mustangs
during a game in athena on Jan. 3, 2020.
be treated any differently.”
In preparing to testify, Primus
said he reviewed reports in
DeYoe’s file. One comment from
a law enforcement officer’s inter-
view with Munck struck him.
“He asked Bailey why she
could tell a boy her age ‘no,’ but
she was unable to tell the defen-
dant ‘no,’” Primus said. “Bailey’s
answer was simple and profound
— because he had power and
authority over her.”
During Hansell’s testimony,
he pushed the committee to send
the bill, which adds teachers to
the existing Oregon statute, to the
Senate floor for a vote.
“We as a state need to be con-
sistent in protecting our vulner-
able high school girls and boys
with consistent sanctions, be the
perpetrator a coach or a teacher,”
Hansell said. “It’s a simple fix.”
Abuse brought shock
Bartron sat in the East Ore-
gonian conference room next to
Munck, testifying after Hansell.
He said he has
known Bailey since
she was small, both
as a family friend
and student. When he
learned of the abuse,
Hansell
he felt gut shot.
“I was absolutely
stunned, saddened
and angered on so
many levels,” Bartron
said. “My greatest
concern of course
was Bailey.”
Taylor
Bartron said he
started researching
Oregon’s sexual
abuse statutes after
learning more
about how the case
against DeYoe was
Primus
proceeding.
“I was absolutely
shocked to learn that
within those stat-
utes there appeared
to be that loophole
that held coaches to a
DeYoe
higher consequence
than a teacher,” he said. “I was
beside myself.”
With the blessing of Bailey
and her parents, he approached
Hansell about creating a bill to fix
the loophole. Hansell promised to
look into it.
“One way I am apprised of
needs is when people come to me
and say this doesn’t make sense,”
Hansell said after the hearing. “To
be in a position where you can
attempt to correct something is
very rewarding and fulfilling for
me.”
Munck has spent a lot of time
thinking about what transpired
with DeYoe. If she could have
warned her younger self, she
might have identified classic signs
of grooming behavior in DeYoe.
“He just wanted to be the fun
teacher,” she said several weeks
ago during an East Oregonian
interview. “DeYoe’s classroom
was the hangout spot.”
She knows now she should
have been more alarmed when
DeYoe often texted her about non-
school things, simply to say good
morning or good night or ask
ROADS
VACCINES
Continued from Page 1A
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and in declining condition,
Carpenter said. It will be
replaced with a new water
main made of ductile iron.
Carpenter said it will
be much more efficient to
replace the water main this
year while the street is torn
up.
“This is the preventive
maintenance,” he said.
The Second Street work,
which is scheduled to be
completed by July, will
be done in two phases —
first from Spring to Wash-
ington avenues, and then
from Washington to Adams
avenues.
Preliminary work
involving the replace-
ment of the water main
is underway. The project
will not hit full stride until
Monday, April 12, when the
city closes Second Street
from Spring to Wash-
ington avenues. The clo-
sure also will include the
intersections at Spring and
Main avenues. Crews will
begin the excavation of
the existing roadway and
the removal of curbs, Car-
penter said.
The 3.5 miles of road
restoration on Interstate
84 this spring and summer
will be part of a two-year,
10-mile project during
which the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation
will replace the roadway’s
surface up to the Spring
Creek exit, 18 miles north-
west of La Grande.
Tom Strandberg, an
ODOT spokesperson,
said the work is neces-
sary because severe winter
weather and heavy use of
tire chains when winter
conditions are present
have rutted the roadway’s
asphalt surface.
level ratings for Oregon’s
36 counties, issued later
Tuesday.
After a steady trend
of counties moving lower
in the four-tiered risk rat-
ings, the report this week
showed a number of coun-
ties with infections on the
rise, requiring a return to
tighter controls on activi-
ties, gatherings and dining.
Statewide, the Oregon
Health Authority as of
Wednesday, April 7,
reported 168,128 cases of
COVID-19 and 40 new
fatalities from the disease,
pushing Oregon’s death toll
to 2,434.
Union County cases
continue to increase as
well, with five new cases
as Tuesday and Wednesday
for a total of 1,395 since
the start of the pandemic.
The county’s 23rd death
— and Oregon’s 2,434th
— is a 48-year-old man
who tested positive Nov.
11 and died March 23 at
Legacy Emanuel Hospital,
Portland.
While COVID-19
deaths have continued
to stay lower than pre-
vious peaks, health offi-
cials remain concerned
about possibly more viru-
lent variants of COVID-19
spreading across the
country and into Oregon.
Health officials are wor-
ried about highly con-
tagious and potentially
more lethal variants of
the original virus that has
killed 2.86 million people
around the globe, including
556,000 in the United
States.
Oregon has maintained
some of the lowest infec-
tion rates and death totals
in the nation, but has still
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a la Grande public Works department crew on Tuesday, april 6, 2021,
prepares second street for a project to replace a water main and upgrade
the road. The project will tear up 1,100 feet of the street.
“This creates hazardous
driving conditions when
water, snow and ice collect
in the ruts, cracks and pot-
holes,” he said.
The westbound and east-
bound lanes for slow traffic,
now made of asphalt, will
be rebuilt with concrete and
the fast lanes will receive
new asphalt.
Strandberg said con-
crete, which is longer
lasting than asphalt, is the
best fit for the slow lanes
because they have such
heavy truck traffic.
“The slow lanes receive
the most punishment,” he
said.
Work is beginning now
on the project, which will
have a major impact on
traffic. Strandberg said
the work will be done on
entire portions of east-
bound and westbound
lanes at one time. This
means when a section with
two westbound lanes is
being restored the two par-
allel eastbound lanes will
have traffic traveling in
opposite directions.
Strandberg said cones
will be installed to divide
the two lanes of traffic.
The speed limit is being
reduced from 70 to 50
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mph in the work zone of
the project to protect trav-
elers and those working
at the site. There also will
be increased Oregon State
Police presence at times
to help remind everyone
to slow down, according
to Mike Remily of ODOT,
the resident engineer for
the project, in a press
release.
Remily is encouraging
travelers to be careful and
avoid hurrying while trav-
eling through the work
zone.
“On behalf of our con-
tractor’s staff and ODOT
staff, I ask that you be
patient and cautious
through the work zone and
remember the end result
of the inconvenience will
be a brand-new, durable,
smooth pavement,” he said
in the release.
The I-84 project will cost
$54 million. The funding
will be provided by the state
and federal governments.
A portion of the funding
also will cover upgrading
traffic signals in Umatilla
County in areas along state
routes in or near the com-
munities of Hermiston,
Pendleton, Umatilla, Stan-
field and Milton-Freewater.
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what she was doing as late as 3 in
the morning. Screen shots of texts
bear this out. She would have
avoided being alone with him in
his classroom. During moments
of inappropriate touching, she felt
paralyzed. She’s stronger now.
“I sort of don’t associate myself
with myself a year ago,” Munck
said. “I feel like I’m a completely
different person.”
Predators aren’t always
strangers
Munck said she realized that
she once assumed she could easily
identify and avoid predators.
“I spent my life staying away
from old men that I didn’t know,”
she said. “Looking around and
under my car before getting in.
That protected me during my 16
years, but what didn’t was the
knowledge of grooming by some-
body that I know already.”
Munck said she doesn’t blame
the justice system for not securing
a harsher sentence for DeYoe and
going for a plea deal that would
keep the case from dragging on
for months.
“Ultimately I think the assis-
tant district attorney involved
(Jaclyn Jenkins), she helped us
settle the best situation,” Munck
said. “There were just a lot of fac-
tors that I feel like people outside
looking in just don’t see all that.
They’re quick to judge the sen-
tence, but that was really all we
could do with it. It was a misde-
meanor. You can’t do a lot with a
misdemeanor. It was the best that
could have happened.”
During the court hearings, the
teen observed Jenkins with fasci-
nation. So taken was Munck that
she has decided to study criminal
justice in college and become a
prosecutor like Jenkins.
Sen. Hansell said he is hopeful
Bailey’s Bill will reach the Senate
floor for a vote this session.
“Senate Bill 649 will close a
loophole in Oregon statutes so
that other daughters and their
families will not have to endure
what Bailey Munck and her
family have had to go through.”
reported just under 2,400
deaths.
“Impending doom” is
how Dr. Rochelle Wal-
ensky, director of the Cen-
ters for Disease Control
and Prevention, last week
described the combination
of spreading viruses and
relaxed safety habits by a
pandemic-weary public.
The CDC has sin-
gled out one variant orig-
inally found in the United
Kingdom — B.1.1.7 — as
the main version of the
virus hitting about two-
thirds of the country. The
Oregon Health Authority
has reported 19 cases of
the U.K. variant in Oregon,
but believes there are many
more.
Biden’s announcement
on Tuesday is the second
time a White House direc-
tive has changed Oregon’s
phased vaccine eligibility
timeline.
Brown and the OHA
had originally set July 1 as
the earliest date that a long
series of priority groups
would be finished and the
vaccine could be offered to
anyone who wanted a shot.
On March 11, Biden
issued a directive that
states drop all barriers to
eligibility no later than
May 1 as a way to speed up
vaccination rates. Oregon
condensed the timeline
for its eligibility groups to
meet the deadline. Brown
said it might even be pos-
sible for some counties to
open eligibility as early as
April 26.
The new April 19 dead-
line will impact only
Oregon and a few other
states. A majority of states
already allow all residents
age 16 and older to be vac-
cinated, and only two —
Oregon and Hawaii — had
announced plans to lift the
final barriers on May 1.
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The Biden adminis-
tration has pushed for
ramping up vaccinations,
saying at least a third of
adults in the nation have
received at least one dose
of vaccine and three mil-
lion shots were going into
arms every day.
Brown and Oregon
Health Authority Director
Pat Allen have said the
greatest impediment to
widespread inoculation is
supply of vaccine.
Over the past week,
Oregon has questioned the
federal allocation process
state officials believe could
be shortchanging the state
on vaccine allocations.
“My office will work
closely with the White
House to ensure Oregon
receives our fair share of
federal vaccine supplies,
so we can continue with a
fast, fair and equitable vac-
cine distribution process,”
Brown said.
The White House
announced Tuesday that
150 million shots have been
administered since Biden
took office on Jan. 20. He
had promised to get 100
million shots into Amer-
icans’ arms by his 100th
day in office, April 30.
Oregon health officials
said the state has injected
more than 2 million doses
of vaccine. Most of the
shots are for the two-
dose Pfizer and Moderna
vaccines.
The one-shot Johnson
& Johnson vaccine has
accounted for just over
50,000 shots in Oregon.
It remains in limited
supply nationwide due
to a botched processing
system at a subcon-
tractor in Baltimore that
ruined 15 million batches
that had to be destroyed.
Doses currently offered
are the correct mixture.
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