FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5
Local
Reserve officers graduate
Teens save life
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Kerry McQuisten/ The Baker County Press
Members of the 2016 graduating class were presented with their certificates as new reserve officers last
Saturday.
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PAGE 1
Lt. Dustin Newman
presented certificates to the
Baker City Police Depart-
ment graduates, standing
in for Chief Wyn Lohner
who was traveling out of
state. Lt. Warren Thomp-
son presented in Sheriff
Travis Ash’s place, as he
was also unable to attend.
Chief Brian Harvey of the
La Grande Police Depar-
ment presented to the La
Grande graduates. Chief
Ray Rau of the Nyssa Po-
lice Department presented
to the Nyssa graduates and
served as the morning’s
keynote speaker. Union
County Sheriff Boyd
Rasmussen and the gradu-
ate with that agency were
unable to attend.
Boyd explained in a
combination of both his
introductory speech and a
prior press release that the
Academy was founded in
2012 and has trained over
70 public safety personnel,
primarily Reserve Officers
and Deputies from three
counties. The academy has
also provided training to
full-time officers, dispatch-
ers, probation/parole of-
ficers, and fire Paramedics
who serve on the Eastern
Oregon Special Weapons
and Tactics (SWAT) Team.
Many graduates, he said,
“have gone on to full-
time, paid law enforcement
positions but a large num-
ber, by choice, continue to
serve their communities in
a volunteer capacity.”
For the first time, an
arrangement with Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege’s Baker City campus
means that academy gradu-
ates are eligible to earn
up to six college credits
upon completion of their
training.
Graduates complete over
200 hours of training in
order to earn their certifi-
cates, with hundreds more
hours ahead.
Boyd took a moment
to point out Deputy Rich
Kirby who continued to
train the reserves perhaps
above and beyond the call,
despite a serious condition
that required surgery.
“It would be difficult to
find anybody better than
the recruits who went
through this course,” Boyd
said. He also emphasized
the support of the vari-
ous agencies as key to the
program’s success.
Rau then took the podium
to deliver the keynote ad-
dress. Police Chief at Nys-
sa since 2012, Rau grew up
seven miles outside Elgin.
A Desert Storm veteran, he
has served in law enforce-
ment since 1995.
“I have been blessed,”
Rau began to the gradu-
ates. “I sat where you are
many, many years ago.”
Rau emphasized that the
new reserves never forget
their “servant mentality.”
He paused. “Don’t ever
forget that.”
Rau went on to quote, “If
service is below you, then
leadership is beyond you.”
He addressed the fact
that reserve officers can
double the police force
in many agencies, but as
volunteers, are not paid.
The front of the program
for the ceremony summed
up that idea: “Reserves do
for free what most would
not do for a million dol-
lars.”
Rau spoke to the sheep-
dog analogy made so
famous in the movie,
“American Sniper.”
He stated that law en-
forcement officers view
honest, law-abiding citi-
zens as their flock, which
they are sworn to protect
from the “wolves.”
“I’ve been hunting
wolves for a very long
time,” he said.
Rau clarified that 97%
of those with whom his
officers deal are typically
just normal people who
have made poor judge-
ment calls. Three percent,
he said, would fall into the
“wolf” category—socio-
paths, psychopaths and the
like, who want to cause
harm to others.
Rau concluded his
presentation with a series
of video clips and media
snippets showing everyday
encounters his officers
have faced.
He encouraged the
graduates to hold onto the
“feel-good moments” in
their careers, as by contrast
due to the nature of their
jos, they will encounter so
many difficult ones.
Student speakers were
Officer Cassie Heine of the
La Grande Police Depart-
ment and Deputy Mike
Dunn of the Baker County
Sheriff’s Office.
Dunn highlighted the
desires of the graduates
to serve and protect their
communities. He also
spoke to several of the
classes he had completed
in the Academy—every-
thing from professionalism
and ethics, to defensive
tactics, to traffic stops.
“There’s no such thing as
a routine traffic stop,” he
said he’d learned.
Dunn also touched upon
building searches, emer-
gency vehicle operation
and firearms safety.
Heine, who is also a 911
Dispatcher urged those
in the room to “pursue
your career with vigor and
enthusiasm.”
She recited the Police Of-
ficer’s Prayer, and spoke to
the law enforcement code
of ethics, which includes
among many other things
to serve mankind, safe-
guard lives and property,
protect the innocent against
deception, and to respect
the Constitutional rights of
all men to liberty, equality
and justice.
“Law enforcement is not
a job,” she concluded. “It’s
a calling.”
Thompson and Harvey
spoke briefly.
Thompson called the
reserves the “backbone” of
their respective agencies.
Harvey noted, “You’re
on your way to the most
incredible career you could
ever ask to serve in, so do
it well.”
This year’s graduates,
listed alphabetically by
agency (also alphabeti-
cally) are:
Baker City Police De-
partment
• Tina Aldrich
• Jacob Hobbs
• Cody Kirby
• Dan Koopman
• Zach Thatcher
Baker County Sheriffs
Office
• Talon Colton
• Mike Dunn
• Chad Mills
• Joel Teixeira
La Grande Police De-
partment
• Bailey Blagg
• Cassie Heine
• Austin Henry
• Tesmond Hurd
Nyssa Police Depart-
ment
• Greg Bunker
• Joshua Hardy
• Eric Menchaca
• Colin Peterson
Union County Sheriffs
Office
• Nicholas Vora
Everyone in uniform
stood to reiterate their
oaths, repeating the law en-
forcement code of ethics in
unison near the end of the
ceremony.
For more information on
the academy, contact Boyd
at jboyd@bakercity.com.
Nonpartisan initiative
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PAGE 1
Three weeks ago, Kate
Rohner, Michelle Kaseberg
and Mike Rudi completed
the first step, obtaining
a ballot title through the
local District Attorney’s
Office. They’ve dubbed
their political group, “Kick
Politics out of Baker
County’s Business.”
Because Oregon has al-
ways had a closed primary,
Republican voters receive
Republican ballots and
Democrat voters receive
Democrat ballots.
Rohner has stated that
she believes only the voice
of one party is heard as a
result.
“That’s nonsense,”
counters Jones. “The local
Democrats have just as
much opportunity to find
a viable candidate to run
for any of these positions.
They have repeatedly
failed at a County level to
produce an electable candi-
date. This leaves those who
lean more to the left trying
to find a dirty way to win.
They can either reregister
to Republican and hijack
the Republican primary,
or they can remove party
affiliation and hide the true
ideology of their candi-
dates that way.”
Rudi, who is registered
as a nonaffiliated voter or
NAV, is quoted in another
media source as being
displeased with having to
re-register every primary in
order to vote.
“This just shows the
level of ignorance we’re
dealing with here,” said
Jones. “Under Oregon
Statute, NAVs can just put
in writing to the County
Clerk which ballot they’d
like to receive, and vote
either way without regis-
tering. They’ve never been
disenfranchised.”
“They don’t know the
system at all, and yet they
want to change it,” said
Jones.
Jones also points out one
nasty side-effect of chang-
ing Commissioner seats to
nonpartisan. “If a com-
missioner resigns, under a
nonpartisan system we lose
the local representation (up
to 48 precinct committee
people) from all corners of
Baker County in the nomi-
nee selection process.
“The decision would be
left to just two remain-
ing Commissioners or the
Governor if two commis-
sioners resign. Who would
want Kate Brown deciding
who our County Commis-
sioner will be?”
Slobig said she had to drive across the concrete island
in the middle of Campbell to get her own vehicle out of
the street.
“It was crazy,” Palmer said. “We just flew over there.”
Palmer said she isn’t sure why they felt the need to drive
toward the scene, but they immediately did.
“When we saw he’d fallen to the ground,” Slobig said.
“At first I thought he must be joking.”
“It sounds awful, but at first I thought he was faking it,”
said Palmer. “He sat down and then just fell back.”
The driver of that semi, Jerry Jewell, age 58 from Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida, wasn’t faking it after all. In fact,
he had just had a massive heart attack. “He was purple,”
Slobig noted.
Palmer sprang to action, reaching Jewell first, where she
began and continued doing chest compressions until she
was tired. Jewell’s friend, Hubert Wayne Simmons, who
had been a passenger in the semi, looked on and asked
for help.
Palmer said, “He was blue and purple. We kept check-
ing for his pulse but didn’t get a response. I wasn’t sure
if he was alive. We just kept going. I think it must have
been 15 minutes.”
“Then Sydney switched to mouth to mouth,” said Slo-
big, who then took over the compressions.
The two girls continued to perform CPR until the
ambulance arrived and first responders took over, using a
defibrillator almost immediately.
“We didn’t even hear when they arrived,” said Slobig.
“It felt like a long time. It was all very emotional all
around. They were going to take him to the hospital and
getting ready to Lifeflight him to Boise. We didn’t even
know if he’d made it. I remember climbing up into his
truck trying to find his I.D.”
Slobig said Officer Coleton Smith called and told her
that Jewell wouldn’t be alive if they hadn’t applied their
training, and that he didn’t know how they’d done it
considering so many times CPR fails.
Palmer said it was less than an hour before they re-
ceived that call from Officer Smith.
What happened to the other man who was part of the
argument that happened just prior to Jewell dropping to
the ground? Police identified him as Scott Edward Fraser,
age 33 of Baker City, by running the license plates on his
vehicle.
“We had seen him drive off in a dark colored truck,”
said Palmer.
Police Chief Wyn Lohner said both men were reported
as yelling at each other and pushing one another, but
there’s no documentation that either man struck the other.
Slobig believes Fraser was angry because Jewell’s
trailer, due to its length, had still been in the intersection
when the traffic light turned red. She said at one point
Fraser had accused him of “T-boning” his own vehicle.
There was no evidence of a collision, however.
Fraser was later charged with disorderly conduct.
Jewell asked the girls to visit him at St. Alphonsus in
Baker City before transport to Boise.
Jewell underwent open heart surgery in Boise on Tues-
day afternoon at 1 p.m.
Palmer said Wednesday that she and Slobig had been
down to Boise to visit Jewell. He was “doing okay,”
she said. However, Jewell didn’t come out of surgery as
smoothly as doctors had hoped, and was being closely
monitored at the time this article went to print.
“We did get to meet his sister,” Palmer added. “She has
flown up from Florida to be with him, so that’s good.”
“Keep him in your thoughts,” said Slobig.
Parallel Ensemble
to perform at EOU
Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity’s 45th Parallel
Ensemble is performing at
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June
1 in McKenzie Theater in
Loso Hall.
Their repertoire includes
a variety of music.
Admission to the concert
is free with donations ac-
cepted to benefit the music
program or music scholar-
ships at EOU.
For more information
call 541-962-3559.