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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2010)
Page 6 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 21, 2010 District Attorney: Deputy justified in fatal June shooting Following a review of the circumstances surround- ing a fatal gun shot fired by a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) deputy on June 23, the conclusion is that the officer was justified. Stephen Campbell, county district attorney, an- nounced last week that he had concluded his review of the officer-involved shooting at 1440 Denton Road in rural Grants Pass. The round from a .223 tactical rifle, fired at approxi- mately 8:01 a.m., resulted in the death of Vaughn Ronald Sanderson, who earlier talked about “suicide by cop.” Campbell said that a full investigation of the incident was conducted by the Jose- phine County Major Crime Response Team. It is an inter- agency team comprised of detectives from Oregon State Police, Grants Pass Dept. of Public Safety, and JCSO. The OSP Crime Laboratory as- sisted with scene investiga- tion and forensic analysis. The district attorney pro- vided the following account: Evidence revealed that in the early morning hours of June 23, Sanderson, who had been drinking for several days, was expressing thoughts of suicide including placing a .357 revolver into his mouth. Sanderson also had numerous other loaded firearms in the house includ- ing rifles and a shotgun. When Sanderson was told by his domestic partner, Kathy Varner, that she was going to phone the police, Sanderson told her if she did it would be “suicide by cop.” She was able to slip a cell phone to a tenant of the resi- dence, Byron Smith, and re- quested that he phone 911, report what was going on, and request help. Meanwhile, Varner continued to try to talk Sanderson down. Smith made the 911 call at 7:24 a.m. In response to the call, six JCSO deputies responded: Sgt. John Justema, Joel Heller, Keith Hubbard, Cory Krauss, Jason Schmidt and Jaired Freeman. Three of them were familiar with the residence, as they had been involved in prior complaints there. They approached in teams of two from different angles. Justema and Heller ap- proached the front of the ga- rage where Sanderson was located, and the officers used a fifth-wheel travel trailer as a shield. As they approached, the deputies identified them- selves and were challenged by Sanderson. Using exple- tives, he ordered the deputies off the property and threat- ened to shoot them. During the challenge, Sanderson picked up a loaded Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun. Justema repeatedly told San- derson to drop the weapon but, in contradiction to law- man instruction, Sanderson raised the shotgun in the di- rection of Justema and Heller and discharged a round. Justema immediately returned fire, discharging a single round from a .223 ser- vice rifle, which struck Vaughn Sanderson in his left chest, entering his heart and resulting in fatal injury. Evidence that the shot- gun was fired included a re- cently discharged round in the chamber of the shotgun when secured, plus the shot cup from the shotgun cartridge (sometimes known as the wadding), which landed within a few feet of Justema; and a shot pellet that appar- ently struck the fifth-wheel trailer and dropped near the front of it where Justema and Heller had taken position. Additionally, at least nine witnesses reported being able to distinguish the two shots, first the shotgun and then the rifle, occurring in quick suc- cession. Arraignment set in embezzlement case (Continued from page 1) $3,500 removed from bank ATMs in a one-month period. “Wilson was never ap- proved to withdraw cash from the ATMs,” documents state. The JCSO incident report narrative states that Wilson was “confronted during a meeting with the board of directors of the Forestry Ac- tion Committee about her work ethic and the lack of accounting information for the business.” She was di- rected to provide them with the laptop computer contain- ing the organization’s ac- counting information. All the passwords for the computer had been changed by Wilson, documents state, and “two different sets of books were located.” One set had been shown to the board of directors during meetings, and “one that was poorly kept over the past two or three years,” documents state. A secret indictment for the case was filed in Jose- phine County Circuit Court on May 20 by Deputy District Attorney Wally Hicks. Court documents listed Chapp as the victim for the aggravated identity theft count, and state that $10,000 or more was taken between June 15 and Dec. 15, 2007. Court documents state that the charge of aggravated theft in the first degree stemmed from the theft of $10,000 or more from FAC between June 1 and Nov. 30, 2008. One of the first-degree theft charges was for the loss of $5,000 or more from FAC between Dec. 1, 2007 and May 30, 2008, documents state. The other was for the period between Dec. 7, 2007 and May 7, 2008. A charge of identity theft stemmed from Wilson’s use of Chapp’s identity between Jan. 22 and Feb. 6, 2008, documents state, for an amount of more than $1,000. The first-degree forgery charge was for altering a check for $1,000 or more between Aug. 25 and Aug. 29, 2008, documents state. On Feb. 2, 2009, Wilson was convicted of stealing from Herb Nichols between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26, 2008. An indictment for that case, stamped Jan. 16, 2009, also listed charges of first-degree forgery and identity theft. It was signed by a grand jury foreman and Deputy District Attorney Michael Caso. That document states that Nichols testified in person before the grand jury with JCSO Deputy Ed Vincent. A probable-cause affida- vit dated Jan. 12, 2009 states that Wilson took Nichols’ checkbook, wrote a check for $5,000 and deposited checks into her account. Wilson also was alleged to have removed Nichols’ debit card and used it to “pay bills,” documents state. According to an amended judgment stamped March 10, 2009 and signed by Circuit Court Judge Lindi Baker, Wilson was sentenced to 24 months of bench proba- tion, 20 days in custody and $437 in assessments. Court documents state that Wilson had resided in San Mateo, Calif. for around six months prior to being transported to Josephine County Jail. At the time, Wil- son had three outstanding local warrants for failure to appear on file, but in a court document dated July 1, she wrote that she “didn’t know there was a warrant out.” Wilson tentatively is set to be arraigned for the new charges stemming from the alleged FAC thefts on Wednesday, July 21 at 1 p.m. in Josephine County Circuit Court. She apparently will be represented by an attorney from the public defender’s office. Concrete Remodeling New Construction Decks Outbuildings FREE Estimates For all your home repair/maintenance needs call Mike at policies are doing much bet- ter, he said. “The reality is that free trade is bad for the United States,” Fletcher articulated. “It’s also bad for very poor people abroad.” Karl Marx, the founder of communism, supported free trade because it increases the gap between the rich and the poor, Fletcher said, which would hasten the social revo- lution that Marx sought. The author said that white collar workers such as accountants are increasingly becoming victimized by free trade policies. “The pain is gradually working its way up the social ladder, and it’s starting to hit the yuppies who are seeing their white collar jobs out- sourced to India,” he said. The political coalition that has supported free trade policies in the past is coming undone as a result, he said. “I think that whole de- bate is going to erupt all over again,” Fletcher maintains. “I think the American people are increasingly becoming aware that we’ve got to be doing something wrong, be- cause the economy is not supposed to go backwards.” As a solution to the prob- lem of trade imbalance, Auto air conditioning service offered through RCC program Students in the Rogue Community College Automotive pro- gram will perform vehicle air conditioning service during sum- mer term, which runs through Sept. 2. Students will service cars and trucks, diagnose inoperative systems, and service vehicles that need a retrofit from R12 to R134A refrigerant. All work is conducted at RCC’s Redwood Campus, 3345 Redwood Hwy., Grants Pass. A $25 shop fee will be charged, and required parts will be sold at retail cost. Phone 541-956-7175 for an appointment. AND RENTAL CENTER 541-531-6220 Save $$$ Rent From Us: lawn tools, paint sprayers, carpet shampooer, plumbing tools, construction equipment, power tools and more! Licensed-Bonded-Insured CCB 174891 434 Caves Highway, Cave Junction, OR 97523 Phone (541) 592-3540 Fax (541) 592-6841 Mon-Fri 7:00-5:30, Sat 8:00-5:00, Closed Sunday vestigation is also helpful in protecting officers from un- justified civil claims. During this incident all officers on scene conducted themselves to appropriate professional standards. Justema’s use of deadly physical force under the cir- cumstances he encountered was fully justified under Ore- gon law. No further action in this matter is anticipated or merited. Campbell thanked the Josephine County Major Crime Response Team for an excellent and detailed investi- gation of the incident. Willian pleads guilty to five sex abuse charges A Cave Junction man facing 10 counts of first- degree sex abuse has pleaded guilty to five of those counts. Dennis Willian, 66, en- tered his plea in Josephine County Circuit Court on Fri- day, July 16. Sex abuse is a Measure 11 offense with a mandatory minimum sen- tence of 75 months in prison. Deputy District Attorney Ryan Mulkins, who prose- cutes most of the sex crimes in the county, said that the state is recommending a nine- year prison term for Willian. Willian was arrested and booked into Josephine County Jail in Grants Pass on June 10. At the time, he was living near Evergreen Ele- mentary School. The charges against Wil- lian were based on allegations that he abused a 5-year-old girl on multiple occasions during 2002. Willian was represented by attorney Victory Walker from the public defender’s office. Mulkins said that sen- tencing likely will take place within the next month. ~ Scott Jorgensen Water Wells Pump Sales Installation Service 592-6777 1470 Caves Highway Licensed • Bonded • Insured Locally owned and operated in the valley for over 25 years. WWC #1504 • CCB #152266 • CPl #7-113 Member Oregon Ground Water Assoc. “With Every Service, You Receive a Touch of Class” Flat Rate No Surprises After Bid! Protectionist policies promoted (Continued from page 1) pearing. But he noted that is not really the case. “Almost all multinational corporations are still physi- cally strongly tied to one country or another,” he stated. “We still live in a world that is largely made up of differ- ent national economies.” Even the United States and Canada have “meaningfully different” economies, Fletcher said, despite their many similari- ties. As an example, the au- thor cited the fact that Canada has largely avoided the bank- ing industry turmoil that has plagued the U.S. economy in the past few years. “Nations still matter,” Fletcher said. “The national economy still matters.” Many nations in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa are poorer today than they were 40 years ago due to free trade policies, he ob- served. Nations practicing mercantilist and protectionist Justema and Heller re- ported seeing the muzzle flash of the shotgun in their direction. During interviews with Varner, she reportedly said that this event “could not have ended any other way.” The evidence revealed that Sanderson, in an intoxicated and suicidal state, forced the police to employ deadly physical force against him. The district attorney is charged with the duty of re- viewing incidents where deadly physical force is used to determine if its use met the standards of existing state law. A full and complete in- Fletcher suggested implemen- tation of a 20 to 30 percent flat tax on all imported goods and services. Such a system wouldn’t cause low-paying industries such as apparel to return to the USA, Fletcher said, but he feels that it would help retain high-tech industries such as semiconductor firms. Office: 541-597-2813 Cell: 541-659-2670 Tony Fierro, Owner CCB # 189983 Illinois Valley News is an equal-opportunity advertising medium. Phone 541-592-2541.
