DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016
143RD YEAR, NO. 163
ONE DOLLAR
AHS WRESTLERS
GO TO STATE
KNAPPA HEADS
TO SWEET 16
SPORTS • 7A
SPORTS • 7A
Appeals
court
upholds
verdict
Astoria man convicted
of 24 sex-crimes
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Taryn Miller waves to the crowd after being crowned Miss Columbia Pacific Outstanding Teen during the Miss Clatsop County
Scholarship Program at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center Saturday. More photos online at www.dailyastorian.com
ONWARD TO
MISS OREGON
See VERDICT, Page 10A
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wife could
qualify for
tax breaks
Contestants take the stage at Miss Clatsop
County Scholarship Program
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
S
EASIDE — Five contestants will advance to the state stage after
winning titles at the Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Program
Saturday in Seaside.
Ryen Buys of Seaside won the Miss
Clatsop County crown and Tess Rund of
Astoria is Miss North Coast.
Pageant weekend started Friday night
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for the 20 contestants to relax and “have
some fun” with family and friends before
starting competition in full force, program
Director Sandy Newman said. The din-
ner, attended by about 200 people, also
raised money for scholarships. The con-
testants gave two-minute speeches on
their platforms.
Interviews in front of judging panels
were held Saturday afternoon, ahead of
the main event that evening. During the
pageant, the contestants competed in var-
ious categories, such as formal wear and
talent.
About 700 people attended the event,
which normally sells out at 500.
This year, “I have added 250 (seats)
because of the number of contestants and
Bill cleared state
Senate, moves to House
The crown winners
Miss Clatsop County Ryen Buys, Seaside
Miss Clatsop County Outstanding Teen
Caitlin Hillman, Gearhart
Miss Columbia Pacific Outstanding Teen
Taryn Miller, Scappoose
Miss North Coast Tess Rund, Astoria
Miss North Coast Outstanding Teen Nikkole
Sasso, Astoria
the caliber of the contestants,” Newman
said.
The pageant is the preliminary com-
petition of the Miss Oregon Scholarship
Program and is part of the Miss America
Organization.
For 13-year-old Taryn Miller, of Scap-
poose, who won Miss Columbia-Pacif-
ic’s Outstanding Teen, the opportunity to
compete in Clatsop County was a plea-
sure, as Columbia County does not have
its own pageant.
See MISS CLATSOP COUNTY, Page 10A
An Astoria man’s appeal of his convic-
tion for sexually abus-
ing a 9-year-old girl
was rejected Thursday
by the Oregon Court of
Appeals.
The state court
upheld the 24 sex-
ual abuse and sodomy
convictions
against
Thomas
Michael
Kelly. The 65-year-old
Thomas
remains sentenced to
Michael Kelly
more than 33 years in
prison.
The court’s decision essentially ends a
decadelong ordeal.
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Teen contestant Isabella Clement performs during
the talent competition at the Miss Clatsop County
Scholarship Program.
Princess Annabella gives a thumbs up to Tess
Rund, who was crowned Miss North Coast during
the Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Program.
The state Senate unanimously passed
a bill Friday that allows counties to grant
property tax breaks of up to $250,000 to
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The wife of Seaside Police Sgt. Jason
Goodding would be eligible. Goodding
was shot and killed earlier this month try-
ing to arrest a man on a felony assault
warrant.
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if they will come home,” state Sen. Fred
Girod, R-Stayton, the bill’s sponsor, said
in a news release. “These men and women
put their lives on the line to protect their
communities. This bill is a chance for us to
show them our respect. If we can help their
families in their time of need, we should.”
See BILL, Page 10A
Attorney Queener lays down the law
Former exchange
student sets up
practice in Gearhart
atjana Queener became a law-
yer to ensure that neither she nor
the people she cares about would face
discrimination under the color of law.
For Queener — who lives in War-
renton and set up a practice in Gear-
hart this month — discrimination is a
very personal matter, an injustice she
both saw and experienced as a child
in Russia and Germany.
“While I was living in Russia, I
witnessed quite a bit of discrimina-
tion, not necessarily against me so
much, but neighbors and other people
who were of German ancestry, and it
was something that really struck me
T
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
Tatjana Queener, an attorney from Tilla-
mook, moved to Warrenton this month
with her husband, Gary, and their
2-year-old son, Drew. In high school,
she was a foreign-exchange student
from Germany who studied in Naselle,
Wash., and later attended Clatsop Com-
munity College.
at the time,” she said.
Many Russians, in their own coun-
try, discriminate against non-Rus-
sians, said Queener, who is of Ger-
man descent.
One of her neigh-
bors, a bright young
man with a German
last name, discovered
that his application to
a Russian public uni-
versity had been sab-
otaged, she said.
“There was no
recourse for that. There was nothing
that anybody could think to do,” she
said. “That was one of those examples
where it’s just so glaring, so wrong —
how can you possibly do that?”
Then, when Queener was 12 and
her family moved to Germany, her
Russian background made her a tar-
get of discrimination from a principal
who tried to force her onto an educa-
tional track that would lead to a trade
school rather than a university.
“It was just sort of this constant
push from the prin-
cipal to get me to
go into this lower
school where all the
other kids from Rus-
sia were,” she said.
“It turned out, if you
come from Russia
and move to Ger-
many, you’re a Russian in Germany.”
But, in the 11th grade, she came
to Naselle, Washington, as a foreign
exchange student, speaking fairly lit-
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felt supported by her peers — the
See QUEENER, Page 10A