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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016
Warrenton man gets two years
in prison in sex abuse case
Abused teenage
boy last fall
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Submitted Photo
Warrenton Police Chief Mathew Workman, right, poses
with Rock Rakosi, of the Myrtle Point Police Depart-
ment, during the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Po-
lice conference.
Warrenton Police
chief honored at
state conference
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
W A NTED
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N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
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lationship with the strip club.
The state commission views a
“no action” vote the same as lo-
cal approval.
While a majority took John-
ston’s advice, City Councilor
Cindy Price voted “no,” explain-
ing that she wanted to stand with
residents who have complained
about problems at the strip club.
____________________________________________________________________
Teachers have
a big job and
a big impact
___________________________
• What draws
them to
teaching?
• What are their
successes?
• What are their
___________________________ frustrations?
Sarah Kangas, a physical education
teacher at Warrenton Grade School
Read the words of our region’s
educators starting Friday in
The Daily Astorian.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
The Astoria City Council
agreed Monday night to pro-
vide a $90,000 loan guarantee
for window restoration at the
Astoria Armory.
The restoration is part of a
broader $590,000 improvement
plan by the Friends of Astoria Ar-
mory to turn the historic build-
ing into a proitable event venue.
The nonproit is taking over
the Armory from Craft3, a com-
munity lender that helped rescue
the building in 2014. The city
had provided a loan guarantee
on the Craft3 purchase.
The nonproit is hopeful a
U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture loan will help inance the
takeover and the bulk of the im-
provements. But since the USDA
loan cannot go for window res-
toration, because the repairs are
not tied to revenue generation,
the city will backstop that por-
tion of the project.
The loan guarantee, which
will come from a city revolv-
ing loan fund, will be in place
for ive years.
In other business Monday
night, the City Council:
• Voted 3-1 to take no action
on an application by Annie’s
Saloon to sell distilled spirits.
The strip club, which can now
sell beer and wine, is seeking an
expanded license from the Or-
egon Liquor Control Commis-
sion. Annie’s will have to serve
food and have dining seats as a
condition.
City councilors can only
make recommendations to the
state commission, which has
the inal say.
Astoria Police had recom-
mended against a liquor license
for Annie’s in 2012 but were
overruled by the City Council.
Police Chief Brad Johnston
said there has been a reduction
in the number of police calls to
Annie’s since 2012.
Johnston told the City Coun-
cil that it was unlikely the state
commission would reject the
application. He urged the coun-
cil to either recommend the ex-
panded license or take no action
to help preserve the police’s re-
___________________________________
www.eomediagroup.com
Between October and
December, Deputy District
Attorney Dawn Buzzard said,
Mecham sent the boy 567 calls
or texts, mostly during the
night.
“The victim is having a
dificult time struggling with
this,” Buzzard said. “He had
what he thought were feel-
ings for this older man, but has
come to realize it was not just
illegal, but a wrong relation-
ship that he was being taken
advantage of.”
As part of his 28-month
prison sentence, Mecham
is ordered to have no con-
tact with the victim and pay a
$1,000 civil ine.
City provides loan guarantee for windows at armory
___________________________________
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local park last
summer and
became a fam-
ily friend. He
provided the
victim with
marijuana,
alcohol,
and showed Sidney Sean
Mecham
him
sexu-
ally explicit
material.
The abuse began in Octo-
ber. The victim was able to
stop the abuse in late Novem-
ber and came forward to fam-
ily members after further
harassment from Mecham.
Family members then noti-
ied the Sheriff’s Ofice.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___
Warrenton Police Chief
Mathew Workman was hon-
ored at the Oregon Association
of Chiefs of Police conference
last month with the President’s
Award for his role with the
association’s scholarship and
membership committees.
Workman, an association
member since 2004, is the
co-chair of the scholarship
committee and membership
committee.
Each year, the associa-
tion awards $1,000 college
scholarships to students who
plan to enter a law enforce-
ment or other criminal justice
career. As a scholarship com-
mittee member, Workman
goes through all the appli-
cations with the committee
and decides who is awarded.
Last year, seven students
were awarded the scholarships.
A $2,000 scholarship is
also awarded to assist one
chief from a smaller agency to
attend the annual International
Chiefs of Police Conference.
Last year, Astoria Police
Chief Brad Johnston was
awarded the scholarship
and attended the annual con-
ference, which was held in
Chicago. This year’s inter-
national conference is being
held in San Diego.
On the membership com-
mittee, Workman helps vet
new applications. Most
recently, the committee
began creating rules for
someone to be removed as
a member if they are decer-
tiied as an oficer.
Every local police agency
in Clatsop County is a part of
the state association. Along
with Workman, members
include Johnston, Gearhart
Police Chief Jeff Bowman,
Seaside Police Chief Dave
Ham and Cannon Beach Police
Chief Jason Schermerhorn.
The association has about
300 members, including
more than 100 police chiefs
around Oregon.
A predatory sex offender
who sexually abused a
16-year-old boy while liv-
ing in Warrenton last fall was
sentenced Monday in Clatsop
County Circuit Court to more
than two years in prison. Sid-
ney Sean Mecham, 35, pleaded
no contest to third-degree sod-
omy, third-degree sex abuse,
unlawful delivery of mari-
juana, furnishing alcohol to a
minor, interfering with mak-
ing a report, menacing, harass-
ment, endangering the welfare
of a minor and failure to regis-
ter as a sex offender.
Mecham is listed by Ore-
gon State Police as a preda-
tory sex offender following
a 1999 conviction in Mult-
nomah County. Despite having
lived in Warrenton since July,
Mecham reported his address
as an apartment complex in
southeast Portland.
The Clatsop County Sheriff’s
Ofice and Warrenton Police
arrested him in December at a
residence on the 100 block of
N.W. First Street in Warrenton.
Mecham reportedly met
the victim by chance at a
____________________________________________________________________
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