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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017
Arsonist gets five years after plea High pesticide level
Victim lost
‘everything’
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A man convicted on two
counts of attempted arson
after setting an Astoria apart-
ment building on fire last year
was sentenced Monday to five
years in prison.
Christopher Ray Young,
45, set the two-story, fourplex
Emerald Heights apartment
building ablaze last June. He
reached a deal with the Dis-
trict Attorney’s Office, plead-
ing no contest in February. He
originally faced up to 30 years
in prison after being charged
with four counts of first-degree
arson.
Young, who was under
the influence of a number of
drugs — including metham-
phetamine — and alcohol, lit
a gas can on fire while he was
a guest at an apartment in the
building. Prior to lighting it on
fire, he huffed and also drank
gas from the tank.
He then sustained a con-
cussion after jumping from the
building before standing up
and attempting to rescue other
people still inside, his lawyer
said.
The sentencing hearing was
originally scheduled for Feb-
ruary, but Circuit Court Judge
Dawn McIntosh was unable
to commute to the courthouse
because of a landslide on U.S.
Highway 101 south of Cannon
Beach.
At the second scheduled
hearing, Young said he wanted
to retract his no-contest plea,
claiming he was under the
influence of methamphet-
amine when he agreed to it. He
later decided to move forward
with the original plea deal.
Young apologized Mon-
day for the incident, saying his
drug addiction led him to com-
mit the crimes. He said he lost
all of his possessions in the
fire, including photos of his
children.
“I deserve every moment
I’ve spent in here,” he said. “I
ask everyone here, human-to-
human, to give me a chance
once I’m back in the outside
world.”
Ann Carsner, a 59-year-old
woman who lived in and was
inside the building at the time
of the fire, provided her own
testimony before Young spoke.
“I’m having a very hard
time even looking at you,” she
told Young. “I almost died that
day. Everything I earned in 58
years was gone.”
Carsner then read a list of
the items she had lost in the
fire. It included a picture of
Marilyn Monroe her daughter
gave her, a Chinaware set her
husband brought home after
serving in the U.S. Navy and a
new $1,200 couch.
“I hope that while you’re in
prison you better yourself, but
90 percent of the things I lost
are irreplaceable,” she said.
Judge McIntosh said while
she sympathized with the dif-
ficulty of drug addiction, other
people with similar addictions
do not choose to commit vio-
lent acts.
But while speaking to Cars-
ner, she also pointed out an
observation she had made.
“He’s been in this court-
room several times,” McIntosh
said. “I don’t think he’s ever
listened to me as clearly as he’s
listened to you.”
Bill would seal names of sex crime victims
Designed to
protect victims
and families
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Civil rights
activists, defense lawyers and
journalists voiced concern
Monday over legislation that
would give pseudonyms to sex
crime victims and witnesses
in grand jury indictments and
keep their names out of public
court records.
District attorneys and vic-
tim advocates say the legisla-
tion is designed to protect vic-
tims and their families who
might otherwise refuse to tes-
tify in front of a grand jury out
of fear of retribution from the
defendant. They said that is
especially true in the case of
accused sex traffickers who
may have multiple victims.
“The fear of victims testi-
fying against their traffickers
cannot be over exaggerated,”
said Nita Belles, executive
director of In Our Backyard,
a Bend-based anti-human traf-
ficking nonprofit organiza-
tion. “They and (their fami-
lies) have been threatened, and
the traffickers have carried out
enough threats against them in
the past to make believers out
of them.”
However,
opponents
argued during a hearing in
front of the Senate Judiciary
Committee that the proposal
would violate the public’s con-
stitutional rights to open courts
and an open press.
Journalists are “sympa-
thetic to those victims of sex
crimes who are often required
to relive their experiences
multiple times throughout the
trial process,” said Keith Ship-
man of the Oregon Associa-
tion of Broadcasters. “How-
ever, our member stations are
concerned about the unusu-
ally broad nature of Sen-
ate Bill 248, particularly the
recently released … amend-
ments and that they may
adversely impact the public’s
right to know, particularly if
that person involved is a pub-
lic trustee.”
fusa, deputy district attorney
with Multnomah County, who
spoke on behalf of Oregon
District Attorneys Association
Several other states,
including Minnesota, New
Jersey, Maine and Texas, have
similar laws or legislation,
Ujifusa said.
The bill would provide
the same information to the
defense as they receive now,
‘The fear of victims
testifying against their
traffickers cannot be
over exaggerated.’
Nita Belles
executive director of In Our Backyard
Allow pseudonyms
The legislation would allow
prosecutors to use pseud-
onyms for sex crime victims
and witnesses during grand
jury indictment proceedings.
Once a suspect was arraigned,
the defendant’s attorney would
receive the names of the vic-
tims and witnesses, but those
names would still be sealed
from public records.
“All this bill would do is
protect victims’ names from
public record, associates and
family members in case after
case that I see where fam-
ily members and associates
intimidate victims and try to
prevent them from coming to
court, knowing that their testi-
mony is key, especially in sex-
ual assault crimes,” said Jr Uji-
but that information would
come several days later at the
time of arraignment, he said.
The Oregon legislation is
unique in that it shields the
names of witnesses and not
just victims, said Gail Meyer
of the Oregon Criminal
Defense Lawyers Association.
“I don’t know of any other
state law — I haven’t seen
one — that would allow for
secrecy in respect to the wit-
nesses who testify before the
grand jury,” Meyer testified.
“We don’t have a clue of
what goes on in a grand jury
except by the name of the wit-
nesses that appear on the indict-
ment,” Meyer said. “That is our
only clue. The clue is a big one
for us because it can tell us
how broad and how narrow of
a focus the government is mak-
ing out of the allegations.”
Meyer and several private
investigators gave examples
of sex crime cases in which
the name of the accuser helped
investigators to find infor-
mation that exonerated the
defendant.
“By enshrining the details of
an indictment from public view
in other cases, severely impacts
the ability of the defense to
marshal and get going on other
facts as they might be dis-
closed,” Meyer said.
The bill is sponsored by
state Sen. Kathleen Taylor,
D-Portland, and Rep. John
Huffman, R-The Dalles, and
came out of a work group on
victim safety.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
prompts pot recall
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Liquor Control Commission
issued its first recall of recre-
ational marijuana after testing
of a brand sold at a Mapleton
store showed it contained a
level of pesticide residue that
exceeds the state limit.
The commission, which
oversees retail sales of rec-
reational cannabis, said sam-
ples of Blue Magoo mari-
juana failed a test for pyrethin
levels. Pyrethins are a mix-
ture of six chemicals that are
toxic to insects, according to
the National Pesticide Infor-
mation Center based at Ore-
gon State University. Pyre-
thins are found in some
chrysanthemum flowers, and
in some cases can be used on
organic products.
The recall points out some
of the complications that
accompany the legalization of
recreational cannabis. Grow-
ers, like all other agricultural
producers, now face a regu-
latory structure they may not
have dealt with before.
Pesticide use has been
particularly thorny, because
the federal government still
considers cannabis illegal and
has not established allow-
able tolerances of pesticides
in pot. As a result, states that
have legalized cannabis are
figuring it out themselves.
Oregon tests cannabis for 59
active ingredients.
“It’s a big struggle, for
sure,” said Sunny Jones, can-
nabis policy coordinator for
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
The Oregon Health
Authority oversees medical
marijuana, the liquor com-
mission oversees recreational
marijuana, and the Depart-
ment of Agriculture regu-
lates aspects that range from
food safety regarding can-
nabis edibles to pesticides,
water quality issues and com-
mercial scales used to weigh
the product. The recalled pot
was grown by Emerald Wave
Estate, based in Creswell, and
sold at Buds 4 U in Mapleton,
a small town west of Eugene.
The liquor commission said
people who bought the pot
should dispose of it or return
it to the retailer.
Mark Pettinger, spokes-
man for the commission, said
the retailer has fully cooper-
ated in the recall. It sold 82.5
grams of Blue Magoo to 31
customers from March 8
through March 10. The store
noticed the failed pesticide
reading in the state’s Can-
nabis Tracking System on
March 10 and immediately
notified the commission, Pet-
tinger said.
“The retailer was great,”
he said. “They get the gold
star.”
Pesticide
application
would have been done at the
grower level, which is the
province of the Department
of Agriculture. Pettinger said
the distribution system break-
down occurred when a whole-
saler, Cascade Cannabis Dis-
tributing, of Eugene, shipped
the pot to the Mapleton store
before pesticide test results
were entered in the state’s
tracking system. The test-
ing was done by GreenHaus
Analytical Labs, of Portland,
which is certified by the state
to test cannabis for potency,
water content and pesticide
residue.
The mistake might qual-
ify as a violation under Ore-
gon administrative rules, Pet-
tinger said. Failure to keep
proper records is a Class III
violation; the first offense is
punishable by up to 10 days
of business closure and a
$1,650 fine. Four violations
within a two-year period can
lead to license revocation.
The rest of the grower’s
nine-pound batch of Blue
Magoo marijuana flower has
been placed on administra-
tive hold, meaning it cannot
be lawfully sold pending the
outcome of additional pes-
ticide testing. Pettinger said
the pot is in the grower’s
possession.
C elebration of L ife
Shrouded in secrecy
Grand
jury
proceed-
ings already are shrouded
in secrecy. Testimony is not
required to be recorded, though
SB 248 in the Senate Judiciary
Committee would change that.
The Family of
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Coming
Wednesday
in The Daily Astorian
The award-winning magazine from the publishers of Coast Weekend
Kenneth “ Hoagy ”
Hoagland
Invite you to join us in
celebrating his life and to
share stories, memories
and laughter.
Wickiup Grange in Svensen
Saturday · March 25 th · 2 pm
00
92683 Svensen Market Road · Astoria
Svensen crossroads
La Bohème
Giacomo Puccini
Presented by OperaBend
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Photo by Michael Grigsby
Saturday • March 25
7 pm
Clatsop Community College
Performing Arts Center
Astoria
Jocelyn Claire Thomas as
‘Musetta’
The “only” regional magazine focused on just the
Columbia-Pacifi c Region
$
5 to $ 15
Kari Burgess as
‘Mimi’
Tickets at
www.OperaBend.org | 800.838.3006