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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017
Port: ‘It’s kind of a tempest in a teapot’
Continued from Page 1A
near where I live and that
there is a lot of illegal activ-
ities — like drug running.”
Knight said the commissioner
told him he needed to be care-
ful and should “get a gun and
a concealed weapons permit
because you never know, bad
things can happen and you
need to protect yourself.”
Knight wrote, “This is the
third time that I’ve had to reg-
ister complaints about your
unprofessional, threatening and
bullying tactics.” He added,
“Suggesting that I need to carry
weapons to protect myself is
the epitome of creating a hostile
work place. The stress that you
have imposed on myself and
my family is unconscionable.”
Knight wrote that he will
only meet with Hunsinger pub-
licly, or with witnesses and at a
location of his choice.
“If I see you or your vehi-
cle near my property, I will
call 911 immediately,” Knight
wrote. “My wife knows you
and your vehicles, and if she
sees you near her, she also will
call 911.
“Please do not threaten or
imply a threat to me or my fam-
ily again. The stress and worry
that you have caused is signifi-
cant. Once again, I must ask the
commission to take appropriate
action regarding your threaten-
ing behavior.”
Next steps
Hunsinger was not imme-
diately available for com-
ment. No complaints have
been filed against him with the
Oregon Government Ethics
Commission.
Declining to speak fur-
ther about his memo or prior
complaints against Hunsinger,
Knight said he will meet Mon-
day with the Port’s attorney and
insurers about any next steps.
Sheriff Tom Bergin said
he has seen Knight’s memo.
“I said it was concerning, but
there was nothing criminal,”
he said.
Port Commission President
Robert Mushen said Knight is
correct in being suspicious, but
that he doesn’t plan to pursue
any action in response to the
letter.
“It’s kind of a tempest in
a teapot,” Mushen said. “We
have bigger fish to fry than that,
and we really don’t need to get
into those things.”
Cat hoarder: St. Clare will likely be extradited to Snohomish County
Continued from Page 1A
Snohomish County Supe-
rior Court Judge George
Bowden raised questions
about why St. Clare ended up
in front of a jury instead of
in a county-funded program
billed as a way to divert some
mentally ill people out of the
courts.
The defense had argued that
St. Clare, a homeless woman,
wasn’t allowed into the pro-
gram because she couldn’t pay
back the more than $18,000
the auditor’s office claimed the
investigation cost.
“None of that makes
sense,” Bowden said at a Feb-
ruary 2016 hearing. He pre-
sided over St. Clare’s trial.
The prosecutor’s office
maintained there were other
reasons St. Clare wasn’t eligi-
ble for its Therapeutic Alterna-
tives to Prosecution program.
There was no certainty she was
going to admit her guilt, Boska
had told Bowden. It also was
important that she be ordered
to stay away from cats.
The TAP program is sup-
ported by a sales tax ear-
marked for mental health and
addiction programs. Clients
sign a three-year contract and
agree to seek appropriate treat-
ment to address their mental
disorders or substance abuse.
Three counselors manage the
cases and meet with clients
to monitor progress. Partic-
ipants must follow through
with treatment and abide by
other conditions. If they com-
plete the program, the criminal
charges are dropped.
Bowden pointed out at the
2016 hearing that St. Clare
obtained a mental health eval-
uation despite her reserva-
tions. The $18,000 bill from
the auditor’s office “made the
Warrenton Police Department
This is the vehicle the 42 cats were found in by the War-
renton Police Department.
Warrenton Police Department
The surviving cats were given water and food at the Clatsop County Animal Shelter.
issue a nonstarter,” he said.
The county claimed it
couldn’t waive those costs. It
was billed more than $13,000
by Everett’s animal shelter for
impounding the animals, euth-
anizing them and disposing of
their remains. The county had
to pay a veterinarian to exam-
ine the cats and a tow truck
driver to haul off the travel
trailer. The auditor’s office
also tried to recover about
$3,300 for the time officers
spent on the case.
In the end, St. Clare was
ordered to pay $14,457.22 at
12 percent interest.
Cats as family
St. Clare was a software
tester for 20 years before being
laid off in 2009. She couldn’t
find another job in the indus-
try and became homeless.
Those changes and other trau-
matic life events likely led her
to collect cats, a psychologist
concluded.
Because of her disorder,
the judge was told, she lacked
insight into the reality of her
situation. She went so far as
to live in unsafe conditions so
as not to be separated from her
animals.
The cats became her fam-
ily. “They are not some dispos-
able item you dump at a shel-
ter,” she told the psychologist.
St. Clare didn’t believe her
cats were as sick as described
by animal control officers, the
psychologist wrote.
Snohomish County ani-
mal control officers worked
for months in 2014, trying to
persuade St. Clare to relin-
quish dozens of cats she
was keeping in an Airstream
travel trailer. Officers received
numerous complaints from
people who saw sickly cats
locked up in the trailer without
proper ventilation. St. Clare
declined to turn over her cats
and moved the trailer multiple
times without notifying animal
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control officers.
“I hope you can see it
through her eyes. She felt like
she was being asked to march
her family to the gallows,” her
attorney, Robert O’Neal, said
in 2016. “She didn’t mean to
do the wrong thing.”
Dehydrated,
malnourished
Eventually animal con-
trol officers raided St. Clare’s
trailer and removed 111 cats.
The animals were in various
stages of dehydration and mal-
nutrition. All of the animals
were euthanized because of
their untreatable and infectious
conditions.
St. Clare was charged with
three felony counts of animal
cruelty. Prosecutors tacked on
seven additional counts when
St. Clare opted to go to trial.
A jury found her guilty and
that conviction was recently
upheld on appeal.
Bowden granted St. Clare
a first-time offender waiver,
sparing her jail time. He said
warehousing her didn’t make
sense. He ordered her to do
community service and obtain
mental health treatment, and
banned her from owning cats.
The psychologist who eval-
uated St. Clare noted that treat-
ment for animal hoarding is in
the early stages of research.
“What is known is that this
behavior, absent any mental
health intervention, has nearly
a 100 percent recidivism rate,”
she wrote.
It was unclear if St. Clare
has been living in Warren-
ton. Police there reported that
they’d been looking for St.
Clare earlier this year. They
knew she had warrants from
Washington.
A Warrenton police offi-
cer found St. Clare on Monday
in a Fred Meyer parking lot.
St. Clare allegedly told police
about 30 cats were in her vehi-
cle. She also admitted there
was the body of a cat that died
a couple of days ago.
St. Clare was arrested
and booked into the Clat-
sop County Jail. She has
been charged with more than
two dozen counts of animal
neglect.
The cats were given water
and food at the Clatsop County
Animal Shelter.
St. Clare likely will be
extradited to Snohomish
County once the Oregon case
is resolved.
Jack Heffernan of The
Daily Astorian added to this
report.