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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2017)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017 Merrill: Has pleaded not guilty to all charges Continued from Page 1A letter to the court, a Fresh Start representative said Mer- rill would be carefully super- vised while in treatment, and escorted by staff to any court appearances. His attorney also prom- ised Merrill would return for court dates, but that did not happen. Instead, Merrill disappeared, forfeiting his bond. McClain’s offi ce sub- sequently issued a warrant for his arrest and Commis- sioner Faubion increased his bail to $500,000. While Merrill was on the loose, Pacifi c County sher- iff’s deputies established his involvement in an Ocean Park burglary and the later sale of guns from that bur- glary. That led to a second, separate criminal case, in which he was charged with gun, burglary and possession of stolen property charges. A new $1 million arrest war- rant was issued. Bail fi ght During the Monday afternoon hearing, Faubion reviewed the charges and release conditions for both cases. Merrill has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Generally, Washington state law says people can only be held without bail in capital punishment cases, but McClain tried to argue that there was a legal prec- edent for holding a known fl ight risk like Merrill with- out bail. “He fl ed the country, he fl ed Washington and Cal- ifornia,” McClain said. “… Somehow he was able to do this while not hav- ing his passport.” Further- more, McClain said, Mer- rill allegedly indicated in a recorded jail phone call that he still has an indepen- dent income, possibly from the recent sale of the fami- ly’s downtown businesses. That increases the chances of Merrill fl eeing again, McClain said. Merrill’s attorney, David Mistachkin of the Aberdeen law fi rm Ingram, Zelasko & Goodwin, pushed back, call- ing the request for a no-bail hold “baseless.” “These charges are non- violent drug offenses and property crimes,” Mistach- kin said. Faubion agreed, saying Merrill still had the legal right to a reasonable bail amount. However, he agreed that the bail should still be steep. When Mistach- kin called the original bail set by the court “excessive,” Faubion replied, “It can’t be excessive if it wasn’t suffi - cient to keep him here.” ‘Zero’ money McClain then asked for $1 million bail in the drugs case. “It’s clearly excessive. It’s clearly a punishment for Mr. Merrill fl eeing the juris- diction,” Mistachkin said. He claimed his client doesn’t have the independent means to get himself out of jail. “Mr. Merrill has abso- lutely no money. Zero, and the state can’t prove other- wise,” Mistachkin added. Faubion set bail at $400,000, then turned to the newer guns and burglary case. In that case, he lowered the original bail of $1 million to $400,000. With a total amount of $800,000, Merrill’s fam- ily would have to pay about $80,000 to get him out of jail. If he were to be released, he would be required to live with his parents, abstain from drugs and alcohol, regularly check in with the court, and stay away from all other parties in his criminal cases. However, Mistachkin claimed that this time, his client is likely to stay in lockup until his trial. “His parents are not going to bail him out again,” he said. More charges could follow In a Friday press release, McClain praised Pacifi c County Detective Ryan Tully for his diligence, say- ing Tully “continued to work every lead to its conclu- sion and fed the information to the marshals in order to locate Mr. Merrill.” He, too, had little infor- mation about how exactly the marshals caught Mer- rill, but said local and fed- eral efforts to “follow the money” were key to crack- ing the case. Investigators suspect one or more people in the U.S. may have helped Mer- rill escape, or supported him during his south-of-the-bor- der sojourn. If so, charges could follow for those indi- viduals, McClain said. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian A cadet with the Tongue Point Seamanship Academy working on the Tourist No. 2 ferry can be seen through the win- dow of the workshop on deck. Ferry: ‘I love this community project’ Continued from Page 1A former cannery on a pier in the Columbia below the Astoria Bridge into the Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa. All the projects faced hur- dles he chipped away at, some with big price tags, Jacob said. “I was taught not to stare at that elephant in that kitchen, ’ cause you can’t eat it,” Jacob said in an analogy to the ferry. “But if somebody takes it out to the table and hands you a chunk of ear, you can eat a chunk of ear.” For labor, Jacob enlisted the help of Tongue Point Job Corps Center’s seamanship program. The students have been tearing out carpet and plywood fl ooring to expose the original deck , before put- ting on a fresh coat of paint. Joseph White, a seamanship student for the past 19 months at Tongue Point, said train- ees are used to maintaining the center’s steel-hulled train- ing vessel Ironwood, but are learning some valuable skills for working on older, wood- en-hulled boats. Job Corps students have also been helping fi x the Sal- vage Chief, a regionally famed former marine towing vessel under restoration by another nonprofi t. Oregon: Rosenblum is prepared to fi le at least two potential lawsuits that are specifi c to the state Continued from Page 1A The fi rst came when Oregon joined two lawsuits challeng- ing Trump’s January executive order temporarily banning vis- itors, students, workers and ref- ugees from seven Muslim-ma- jority nations. Federal courts have since stayed multiple ver- sions of the travel ban. Most recently, Oregon joined 18 other states to chal- lenge Trump’s order to end fed- eral subsidies that help low-in- come Americans pay their health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In addition, Oregon has challenged 20 out of 52 envi- ronmental regulations the Trump administration has moved to eliminate or roll back, Rosenblum said. The series of actions coming out of the Trump administration is “dizzying,” she said. In the fi rst nine months of the Obama administration, Ore- gon joined no lawsuits against the federal government, accord- ing to the state Department of Justice. Just fi ve days before Obama took offi ce, Oregon and fi ve other states sued to block a Bush administration regulation designed to enhance protections for health care workers who refuse to perform abortions for moral reasons. The regulation enabled the federal government to withhold funding from state and local governments and oth- ers who discriminated against those health care workers. The Obama administration moved to rescind the regulation just one month later. Rosenblum is prepared to fi le at least two potential law- suits against the Trump admin- istration that are specifi c to Oregon. She said she plans to chal- lenge any Trump administration move to decrease the acreage of southwest Oregon’s Cas- cade Siskiyou National Monu- ment, which Obama expanded in 2016. While the 1906 Antiq- uities Act authorizes a pres- ident to designate a national monument, a legal question remains whether that includes the power to shrink or eliminate the designation. The state also would go to court if the Trump administra- tion ends federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive health services for women, Rosen- blum said. U.S. law already prohibits use of federal funds for abortion, a service some Planned Parenthood clinics pro- vide using money from other sources. Obama experienced simi- lar challenges to his policies by Republican attorneys general during his two terms. Led by then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt — now director of the Environ- mental Protection Agency — those states attempted to over- turn environmental rules by the EPA, and challenged actions by other federal agencies. Here are the other Trump administration policies Ore- gon and other states have chal- lenged either in court, in letters of intent to sue or formal oppo- sition to regulation changes: • A repeal, announced Oct. 10, of Obama’s 2015 executive order requiring power plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions; • The Oct. 6 rollback of Affordable Care Act require- ments for employers to provide insurance coverage for birth control; • A Sept. 22 rescission of a 2011 Obama administra- tion directive on how schools should investigate reports of sexual assault; • A Sept. 5 decision to end Obama’s DACA, which allowed undocumented immi- grants brought here as chil- dren to legally work and attend school; The state last week also sued federal agencies for fail- ing to produce public records on immigrant deportations and detentions. • The discontinuation, announced in June, of an Obama administration program to forgive the loans of student borrowers who were defrauded by their schools; • A June 14 delay of Clean Air Act rules designed to pre- vent chemical accidents; • A May 18 suspension of new requirements for green- house gas emissions report- ing and tracking on highways. The Trump administration announced in September it would allow the tracking to move forward. • A March delay of new energy-effi ciency standards for ceiling fans. The Trump administration in May reversed course and allowed the stan- dards to take effect. The Capital Bureau is a col- laboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. “I love this vessel,” White said of the ferry. “I love this community project. To bring back almost 100 years of his- tory is really bringing a big thing in my heart.” Lucien Swerdloff, an instructor with Clatsop Com- munity College’s historian preservation program and a ferry board member, said his students will also use the ferry as a fl oating classroom for workshops. Overseeing the Job Corps students is Lint, who has been traveling from the Olympic Peninsula weekly with other boat restoration partners. The cosmetic restoration of the ferry pales in comparison to the structural issues he faced in the recent restoration of a 137-foot, 1893 sailing yacht, he said. “Everything is good about the boat except for the cosmet- ics,” Lint said. The Astoria Ferry Group previously estimated $500,000 was needed for Coast Guard certifi cation, a necessary step before taking out large groups on the vessel. Lint has dis- puted the fi gure, saying the boat is close to the condition needed for certifi cation, and that much of the work can be done at Tongue Point for a lesser cost than at other com- mercial shipyards. Location, location After the face-lift, the ferry heads back down the Colum- bia to Floyd Holcom’s water- front commercial complex at Pier 39, where the ferry group hopes to hold tours and build public interest while continu- ing to upgrade the vessel’s safety, electrical and other sys- tems in preparation for certifi - cation by the Coast Guard. “By putting it at Pier 39, it will be more in the sight of people,” Taylor said . Meanwhile, a new infl ux of volunteers has expressed inter- est in joining the ferry group, Taylor said. She, Price and other volunteers have been continually working on grants for the boat. Taylor and Price claimed the operation of the boat would cost upward of $500,000 annually but could be covered by operational rev- enue with tours, weddings, conferences and other events on board. Donna Quinn, Cannery Pier’s director of market- ing and sales, said the group is in the beginning stages of developing a marketing plan. A board member on the Ore- gon Coast Visitors Associa- tion, she has reached out to the state’s tourism agency Travel Oregon and said the group has shown interest in supporting the development of the ferry as a sustainable tourist attraction. “One of the challenges that local people and even visitors in this area have is the abil- ity to get on the Columbia R iver,” Quinn said. “And that really defi nes us. We’re a river town.” My Hope for Your Journey. Amrita Desai, MD Medical Oncologist Care No cancer is routine, and as a medical oncologist, I don’t believe a patient’s treatment should be either. Each member of the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative care team believes in the power of personal connections. By understanding each patient’s needs, concerns, and unique set of circumstances, we can help to ensure better health outcomes and the best possible patient-experience. Medical Excellence without the Miles. 1905 Exchange Street | Astoria, OR 97103 | 503-338-4085 columbiamemorial.org/cancer-care
