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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018 Cazee: ‘I would deeply apologize to anyone who feels like a victim’ Continued from Page 1A Turmoil shakes up agency in charge of vast US lands AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty Mount Katahdin, just west of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, is a site administered by the U.S. Interior Department near Patten, Maine. By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — A year of upheaval at the U.S. Interior Department has seen dozens of senior staff members reassigned and key leadership positions left unfilled, rules considered burdensome to industry shelved, and a sweep- ing reorganization proposed for its 70,000 employees. The evolving status quo at the agency responsible for more than 780,000 square miles (2 million square kilome- ters) of public lands, mostly in the American West, has led to praise from energy and mining companies and Republicans, who welcomed the departure from perceived heavy-handed regulation under President Barack Obama. But the changes have drawn increasingly sharp criticism from conservationists, Demo- crats and some agency employ- ees. Under President Donald Trump, the critics say, Inte- rior Secretary Ryan Zinke has curbed outside input into how the land is used and elevated corporate interests above the duty to safeguard treasured sites. The differing views illus- trate longstanding tensions over the role of America’s public lands — an amalgam of pristine wilderness, recre- ational playgrounds and abun- AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke dant energy reserves. A year into his tenure, Zinke, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and Montana congress- man, has emerged as the point person for the administration’s goal of American “energy dominance.” He’s targeted regulations perceived to ham- per development of oil, natu- ral gas and coal beneath public lands primarily in the West and Alaska. He’s also made plans to realign the agency’s bureau- cracy, trimming the equivalent of 4,600 jobs — about 7 per- cent of its workforce — and proposed a massive overhaul that would move decision-mak- ing out of Washington, D.C., relocating headquarters staff to Western states at a cost of $17.5 million. The intent is to delegate more power to personnel in the field who oversee activ- ities ranging from mining to livestock grazing to protecting endangered plants and animals. Staffing reductions would be achieved through natural attrition and reclassifying some positions to lower pay grades as employees are moved out- side the D.C. area, Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift said Monday. Zinke’s actions have stirred dissent within and outside the agency — from his claim that one-third of Interior employ- ees were disloyal to Trump to a proposal to allow more drill- ing off America’s coasts while carving out an exception for Florida at the request of Repub- lican Gov. Rick Scott. Along with Zinke’s full- throated promotion of the Trump administration’s new agenda came the transfer of at least 35 senior Interior employ- ees. Among them was Matthew Allen, who was demoted from assistant director of communi- cations at the agency’s Bureau of Land Management. He’s now in a new posi- tion, performing “nonspecific duties” in an Interior branch that oversees offshore drilling. Allen sued in December, chal- lenging his reassignment as retaliation for his support of government transparency. “There appears to be a col- lective effort to suppress infor- mation being shared with the public, the press and the Con- gress,” he said. At the agency’s highest lev- els, 11 leadership positions are vacant a year after Trump took office, including the directors of the Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice, the Bureau of Land Man- agement and the National Park Service. Panels such as the National Park System Advisory Board have languished, according to a letter submitted by board mem- bers who resigned last month. Board Chairman and former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, complained that requests to engage with Zinke’s team were ignored and mem- bers were concerned steward- ship and protection of the parks was being pushed aside. When the Park Service in October proposed increasing entrance fees at 17 of the most highly visited parks — from Grand Canyon to Yellowstone and Zion — the board wasn’t consulted, said Carolyn Fin- ney, a University of Kentucky geography professor who was among those who resigned. “How do we make parks more accessible? It’s cost,” Finney said. She said the fee increase would hinder the abil- ity of a “more diverse and wider group of the public to visit the parks.” The board’s charter expired in December after it collected comments from more than 100 experts on how parks should deal with climate change, increase visitor diversity and protect wildlife. Medina: Questioned truthfulness of two victims Continued from Page 1A about a decade, and the couple had two children together. “She was struggling with the loss of my parents,” the mother said. “I believed that God placed him in our lives when we needed him most.” But the relationship soured over time, she said. “I began to feel like I had lost her. She became so dis- tant from her family because Gary was her whole world,” the mother said before turning to Medina. “She was a vulner- able child and you took advan- tage of her and took control of every part of her life. She was brainwashed to love you, and she was brainwashed to defend you. I know you believe your lies. These little girls paid the price.” The victim then testified that Medina abused her. “The wool was pulled over every person’s eyes,” the vic- tim said. “Putting Gary behind bars may silence him for a while, but I know in my heart he will come back and start this cycle again.” Cherish Nunnally, who was staying with Medina at 17, talked about how Medina had used her vulnerability to manipulate her. The Daily Astorian does not typically identify victims of sexual abuse, but Nunnally agreed to have her name disclosed. After being born to a hero- in-addicted mother, Nunnally bounced between numerous foster homes as a child before living with Medina. She was given medication to treat an ear infection and migraine one night and climbed into Medi- na’s bed in between him and his wife, who has since died. “You and I didn’t grow up Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian Former Astoria High School wrestling coach Gary Medina after a court appearance in April. with good role models to teach us what good boundaries were. I’ve had to be a mother as long as I can remember, so I don’t mind being a mother to you now and telling you, ‘No,’” Nunnally said. “Gary, you used your power and control to manipulate people, and today I am taking back my power.” Buzzard lauded the two women. “Many people don’t realize that Mr. Medina is the quint- essential sex abuser,” Buz- zard said. “He’s the one every- body should be mad at, but he flipped it around. It was genius, really.” ‘Me Too’ movement Christine Mascal, Medi- na’s Portland-based attorney, filed two motions to reconsider the verdict prior to sentencing. McIntosh denied both. “Nothing in the memo changes what was argued in trial,” McIntosh said. After everyone involved in the defense and prosecution said their piece, Medina, who did not testify at the trial, came forward. He admitted to drinking heavily at the time of the crimes due to his late wife’s cancer diagnosis, often impairing his judgment and his ability to be a good father and husband. He also described how his life was going smoothly — a new fian- cee, a new house, multiple chil- dren to raise and recent success as a wrestling coach at Beaver- ton High School — before he was arrested in February 2017. “While in trial, everybody got a two-day snapshot of me — only 10 percent of the entire truth,” Medina said. “In the wave of this ‘Me Too’ move- ment, it seems like men are considered guilty immediately. It isn’t fair all the time.” Medina pointed to what he believed were holes in the prosecution’s arguments. He said he was out of town with the Coast Guard when he was said to have had sex with the 15-year-old victim. He said Nunnally’s position in bed with him — and next to his light-sleeping wife — would have made it impossible to reach up her shirt and down her pants. Medina also questioned the truthfulness of the two victims, saying he maintained a rela- tionship with both for years afterward. In her testimony, Nunnally alluded to the fact that several witnesses questioned the vic- tims’ veracity. “If those same people were asked about Gary, there would have been significant pause before answering that ques- tion,” she said. At the end of his comments, Medina tearfully apologized to the victims for his behavior but said he did not commit the crimes. “Every story has two sides,” Medina said. “If I’m going to prison when I’m innocent, I wanted you to hear mine.” ‘Turned my stomach’ The comments did not sit well with McIntosh, who said she wished she could issue a longer sentence. The judge said his com- ments were not subject to cross-examination and could not be construed as evidence, pointed to interview transcripts in which Medina discussed how teenage girls would flirt with him, and said a recorded conversation between him and one of the victims proved he was controlling. “It turned my stomach to listen to you,” McIntosh said. “The last 30 minutes of you talking about what liars they are did nothing but solidify my opinion.” The judge then turned to the victims. “I found you incredibly believable. You withstood substantial cross-examination from a skilled lawyer,” McIn- tosh said. “You have not been destroyed by this.” Around 10 p.m. the night of his first arrest, sheriff’s deputies found Cazee walk- ing in the area without a flashlight minutes after yet another complaint of a man searching through windows. Authorities also found that Cazee, a surgical nurse in Portland at the time, had sto- len mail from one of the vic- tims and kept it at his Port- land mobile home. One of the victims, due to repeated suspicions of some- one prowling outside her home, placed a surveillance camera outside her residence in early 2017. “I felt like I was losing my mind,” she said. Victims speak out In one of the videos, the man was wearing a camou- flage jacket that appeared identical to the one Cazee wore when he was arrested. Nearly all of the victims — and a few family mem- bers — spoke at the sen- tencing hearing. Common themes surfaced in their statements: anger, lack of sleep, weariness of surround- ings at home, lost feelings of privacy and keeping weap- ons nearby as they sleep at night. “This violation was not physical, but it was more dif- ficult than I ever could have imagined. How could you know a year after a trauma like how much of a toll it will have on your life?” one vic- tim said. “To put it freely, the thought of Mr. Cazee walk- ing around in public, whether now or 30 years from now, makes me want to crawl out of my own skin.” Two other young women detailed how their lack of sleep has affected their per- formance at school. One dropped out of high school her senior year, while another— a college student — said she went from earn- ing a 4.0 GPA to a 0.86 GPA. “I will definitely not be the same person I was before,” one victim said. “It has made my anxiety worse, my depression worse. I’m afraid to get out of my car in the driveway and walk in the front door at night.” Another victim described how she has been having a difficult time being intimate with her boyfriend out of fear that someone is watching. Some said they almost panic when they encounter some- one who looks like Cazee. “It wasn’t just my anxiety or somebody playing tricks on me. Someone was actu- ally outside my window,” a victim said. “If he didn’t get caught, what would’ve happened?” For the parents and guard- ians of the victims, feelings of an inability to protect their children were pervasive. Some exuded their anger at Cazee, even asking him to look at them during their remarks and calling his facial expression “smug.” One of the victim’s grandmother’s said she and her husband moved to Surf Pines with their granddaugh- ters because they heard the community was safe. They often left their blinds up and curtains open. “Shame on you. Shame on you for doing this to my granddaughter and to all the other girls,” she said. “It’s so sick. It’s really sick.” During the January trial, Cazee’s wife and son testified that he often went for walks by himself late at night. They also spoke Friday. “I love you and I will always love you, but I am deeply hurt and confused by your actions,” his son said. “You’ve stayed my personal Superman until you were arrested.” Peering through windows Cazee admitted to peer- ing through windows in a psychosexual evaluation released minutes before the sentencing hearing. The evaluation, and sev- eral comments by lawyers in the hearing, revealed that Cazee is likely to face sev- eral other charges from the U.S. Department of Justice. He apologized to the victims during the hearing. “I had absolutely no idea of the impact of my actions before. I do now,” Cazee said. “I feel like some think that I have no remorse, but that is not true. I would deeply apologize to anyone who feels like a victim.” Soon before sentencing Cazee, Judge Dawn McIn- tosh said the psychosexual evaluation described a long- standing problem that he failed to address. “The work that the sher- iff’s office did in this case is what got you,” the judge said. “I don’t think you cared. I don’t think you thought about anybody but yourself when you were doing this. I think you’re a dangerous man. I don’t think you’re likely to change your spots.” McIntosh commended the “articulate,” “strong” and “heartfelt” words of the victims. “I hope you were listen- ing because I certainly was,” she told Cazee. “You see words like ‘invasion of per- sonal privacy’ and you don’t think off the bat about the damage that is done.” Clayton: ‘I’m still new to this. I want to learn’ Continued from Page 1A “I can’t do anything artis- tic myself. But I appreci- ate the skill. I’m fascinated by it,” he said. “My love of art always balanced out my career in the business world. Sure, you need creativity in business, but where do you draw that creativity from? Art was my way to balance my life.” So as he prepared to retire, Clayton stayed on the lookout for available galler- ies to manage. Clayton and his wife were also looking at the Oregon Coast for a summer home. At the same time, Bronze Coast Gal- lery became available, and the opportunity to manage a gallery by the water lined up. With this being his first venture into the gallery world, Clayton doesn’t plan to change much. “Part of what made this gallery so attractive was how not much needs to be changed. Kim has done a fantastic job,” he said. “We have great clientele, great artists and a wonderful set of employees. So if we’re not broken, then it doesn’t need to be fixed. But it would be naive to say we can’t do better.” Clayton hopes to main- tain the gallery’s relation- ships with artists, as well as expand and diversify pieces with new artists. The biggest change customers will see in the near future is an updated website. “I’m still new to this. I want to learn,” he said. “To change for the sake of change is not something I believe in.” While Clayton loves the beauty of the Oregon Coast, he said he plans to split his time between Cannon Beach and Phoenix, Arizona, where his wife still lives. “Sometimes I need a week of sun,” he laughed.
