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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2018
Fondren: Ultimate goal
is to support himself and
son while self-employed
Continued from Page A1
a teenager. He worked as
a shop hand around Clats-
kanie and started learn-
ing construction, weld-
ing and mechanical work.
He farmed potatoes and
helped other people start
their crops.
“Farming is what drove
me to be a blacksmith,
because I was a pretty pro-
fi cient welder,” he said.
“My tractor bucket became
more welds than bucket,
and I realized I needed to
learn how to make tools.”
Fondren met the late
Dave Curl, a locally
famous blacksmith, at Fort
George Brewery and men-
tioned his do-it-yourself
lessons beating up rail-
road spikes. Curl eventu-
ally took Fondren on as an
apprentice.
“He was the fi rst guy to
put a hammer in my hand
and show me what to do
with it,” Fondren said.
Fondren recently held a
fundraiser for DeWitt Bra-
zelton, another local black-
smith and mentor who is
recovering from partial
paralysis. Fondren cred-
its Brazelton with help-
ing him during hard times
and providing much of the
equipment he’s used to
start Lonely Crow Forge.
Fondren is busy build-
ing Lonely Crow’s visi-
bility and his inventory of
fi re pokers, bottle openers,
pendants, knives, hatchets,
custom orders and other
products. He sells his work
online, at markets and at
Terra Stones in downtown
Astoria. He will be a fea-
tured pop-up artist at Vin-
tage Hardware in January.
To support his black-
smithing, Fondren recently
started Dave’s Dump Ser-
vice, using his truck to
haul away or move peo-
ple’s stuff . He is also set-
ting up Pacifi c Northwest
Pressure Washing. His ulti-
mate goal, he said, is to be
able to support himself and
his son while remaining
self-employed.
“I’m trying to start up
some businesses I think
the area needs, unfi lled
markets, niches I guess,”
he said. “The whole town
could use a good pressure
washing. Driving around
day to day, I see people
with stuff that they could
probably used hauled
off. Anything to help the
community.”
Caring: Personal care aide industry expected to grow
Continued from Page A1
lower-income residents such
as Boothe.
Tillamook County only
has state-provided caregiv-
ers. The advantage of an
agency like Caring for the
Coast is the company vets
and monitors caregivers,
whereas people using a state
list must do it themselves,
Siegmann said.
“If you’re a family mem-
ber wanting to make sure
your loved one is taken care
of, you’re pretty much out
of the loop, unless that state
caregiver is willing to be
on the phone with you and
spend their time bringing
you up to speed,” he said.
Caring for the Coast’s
caregivers are managed by
a small administrative staff
out of the Allen Building, in
charge of hiring caregivers
while matching their avail-
ability and personalities with
people’s needs .
“Once you have a surplus
of clients, you need more
caregivers, so it’s perpetual,”
said Britaney Brim, an assis-
tant administrator with the
company.
In-home caregivers are
among the lower-paid pro-
fessions in the labor mar-
ket, with fewer educa-
tion requirements and an
average wage of $12.95 in
n orthwest Oregon, accord-
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Caring for the Coast, based in the Allen Building in downtown Astoria, is run by Assistant
Administrator Britaney Brim, owner Adrian ‘AJ’ Siegmann, Scheduling Manager Cindy Rummell
and Offi ce Coordinator Melanie Schneider. Not pictured is Vice President Sarah Rice.
ing to the state Employ-
ment Department. Sieg-
mann said he tries to keep
wages higher and provide
more hours to attract and
keep good caregivers, often
paying between $14.50 and
$15 an hour.
Caring for Oregon
Siegmann and his wife
moved to Portland in 2014
to be closer to rehabilitation
resources for their seven
adopted foster children.
The business in Astoria kept
running smoothly, and two
years later, he opened Car-
ing for Portland, the second
iteration of his in-home care
agency. By 2020, Siegmann
hopes to open Caring for the
Cascades, based in Bend
and serving c entral Oregon.
The personal care aide
industry is expected to grow
by 25 percent statewide over
the next decade to more than
26,800 workers, according
to the Employment Depart-
ment. That includes a 16
percent increase in n orth-
west Oregon, a 25 percent
increase in the Portland
metro area and a 30 percent
increase in c entral Oregon.
“I’ve always taken the
approach that we’re not
going to grow faster than
we can fi nd good people to
grow the business,” Sieg-
mann said. “We’re not just
going to send anybody to
your mom or dad’s house to
take care of them.”
DNA: Innocence Project has helped exonerate 362 people through DNA testing since 1989
Continued from Page A1
Richardson and the Inno-
cence Project, an organiza-
tion that seeks to overturn
convictions based on DNA
evidence, took to the Cap-
itol to argue that the state
law makes it impossible to
get DNA testing that could
exonerate the wrongfully
convicted.
“You have to show you
are actually innocent before
you can get testing, which
is a Catch-22, because the
entire point of getting testing
is to use that to prove you’re
innocent,” Feldman said.
Richardson and Feldman
were joined by state Sen.
Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer,
and state Rep. Carla Piluso,
D-Gresham. Thatcher left
her committee seat to join
Piluso, a former police chief,
as witnesses to testify about
the importance of amending
the law.
“I wouldn’t be surprised
if this bill got a superma-
jority on both sides of the
isle and in both chambers,”
Thatcher said.
Exonerated
Since 1989, the Inno-
cence Project has worked
to exonerate 362 people
nationwide through DNA
testing. Those innocent peo-
ple spent an average of 14
years and a combined 5,013
years in prison. Feldman
said people have been exon-
erated in 37 states. Oregon
has had 13 people exoner-
ated, mostly on the basis of
false accusations, but never
due to new DNA testing.
Since 2001, 31 convicts
have requested new DNA
testing. Feldman testifi ed
that only three people have
won a court order granting
such testing, twice with the
agreement of prosecutors.
Richardson was con-
victed in part because an
expert said his teeth matched
a bite mark on the victim. A
swab of DNA tested during
the trial phase did not show
Richardson’s DNA, but was
ruled tainted and inadmissi-
ble. After being convicted,
Richardson fought for years
and eventually was able to
have another swab tested,
which showed samples of
two other men. It led to
Richardson being freed.
Feldman said evidence
such as bite marks and hair
can be unreliable, but are
still being used to convict
people. She said it’s criti-
cal for legislators to realize
there is bad science, eye-
witnesses can be wrong and
confessors aren’t always
telling the truth.
That’s why she wanted
legislators to hear Richard-
son’s story .
“If someone like him
couldn’t have gotten DNA
testing here, that means that
the law is not working the
way it’s supposed to,” she
said.
It’s not clear how signif-
icant an issue this is locally.
Brittney Plesser, an attor-
ney with the Oregon Inno-
cence Project, said the state
doesn’t track how often
defendants fi le motions for
DNA testing.
Gail Meyer, a lobbyist
working with Feldman, said
the legislation her clients
want would include a man-
date to track requests for
DNA testing.
After the testimony,
Rep. Rich Vial asked why
the testing issue existed.
He asked whether it was a
money matter.
Feldman
said
“no”
because defendants pay for
the later DNA testing.
“I think sometimes it’s
just hard in an adversar-
ial system for prosecutors
to acknowledge a mistake
could have been made,” she
said, adding district attor-
neys in Oregon regularly
fi ght this kind of testing.
Feldman said the Inno-
cence Project is in discus-
sions about the matter with
Oregon Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum’s offi ce
and two district attorneys
representing the Oregon Dis-
trict Attorneys Association.
Public safety
In addition to making
testing more available, the
advocacy group also wants
DNA used to clear a con-
victed defendant to be auto-
matically entered into law
enforcement databases to
seek the true killer.
It’s not just a justice issue,
it’s a public safety issue, she
said.
Richardson said the DNA
that cleared him still hasn’t
been used to pursue another
match.
“Someone out there could
still be walking around kill-
ing people,” he said.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration of
EO Media Group, Pamplin
Media Group and Salem
Reporter.
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“Grit and Ink” tells a story
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Small-town family business history at its best.
—Richard Baker, U.S. Senate Historian Emeritus
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