A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019
Man accused of attempting to murder cellmate
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
A 57-year-old man is
accused of attempting to
murder his cellmate while
he was booked in Clatsop
County Jail.
Police initially made con-
tact with Steven Wayne
Campbell after receiving
a report of an extremely
intoxicated man going
through the drive-thru at
Burger King in October.
Astoria police arrived and
found him passed out over
his steering wheel with the
car still running in the park-
ing lot, District Attorney
Ron Brown said.
After failing a û eld
sobriety test, Campbell was
arrested for driving under
the inû uence of intoxicants
and was booked into jail
later that night. When the
ofû cer returned the next
day, Campbell allegedly
was making strange state-
ments about some peo-
ple deserving to die, Brown
said.
Concerned, the ofû cer
went to review video foot-
age of Campbell’s cell and
found that he was pinch-
ing the air tube of his cell-
mate’s CPAP machine, a
device used to treat sleep
apnea. Brown was unaware
of any motivation the man
might have had or if he
knew the man before the
incident.
The ofû cer arrested
Campbell for attempted
murder. Judge Dawn McIn-
tosh initially decided there
wasn’t probable cause
to charge Campbell with
attempted murder, but his
reckless
endangerment
charge stuck.
The grand jury later
reviewed the case and voted
to charge him with attempted
murder.
“When that happens,
it’s kind of an odd thing,”
Brown said. “We like to
think we are looking at the
case as conservatively as
anyone would, but some-
times people on the grand
jury take an even more con-
servative view.”
Despite the fact it is
physically impossible to
kill someone by pinching a
tube on a CPAP machine, the
grand jury found there was
enough evidence to suggest
Campbell made a substantial
step toward killing another
human being. The fact that it
is impossible is not defense
to an attempted crime.
“Basically it was a very
odd ball set of facts,” Brown
said.
Without Campbell mak-
ing statements about want-
ing to kill people, it’s possi-
ble no one at the jail would
have known about the inci-
dent, Brown said.
“Nobody probably would
have been the wiser ... the
guy woke up and didn’t
know what the heck woke
him up,” Brown said. “If
Campbell hadn’t started
talking about his weird
thoughts, probably nothing
would have happened.”
Campbell has pleaded
not guilty to attempted mur-
der and the felony DUI and
is being held on $250,000
bail. His next hearing is in
March.
Portland ofû cial: texts show police-extremist collusion
Associated Press
PORTLAND
—
A
member of the Portland
City Council said Thurs-
day a newspaper’s report
that the commander for the
police rapid response team
exchanged friendly text
messages with a leader of
far-right protests that have
rocked the city conû rms
collusion exists between
some police and right-wing
extremists.
“I am not shocked, and I
am not surprised at today’s
reporting of Lt. Jeff Niiya’s
collaboration with Patriot
Prayer leader Joey Gib-
son over text to provide aid
and support for their hate
marches,” Councilwoman
Jo Ann Hardesty said in a
statement.
Willamette Week obtained
text messages through a pub-
lic records request between
Niiya and Gibson. The texts
purportedly show Niiya had a
friendly rapport with Gibson,
frequently discussing Gib-
son’s plans to demonstrate.
In one text reported by
the newspaper, Niiya tells
Gibson that he doesn’t see
a need to arrest his assistant,
Tusitala Toese, who often
brawls with antifascist pro-
testers, even if he has a war-
rant, unless Toese commits a
new crime.
“Just make sure he
doesn’t do anything which
may draw our attention,”
Niiya texted Gibson on
Dec. 9, 2017, Willamette
Week reported. “If he still
has the warrant in the sys-
tem (I don’t run you guys so
I don’t personally know) the
ofû cers could arrest him. I
don’t see a need to arrest on
the warrant unless there is a
reason.”
A police spokeswoman
said it is not unusual for ofû -
cers to suggest people turn
themselves in to avoid being
arrested on a warrant, Willa-
mette Week reported.
“In crowd management
situations, it may not be
safe or prudent to arrest a
person right at that time, so
the arrest may be delayed
or followed up on later. It
is not uncommon for ofû -
cers to provide guidance for
someone to turn themselves
in on a warrant if the sub-
ject is not present,” Lt. Tina
Jones said.
Portland police were
accused at a protest last
August of being heavy-
handed against people, injur-
ing some, who were protest-
ing a rally of extreme-right
demonstrators organized by
Gibson.
Hardesty said the “bro-
ken policing system in Port-
land” must be addressed.
“This story, like many
that have come before it,
simply conû rms what many
in the community have
already known — there are
members of the Portland
police force who work in
collusion with right-wing
extremists,” she said.
AP Photo/Manuel Valdes
Counterprotesters tear a Nazi fl ag at a demonstration in Portland in August.
Boone: ‘It might’ve looked to you like I asked for a favor and got it’
Continued from Page A1
utility lobbyist who wanted
her help on the state’s cli-
mate change bill.
Senate Bill 609 was intro-
duced by state Sen. Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, on
Boone’s behalf. It would
require Oregonians request-
ing public records like police
reports, public contracts and
workplace safety inspections
to û rst provide a good rea-
son why they want the doc-
uments. Oregon records law
currently does not require
people to justify their
requests.
Boone has since said
she’s asked Johnson to let the
bill die in the face of vocal
opposition.
Boone, a Democrat who
represented Cannon Beach
and the North Coast until Jan-
uary, told The Daily Astorian
she wanted only “legitimate”
requests to advance. She
didn’t say what would con-
stitute a legitimate request or
who would decide.
Boone said in an inter-
view this week that she had
already asked for the bill to be
drafted before receiving The
Oregonian’s records request.
But she said the newsroom’s
request concerned her, ques-
tioning “the cost and neces-
sity” of producing the emails.
“The taxpayers had to
pay a Legislative Coun-
sel employee to sift through
them all,” Boone said.
Corporate campaign
donors
A reporter requested
Boone’s emails during
a
soon-to-be-released
18-month
investigation
examining the role that cor-
porate campaign donors play
in shaping environmental
policy statewide.
At the time of the request,
Boone had declined to
comment about why she
raised money in 2018 after
announcing her retirement
from the Legislature. With
no active campaign to pay
for, the donations appeared
to be attempts to inû uence or
reward her votes.
The newsroom requested
Boone’s emails with the cam-
paign donors. Boone now
says any checks that arrived
were not a result of active
fundraising on her part or had
not been deposited yet when
she announced her retirement
in January 2018.
The content of the for-
mer representative’s emails
underscores why Oregon’s
public records law exists.
The law allows the public to
see what their elected ofû -
cials are doing, even when
it9s not what those ofû cials
would choose to reveal.
Last January, Boone
asked Ted Case, executive
director of Oregon’s asso-
ciation of rural electricity
providers, for input on the
state’s emerging legisla-
tion to cap greenhouse gas
emissions.
The 2018 legislative ses-
sion was about to begin, and
there was a push to get the
bill through. (The cap-and-
trade legislation ultimately
died and is now before the
2019 Legislature.) Lobby-
ists were rushing to secure
loopholes for their members.
Case told Boone he
wanted to ensure an exemp-
tion for the West Oregon
Electric Cooperative, which
provides power in Boone’s
district, including to her
home in rural Hamlet.
“My board meets next
week to discuss the bills,”
Case told Boone. “We’ll
come by and see you!”
Thirteen days later,
Boone’s campaign account
recorded a $500 donation
from Case’s association.
A month later, Boone ran
into trouble transferring her
name onto her late husband’s
account with West Oregon.
She turned to Case, the util-
ity lobbyist. “You have been
a marvelous legislator and a
great friend. I’m on it,” Case
responded.
A utility board member
soon gave Boone an apol-
ogy — “We do our best
not to screw things up, but
sometimes it seems other-
wise” — and asked whether
Boone would be interested
in a seat on West Oregon’s
board. She did not pursue
the position.
In a written statement,
Case said his inquiry on
Boone’s behalf was “a ser-
vice I provide to any Ore-
gonian who has questions
about their electric co-op.”
The keywords that the
newsroom used in its request
for Boone’s emails inadver-
tently turned up exchanges
with people who were not
campaign donors.
Boone’s
daughter,
Wendy, asked for her mom’s
help in 2017 when the Ore-
gon Health Plan was slow
to pay for prescriptions at
the Rinehart Clinic, a small
nonproû t medical clinic in
Wheeler where she is chief
û nancial ofû cer.
“Hello Rep Boone :),” her
daughter wrote in her email
to Boone’s state account.
“Rinehart is having issues
getting OHP to pay ... Can
you assist us?”
Boone told The Orego-
nian she had an aide call the
state health authority to û nd
out what was happening. “I
never pushed it, never,” she
said. The issue was on its
way to being resolved before
the call, Boone said. But she
acknowledged, “It might’ve
looked to you like I asked
for a favor and got it.”
Wendy Boone also asked
for her mother’s help when
her daughter was rejected
by Oregon Promise, a
state û nancial aid program
for community college.
The lawmaker’s legisla-
tive aide sent an email to
the state Department of
Education, noting that the
issue affected a member of
Boone’s family.
“Rep. Boone would like
to know why the student did
not qualify,” her aide wrote.
“Rep. Boone has also heard
from others who are having
the same problem. Could
you please let us know as
soon as possible what, if
anything, can be done about
this?”
The legislative director
for the Higher Education
Coordinating Commission
explained that the student
had missed a deadline and
could reapply the next year.
But the agency ofû cial also
wanted to know: What other
problems had the represen-
tative heard about?
Boone’s aide didn’t say.
Routine inquiries
Both the lawmaker and
her daughter told The Ore-
gonian that their emails were
routine inquiries from a state
representative on behalf of a
constituent. “That’s not ask-
ing for a favor,” Deborah
Boone said. “That’s what we
do: We contact state agen-
cies and people in them.”
“The
information
received provided the clar-
iû cation I was seeking,
and that was the end of it,”
Wendy Boone said.
In Deborah Boone’s com-
ments to T he Daily Astorian,
she said she was aware of
media requests to lawmak-
ers taking time and money
to fulû ll. The process could
go easier if reporters “would
just be honest and say, ‘This
is what I’m trying to get at.’
I get that they want to be
vague to capture everything,
but maybe they don’t have
to.”
After a media outcry,
including a harshly worded
editorial in the Astorian,
Boone’s records bill appears
dead. She says she told John-
son the bill wasn’t worth it.
“I said, ‘If it’s going to be
like this, I don’t want to do
it,’” Boone told the news-
room. “I don’t want to cause
more stress and strain on her
ofû ce. I said, 8I9m not going
to die on my sword for this
one.’”
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T Pauls Supper Club
Hygge Hair – Liz Tisdale
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