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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2019)
A3 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 Astoria man tried third time for child sex abuse Brown, Matyas cleared to hear the case again By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian District Attorney Ron Brown and Circuit Court Judge Cindee Matyas will prosecute and hear the case against Thomas Kelly, who was twice convicted of sex- ually abusing a family mem- ber , for a third time. Defense m otions that requested Brown and Matyas be removed from the case based on concerns over fairness were denied this week by Multnomah County Senior Circuit Judge Julie Frantz. “I was very happy to see it upheld,” Brown said. In 2008, a jury convicted the Astoria man of 12 counts of fi rst-degree sodomy and 12 counts of fi rst-degree sexual abuse for ongoing abuse of the 9-year-old fam- ily member between July 2004 and May 2006. He was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison. An Oregon Supreme Court decision in 2010 held that medical experts cannot testify about child sex abuse diagnoses if no physical evi- dence exists. As a result, Dr. Roy Little’s testimony, which did not contain phys- ical evidence, was deemed invalid. The Oregon Court of Appeals overturned Kel- ly’s conviction in 2011 and ordered that Clatsop County Circuit Court schedule a new trial. Kelly was retried in 2013 and was again convicted of 24 counts of sexual abuse and sodomy. The conviction on the retried case was pos- sible due to the victim’s tes- timony and DNA evidence found where the abuse took place, Brown said. The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2016. But last year, Kelly fi led another appeal in Umatilla County, where he argued his lawyer should have objected to a line of questioning from Brown that enabled a wit- ness giving inadmissible testimony. The judge sent the case back to Clatsop County Cir- cuit Court, and Kelly was released on bail. T he defense had argued that Brown, in a line of ques- tioning, disregarded previ- ous case law by asking Little whether the victim had been coached. The Multnomah County judge assigned to hear the dis- pute found that while Brown eliciting the inadmissible tes- timony “created error,” it was not done with the intent to deny the defendant a fair trial. The defense also argued that Brown has a “delusional” view of the state’s evidence and “lacks the ability to objectively assess the case.” These claims were also dis- missed, given that the reason for the reversal of the original case was not based on ethical issues, but rather the change in the law that prohibited a sexual abuse diagnosis with- out physical fi ndings . The defense also claimed Brown showed his bias toward Kelly by using words like “evil” and “despica- ble” in his closing state- ment. Judge Frantz found his language summarized the defendant’s acts that were “strongly supported by the evidence,” and were not used because of personal prejudice or bias. “There is nothing to indi- cate that the prosecuting attorney harbored any bias against the defendant as an individual, but rather that it was the defendant’s criminal acts that fueled his concerted effort to obtain a conviction,” Frantz found . A hearing to set the new trial is expected to be sched- uled sometime next month, Brown said. Oregon lawmakers take aim at plastic bags and Styrofoam Bills clear the state House By MARK MILLER Oregon Capital Bureau Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian An art installation made from plastic bags serves as a backdrop during a concert performance at the Liberty Theatre. most curbside services won’t pick it up unless it’s being disposed of as garbage. “Most people will sim- ply trash their food contain- ers,” Rep. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, said. “They do not go to the extent that I do, where I rinse and I store my takeout containers to later drive them to Tigard, to Agi- lyx, for them to recycle. … When we rely on customers to self-transport the recycle material to a singular facil- ity in Tigard, it means that a limited amount is recy- cled, and it ends up in the landfi ll.” Like Smith, Rep. Marga- ret Doherty, D-Tigard, said she wants to create a trans- fer system to make recy- cling foam products more feasible. Doherty, normally a reliable Democratic vote, voted against HB 2883 . “The intent of this bill is honest, and we don’t want things that you can’t recy- cle out there,” Doherty said. “But these, you can.” SUNDAY AFTERNOON SALEM — Plastic gro- cery bags and Styrofoam takeout containers may become a thing of the past in Oregon. The state House voted 32-28 on Tuesday to pro- hibit retailers and restau- rants from serving food to customers in polystyrene containers, and 42-18 on Thursday to ban retailers and restaurants from provid- ing single-use bags to cus- tomers at checkout. The fi rst bill includes a ban on polystyrene cups, plates, bowls and takeout containers. The second cov- ers plastic bags, except for thick plastic bags designed to be reusable, as well as paper bags that aren’t made from at least 40% recycled fi ber. “Everybody here knows that we have a problem in our environment with too much plastic,” state Rep. Sheri Schouten, D-Beaver- ton, said on the House fl oor Tuesday. “I think the bigger question is, what are we all going to do about it?” If the Senate also approves House Bill 2883, and Gov. Kate Brown signs it into law, Oregon would become the fi rst state to ban polystyrene food contain- ers. Such bans have become increasingly common at the city level across the coun- try, including in Portland, Milwaukie and Silverton. Eugene is considering a ban. Critics — including sev- eral Democratic legislators — note that polystyrene can be recycled, unlike some other forms of plastic. “I do fear the transition from the polystyrene, which is fully recyclable, to the clamshell, fully hard plas- tic, hinged to-go containers — which is a lot more harm- ful to the environment,” said Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, a coastal leg- islator who owns a restau- rant, the Port & Starboard, in his hometown. “We should be discussing how we can make it easier to get these materials to the recycling facility so that we can make a difference, rather than banning this product.” However, the number of recycling facilities that accept polystyrene foam is limited — there is one in Tigard, Agilyx Corp. — and To Schouten, it doesn’t make economic or environ- mental sense for far-fl ung Oregon communities to truck small polystyrene food containers to Tigard when restaurants could simply use more eco-friendly alterna- tives instead. “If it’s going to go in the landfi ll, let’s make it something that will biode- grade,” Schouten said. Targeting plastics House Bill 2509, the bag ban, would make Oregon the fourth state to ban plas- tic checkout bags. California has a similar law, which vot- ers approved in 2016. Sev- enteen Oregon cities have already banned plastic bags at stores, including Portland, Salem, Eugene, Bend and Hillsboro. HB 2509 is based in large part on Hillsboro’s ban, which also applies to restaurants, Sollman noted. Critics of plastic bag bans argue that targeting plastic bags won’t move the needle on greenhouse gas emissions, which are the primary driver behind cli- mate change. Several stud- ies suggest that manufactur- ing plastic bags takes less energy than paper bags, and paper bags have a larger car- bon footprint than plastic. However, unlike paper and other wood products, plastic is not biodegradable. Experts aren’t sure how long it would take a typical plastic bag to decompose — they haven’t existed for long enough to observe their WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Live Presents SEATTLE SEA SHANTY SINGERS BENEFIT CONCERT featuring Kessler & Perasso Free workshop 2-4 pm. 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Comments may be submitted at the public meetings, online at www.NWTTEIS.com, or by mail to: Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest Attention: NWTT Supplemental EIS/OEIS Project Manager 3730 N. Charles Porter Ave., Building 385 Oak Harbor, WA 98278-3500 Comment Period Extended: Comments must be postmarked or received online by June 12, 2019, for consideration in the Final Supplemental EIS/OEIS. Arrive and submit comments anytime during the open house. No presentation or formal oral comment session will be conducted. Monday, April 29, 2019 Astoria High School Student Commons 1001 W. Marine Drive Astoria, Ore. Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Newport Performing Arts Center Lobby Individuals requiring reasonable accommodations, please 777 W. Olive St. contact Julianne Stanford, Public Affairs Officer, at Newport, Ore. 360-396-1630 or julianne.stanford@navy.mil. 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Jack Zika, R-Red- mond, who opposed the bill in Thursday’s vote. “We’re nickel-and-diming our citizens.” Retailers will collect the fee. Essentially, it’s a sur- charge on any purchase for which a customer requests a paper bag — although those paying with Women, Infants and Children or Ore- gon Trail card benefi ts are exempt — thereby helping to cover businesses’ own costs for replacing cheaper plastic bags with paper. Beyond that, grocers argue it will prod shoppers to bring their own bags, thus discouraging waste. “The 5 cents is really a trigger to change behav- ior — to move to reusable,” said Shawn Miller, North- west Grocery Association lobbyist, at a committee meeting Monday. We are having a potluck at the Gearhart Fire Dept. to revisit the good times we have had with Jerry. Please come and share your stories with us on Saturday, May 4th at noon. SPECIAL PERFORMANCE Pre-concert tickets are available at the theatre and local pharmacies, and at the theatre door on performance day! decomposition — but it’s likely to be on the order of centuries. Plastic waste also frequently makes its way into waterways and oceans, where it can pose a chok- ing or suffocation hazard for animals. “It is ending up in our own food chain,” Sollman said. “We are consuming this by consuming the ani- mals that are getting this in their own system.” HB 2509 also includes a 5 -cent fee for paper bags, to which the paper indus- try objects. “The charge will increase costs for working families and discourage con- sumers from choosing paper bags that are easily recy- cled and do not create haz- ards for wildlife,” warned Mike Draper, chairman of the Forest Products Indus- try National Labor-Manage- ment Committee. Doherty and Smith voted for HB 2509 on Thurs- day, but they said they hope the bag fee provision will be changed before the bill with North America’s #1 Choice! 20 % off Select Signature Series
