A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2022
IN BRIEF
State reports 80 new
virus cases for county
The Oregon Health Authority reported 80 new
coronavirus cases for Clatsop County on Friday.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
3,697 virus cases and 37 deaths as of Friday.
Portland attorney to run
for state Senate
A Portland attorney has fi led to run in the Demo-
cratic primary for state Senate District 16.
Jennifer Kinzey, a former special prosecutor at the
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Offi ce, works
at Ridehalgh & Associates.
Melissa Busch, a Warren resident, is also running in
the Democratic primary.
State Rep. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, is relin-
quishing her House District 32 seat to run for Senate
in the Republican primary.
Betsy Johnson resigned from the Senate to
launch an independent campaign for governor.
County commissioners in Senate District 16 appointed
Rachel Armitage, of Warren, to fi ll out Johnson’s
term.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Astoria has a new police offi cer
Astoria held a swearing-in ceremony for a new
police offi cer during a City Council meeting last week.
Zachary Stockton, of Kenai, Alaska, was initially
hired as the Astoria Police Department’s community
service offi cer late last year.
— The Astorian
New child porn charges fi led against
former Ocean Park teacher
SOUTH BEND, Wash. — The Pacifi c County
Prosecutor’s Offi ce has fi led 10 new charges
against a former Ocean Park Elementary School
teacher .
The new charges come just two days before
Daniel J. Schenk, 54, of Ilwaco, was expected to be
formally sentenced in the Pacifi c County Superior
Court after he admitted to previous allegations that
he possessed depictions of minors engaged in sexual
activity.
According to court records, the prosecutor’s offi ce
reached out in late December to the Washington State
Patrol , which conducted the initial investigation, to
determine if there was any new information that would
warrant additional charges.
A d etective evaluated Schenk’s Kik m essaging
account in early January and discovered a substan-
tial amount of additional imagery of minors being
depicted in sexual activity.
Prosecutors fi led formal charges against
Schenk on Wednesday for 10 counts of possession
of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit
conduct.
— Chinook Observer
MEMORIALS
Saturday, Jan. 29
Memorial
MURRELL, Grant Evans — Celebration of life and
reception at 1 p.m., Bateman Carroll Funeral Home,
520 West Powell Blvd. in Gresham.
ON THE RECORD
DUII
infl uence of intoxicants.
On
the
• David
Harry Record
Dens-
• Dennis James Wentz,
more, 75, of Astoria, was
arrested on Sunday at the
Astoria Riverwalk and 14th
Street for driving under the
51, of Hammond, was
arrested on Saturday on
Exchange Street in Asto-
ria for DUII.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission and Countywide
Advisory Committee, 9 a.m., joint meeting, (electronic
meeting).
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of
Directors, 5:15 p.m., 1225 Ave. A, Seaside.
Astoria Planning Commission, 5:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
Seaside Airport Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Astoria City Council, 11 a.m., special meeting, City Hall,
1095 Duane St.
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce Council, noon,
(electronic meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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A pilot helps guide a ship on the Columbia River on Saturday.
Commercial tuna fi sherman
seeks to restore ‘retirement boat’
By LUKE WHITTAKER
Chinook Observer
ILWACO, Wash. — On a
rainy January morning, Ted
Martin was chasing a dream.
A longtime commercial
albacore fi sherma n and fi x-
ture on the waterfront, Mar-
tin is closing one chapter
and beginning another in the
Ilwaco boatyard.
“The price was right and
these are well-known boats,”
he said while standing
beneath the bow of a 33-foot
1984 Chris-Craft Gulf Com-
mander, which he dubbed
his “retirement boat.”
Martin said he plans to
sell his commercial tuna fi sh-
ing vessel, the F/V Bambi ,
and re invest the money in
the Chris-Craft, which he
bought last spring.
Still, a “bit of engine
work” and a “whole lot
of interior work” remains
before the Chris-Craft will
be ready for its next role,
Martin said. But the option
to buy and overhaul the
38-year-old vessel was an
easy one.
“I did this in Canada a lot,
re built yachts. It’s nothing
new to me,” he said.
Martin conceded that the
twin turbo-charged Volvo
Penta six-cylinder diesel
engines could be the biggest
undertaking.
“One of them has been
fi red up already, but the other
hasn’t, so we’ll see, ” he said.
Martin has owned a vari-
ety of boats over the years,
he said, including his latest
addition .
“In northern British
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
Ted Martin looks at a boat he intends to restore.
Columbia, I had water taxis,
fast-freight boats. D own on
the coast, I was a salmon
fi sherma n in B.C., then I
emigrated to America. Now
it’s time to retire and take it
easy. So Bambi will be up
for sale in the spring, then
I’ll go from there,” he said.
Martin hasn’t settled on
an asking price for Bambi,
a vessel that served as a reg-
ular fi xture along the water-
front for years, but acknowl-
edged the market may be
tough, particularly for a
fi shery that’s fallen on hard
times in recent seasons.
“Right now is not a real
great time to sell a tuna
boat,” he said.
Martin is mostly focused
on the future and the adven-
ture the Chris-Craft could
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and explore here and there as
you’re going.”
Martin may one day take
it as far as the Mississippi.
“A friend of mine bought
it and the trailer, because
he wanted the trailer. Then
I bought the boat because I
was looking for something
similar to rebuild into what
I want. I want to live on the
river part of the time and do
a lot of fi shing and traveling.
If you go to Lewiston, Idaho,
on the Snake River, you can
then truck it over to the Mis-
sissippi I’m told,” he said.
“And that just opens up a
whole new world.”
Martin
has
already
restored the vessel’s original
name.
“It’s called the Dream
Chaser,” he said.
Report fi nds gap in public defense system
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon’s public defense
system has less than one-
third of the public defenders
required to meet caseloads,
according to an American
Bar Association report pub-
licly released Friday.
The report found Oregon’s
Offi ce of Public Defense Ser-
vices requires 1,888 pub-
lic defenders, but only has
the equivalent of 592 public
defenders — a 69% defi cit.
“At current caseloads,
(the Offi ce of Public Defense
Services) simply is unable
to adequately represent indi-
viduals in adult criminal and
juvenile cases,” the two-year
study found.
Public defenders rep-
resent people who can-
not aff ord their own attor-
neys. The Sixth Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution
requires criminal defendants
to receive adequate represen-
tation. Public defenders are
required to study the case and
charges against their clients
and perform their own inves-
tigation of the case before
recommending a plea.
The American Bar Asso-
ciation report is just the lat-
est indicators that Oregon’s
public defense system is
failing to meet its constitu-
tional requirements. A 2019
report by the Sixth Amend-
ment Center found Oregon’s
public defense system was
essentially unconstitutional.
For the last several months,
some criminal defendants in
counties such as Lane, Wash-
ington and Multnomah have
been in custody without an
attorney because of a short-
age of public defenders.
“It’s a civil rights crisis
that’s been in the making for
a while,” said Bobbin Singh,
the executive director of the
Oregon Justice Resource
Center. “All three branches
of government have been
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bring.
“l’m going to take it up to
the Tri-Cities and do a lot of
exploring around the Colum-
bia and Snake r iver up to
Lewiston, Idaho,” he said.
Martin plans to head out
“as soon as Bambi sells,” but
hasn’t been in a big hurry
while the majority of the
necessary prep work on the
Chris-Craft awaits.
“It could go up this sum-
mer, but maybe next year,
because I’m re building it
right now inside and out.
I’m converting it into what I
want it to be,” he said
He acknowledged he
wasn’t sure how long the
trip to Idaho via river would
take, adding, “It’s not some-
thing you do overnight. A
couple years maybe, just fi sh
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complicit in this.”
Overloaded
public
defense systems can harm
defendants and lead to out-
comes that damage the over-
all credibility of the justice
system, said Carl Macpher-
son,
executive
direc-
tor of Metropolitan Public
Defender, a nonprofi t pub-
lic defense fi rm that provides
services in Multnomah and
Washington counties.
“What happens in an
overloaded,
underfunded
system, people triage and
cut corners,” he said. “It can
lead to wrongful convictions
because people miss things.”
Macpherson
described
the American Bar Associ-
ation report as an overdue
“wake-up call for the state.”
Some lawmakers pre-
dicted future consequences
for the state, ones beyond not
following the Constitution.
“We are primed for hav-
ing a lawsuit fi led against
the state for not adequately
providing legal services for
those who have the right to
them,” said state Sen. Floyd
Prozanski, D-Eugene, who
chairs the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
“And what that means is
that you could see verdicts
overturned because of inad-
equate defense. You could
also see where the court
could in fact impose con-
ditions on the state to come
in compliance. Either way,
it’s not good. And to be very
frank, it is something that we,
the Legislature, have an obli-
gation to address.”
The way Oregon attempts
to meet those obligations
lacks transparency, accord-
ing to the report.
At the trial level, Ore-
gon contracts out its pub-
lic defense system to non-
profi ts and private attorneys.
Offi ce of Public Defense Ser-
vices data about its contracts
contains inconsistencies and
inaccuracies.
“The OPDS contracting
system, which includes over
100 contractors that vary sig-
nifi cantly in both size and
organizational
structure,
imposes challenges to build-
ing and implementing a uni-
fi ed case management sys-
tem and other data collection
mechanisms,” the Ameri-
can Bar Association found.
“OPDS should be able to
track which individual attor-
ney is assigned to which
cases to verify both qualifi -
cations and caseloads.”