Happy New Year!
22/12
BEST OF COP LOG ENTRIES/3A TOP 10 SPORTS STORIES/1B
THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015
139th Year, No. 55
WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
PENDLETON
Pistol
missing
from
holiday
shooting
Daniel
Wattenburger
Comment
A year of
seconds
E
very weekday in 2014,
the East Oregonian
newsroom set out with
the mission of telling our
readers what was happening
in Umatilla and Morrow
counties, the state, the
country and the rest of the
world. Usually in that order.
No small task.
Sometimes that meant
driving to the scene of
or other emergency.
Sometimes it required
sitting through a public
meeting, taking notes and
trying to quickly sort out the
important bits from the rest.
Sometimes it was talking to
people on the worst day of
their life, sometimes on the
best.
It’s a moment-by-
moment job where tips
come in, the police scanner
blares, records are collected
and dissected, experts are
tracked down and public
And every day we print
what we’ve got in the
space we’re given, send the
paper out the back door to
be delivered to homes and
newsstands, then start again.
The stories and photos
we print represent a slice of
in our small corner of the
world. Almost always the
full story is buried and we
are exhuming it piece by
piece.
Ben Hecht, a journalist
in the early 20th
century and later one of
Hollywood’s most famous
screenwriters, said, “Trying
to determine what is going
on in the world by reading
newspapers is like trying to
tell the time by watching the
second hand of a clock.”
It’s true. Grab any given
EO from this year and you’ll
get a snapshot of a day in
2014. You’ll see recaps
of city council meetings
and articles about local
government, feature stories
on interesting people, a
day’s worth of police calls
in the public safety log,
death notices and obituaries
for those who died. You’ll
about the environment and
See NEW YEAR/6A
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
No. 1 Lukah Chang is led into the courtroom of Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Hampton for
a plea deal hearing last January in Pendleton.
Top 10 stories of 2014
1
Chang sentenced. The
capture, arrest and mur-
der charge levied against
Lukah Chang, a Marine
Corps deserter who killed Amyjane
Branhagen and tried to beat Karen
Lange to death, was our top story
in 2013. His sentence of at least 35
years in prison is our top story this
of the most violent and frightening
stories in Pendleton history. Chang,
23 at the time, was given the
maximum possible sentence under
law at the Jan. 8 hearing at Umatilla
County Circuit Court, Pendleton.
The story of the brutal crimes was
documented this fall on the televi-
sion show Dateline.
2
Closing shop. After
months of trying to sell
its division of AG supply
stores, Pendleton Grain
Growers announced in September
it would close stores in Pendleton,
Athena and Milton-Freewater —
including the Pendleton Automotive
Service Center. Stores in Hermiston
and Joseph would soon follow,
while the Island City store was
reorganized as a commercial pump
and irrigation business. The moves
came after PGG decided it could
no longer support retail services
for the stores. About 90 people lost
their jobs.
3
Top Dawgs. The Herm-
iston High School foot-
ball team took the state
by storm in November,
climbing to the top of the Class 5A
34-12 win over top-ranked Silver-
ton in the title game on Nov. 29. Be-
fore their historic run the Bulldogs
were 5-13 in playoff games, and
playing four nonconference games
against out-of-state powerhouses.
The Bulldogs defense was stout in
the playoffs, allowing less than 10
points a game. After the champion-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
No. 4 An Oregon State Police forensic team investigates the scene
of an offi cer involved shooting last April off of Pamburn Road east
of Athena. Athena Police Sgt. Erik Palmer was later clear by a grand
jury in the fatal shooting of Tere David King of Athena.
ship quarterback Chase Knutz was
named the Class 5A offensive play-
er of the year, coach Mark Hodges
was named coach of the year and
nine other Bulldogs were given
4
Fatal shootings cleared.
There were three fatal
shootings in Umatilla
County in 2014 in which
the killer’s actions were deemed
der charges were dismissed against
Timothy Kelly in the shooting death
of Daniel Dechand near Hermiston.
A grand jury decided that Kelly
had acted in self defense to try to
stop Dechand from assaulting and
robbing him. Two months later,
shot and killed fugitive Tere King.
A grand jury later ruled the shooting
November, the same grand jury
ruled that an Eastern Oregon Cor-
ing prison inmate Jayson Withers
in August. Withers was attacking
another inmate in the yard when he
in the Oregon prison system in at
least two decades.
5
Permit denied. A proposed
coal export terminal in
Boardman was dealt a
serious blow in August
when the Department of State
Lands denied a key permit needed
to build a dock in the Columbia
River. DSL Director Mary Abrams,
a Heppner native, ruled the Coyote
Island Terminal would interfere
best use of water resources. Project
developer Ambre Energy and the
and the case will be heard by a
senior administrative law judge
in December 2015. If approved,
export 8.8 million tons of coal
per year to Asia and create 25-30
permanent, family-wage jobs.
For the rest of the
Top 10 stories see Page 6A
Top stories list compiled from a public ballot and East Oregonian poll.
Pendleton police are look-
ing for the gun involved in the
shooting of 23-year-old Bran-
don Valera on Christmas Eve in
Pendleton.
Police Chief Stuart Roberts
said Valera met Anthony Sabin,
25, at about midnight Dec. 24 in
the garage of 723 S.W. 28th St.,
Pendleton, to make a deal. Rob-
erts said just
what kind of
deal is still
being
in-
vestigated.
Valera and
Sabin were
only
ac-
quaintanc-
es, Roberts
said, but the Sabin
occupant of
the house
knew each man. Roberts said
the occupant also has a criminal
history, but he does not seem to
have much connection with the
shooting aside from allowing
Valera and Sabin to use his ga-
rage for a meeting.
Valera, though, brought a
friend to the rendezvous, Roberts
said, and that set off Sabin, who
was high on methamphetamine.
Sabin pistol-whipped Valera
with a .45 caliber semiautomat-
ic handgun. Then either Valera’s
friend or the homeowner inter-
vened, yanking Sabin off Valera.
That’s when the gun went off
and a single round struck Valera
in the side.
Roberts said the placement of
the bullet wound and the trajec-
tory supported that scenario.
The friend drove Valera to
the emergency department at St.
Anthony Hospital, Pendleton,
him on Christmas at his home at
1930 S.W. Runnion Lane, Pend-
leton.
Roberts said Sabin told of-
witnesses also put the gun in his
hand, but Sabin cannot recall
what he did with the gun after
the shooting.
“We spent hours and hours
out there looking, to the point
we were raking leaves,” said
Roberts.
The search efforts so far
have been for naught. Sabin
remains in the Umatilla Coun-
ty Jail, Pendleton, on a charge
family last reported he was in
critical but stable condition fol-
lowing surgeries at a Seattle
See SHOOTING/6A
Soil scientist hails from Nepal
Editor’s Note: This is another in-
stallment in the annual East Oregonian
series “Our New Neighbors,” where we
introduce readers to people who have
moved to the area within the last year.
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Rajan Ghimire, Prakriti Bristra and their 3-year-old son
Prasam Ghimire are 7,000 miles from their native Nepal.
Northeast Oregon and Nepal couldn’t
be more different.
Compare Pendleton’s rolling farm-
land with Nepal’s mountains; the Arkan-
sas-sized country has eight of the world’s
10 tallest peaks. While Pendleton is full of
open spaces, Nepal has a population den-
sity of more than 500 people per square
Our New
Neighbors
mile and is among the poorest and least
developed countries on earth. Weather is
subtropical, hot and humid with 70-75
inches of annual precipitation.
However, the two places share some
commonalities — crops, such as wheat,
and farmer’s desire for fertile soil.
That’s what attracted soil scientist Ra-
jan Ghimire, a 33-year-old postdoctoral
See NEIGHBOR/6A