Page 8A
NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Jefferson County treasurer
found guilty of stealing money
MADRAS (AP) — A
jury on Thursday found a
local treasurer in Oregon
guilty of stealing money
from her county.
The Bulletin reports
Jefferson County Treasurer
Deena Goss was convicted
of several counts of forgery,
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theft.
One forgery count is a
felony that could carry up
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other 36 charges are misde-
meanors.
Goss is scheduled to
be sentenced on Dec. 1,
according to court records.
Neither Goss nor her
attorney could be reached
for comment Thursday,
but Goss’ mother told The
Bulletin her daughter was
falsely accused.
“We’ve been through
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Symons. “She’s crushed.
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The
state
accused
treasurer Deena Goss of
altering checks paid to
various departments and
then pocketing cash, though
Goss’ attorney argued in
going on when a resident
bought a dog license for
$26 but noticed that $46
had been deducted from his
account.
Grover, Goss’ attorney,
argued that the money could
have been stolen by another
employee because the
county had no extra protec-
tions in place to verify the
amount of cash deposited.
Jefferson
County
commissioners plan to
discuss whether they should
Rob Kerr/The Bulletin via AP, File
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This 2011 photo shows Jefferson County Treasurer resignation at a Wednesday
Deena M. Goss in her office in Madras. A jury found meeting.
Goss guilty Thursday of 36 charges related to the
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theft of county money.
duties were reassigned
court that another employee that county commissioners WR RWKHU RI¿FLDOV DQG
could have taken the money. “respectfully request that employees after the Oregon
Her attorney, Todd LQ OLJKW RI WKH FRQYLFWLRQ´ Department of Justice
began investigating in
Grover,
said
county Goss resign immediately.
The statement said April 2014, according to
accounting policies offer
no way to prove beyond a the failure of an elected the news release. In May
reasonable doubt that the RI¿FLDOWRUHVLJQDIWHUEHLQJ 2014, they removed the
convicted of a felony would treasurer’s salary and insti-
treasurer took any cash.
Goss’ term as treasurer be “incongruous, repugnant tuted payment by an hourly
stipend.
runs until December 2016 DQGRIIHQVLYH´
The news release says
and the conviction does
During Goss’ four-day
not require her to resign, trial, Assistant Attorney Goss hasn’t received any
according to a news release General Kristen Hoffmeyer compensation since then. If
from Jefferson County.
VDLG WKH FRXQW\ RI¿FLDOV she returns to work, she will
But it continues to say noticed something was be paid $30.81 an hour.
BRIEFLY
Elderly man hit
and killed in
crosswalk, woman
arrested
WALLA WALLA, Wash.
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Walla Walla man struck by
a vehicle has died from his
injuries.
Walla Walla Police
Department spokesman Tim
Bennett says 77-year-old
James A. Kooreny was
crossing Isaacs Avenue
in a crosswalk Thursday
night when he was hit by a
vehicle.
He was taken to a local
hospital where he died a
short time later.
Police say Heather A.
Tarnasky was driving the
Honda SUV that struck
Kooreny.
She was arrested
following sobriety tests
done at the scene and
taken to jail on a vehicular
homicide charge. Blood
alcohol test results are
pending.
Authorities charge
Tigard boy, 12,
with attempted
murder
TIGARD (AP) — Tigard
police took a 12-year-old
boy into custody after
he allegedly strangled a
sibling.
The boy faces charges
of attempted murder
in Washington County
Juvenile Court.
Police say the victim
told a parent about the
incident. The next day, the
parent took both children
to the boy’s school, where
staff immediately called the
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a detective, conducted
an investigation and took
the boy into custody on
Thursday.
Newport crowned
dominant West
Coast commercial
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ASTORIA (AP) —
Newport is now the
dominant West Coast port
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with the highest quantity of
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Newport landed
124 million pounds of
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highest quantity in the
country. Newport edged
out Astoria for the top West
Coast spot, with the 12th
highest city netting 122
million pounds, according
to data from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
Astoria had been the top
West Coast port by quantity
— and the 10th highest
in the nation — since it
overtook Los Angeles in
2012, The Daily Astorian
reports.
Westport, Washington
landed 100 million pounds,
making it the third highest
producer on the coast and
13th in the country.
The nation’s top
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quantity for the past several
years has been Dutch
Harbor, Alaska.
In terms of value, New
Bedford, Massachusetts is
the best commercial port
in the country, bringing in
$329 million last year.
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Astoria and Newport
both saw drops in value,
with Astoria landing $43
million, compared to $50
million in 2013. In Newport
the commercial catch was
worth $53 million, down
from $55 million in 2013.
Astoria and Newport rank
21st and 23rd in the nation
for value, respectively.
Drought helps
solve missing
person case
EUGENE (AP)
— Authorities say an
eight-year-old missing
person case was resolved
in Oregon after the drought
exposed a car that had been
submerged in a pond.
The Register-Guard
reports that Lane County
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driver on Monday spotted
the car partially sticking out
of a pond near a highway
off-ramp.
Detective Carl
Wilkerson says
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that the car was associated
with a 59-year-old Junction
City woman who went
missing in November 2007.
Linda Lee Perry had left
her house to go shopping
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returned.
He says a dive team
found human remains in the
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Perry’s. Investigators think
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Ethics board says
Josephine county
violated public
meetings law
GRANTS PASS
(AP) — An Oregon ethics
commission has ruled
that the Josephine County
Board of Commissioners
violated the state’s public
meeting laws.
The Daily Courier
reports that the Oregon
Government Ethics
Commission says
the Josephine board
held closed-door
sessions without proper
MXVWL¿FDWLRQ
Former county
commissioner Sandi
&DVVDQHOOL¿OHGD
complaint in January.
The ethics
commission says county
commissioners Keith
Heck, Cherryl Walker
and Simon Hare violated
state law by discussing
general county policies
in three closed meetings
that month and once in
February. Walker was
absent from the February
meeting.
Commissioners can
DSSHDOWKH¿QGLQJVDWD
hearing or negotiate
Walker and Heck
say the commissioners
did nothing wrong.
a settlement. Ethics
Commission Executive
Director Ron Bersin says
Walker and Heck say
the commissioners did
nothing wrong.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File
This remote camera photo taken May 2014
shows the wolf OR-7 on the Rogue River-
Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon.
GPS collar stops
tracking famous
wandering wolf
BEND (AP) — The
wolf OR-7 became globally
famous when he took off
from his northeast Oregon
pack four years ago and
wandered thousands of
miles in search of a mate,
his movement tracked by a
GPS satellite.
His actions now be much
harder to track. Wildlife
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transmitted his location
through
satellites
and
radio signals has stopped
working.
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said John Stephenson,
Oregon wolf coordinator for
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in Bend. “The
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Without the regular infor-
mation, biologists rely on
trail cameras and in-person
sightings to monitor him,
Stephenson told the Bend
Bulletin.
Knowing the electronics
were close to blinking out,
state and federal wildlife
managers
made
three
attempts — last summer,
last fall and early this spring
— to trap OR-7 or another
member of his Rogue Pack,
said Mark Vargas, district
wildlife biologist for the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife in Medford.
The hope was to replace
the batteries and keep the
GPS data coming in and
the radio signal going from
OR-7 or track the pack by
collaring another one of the
wolves.
“We’d love to get a collar
EDFNRQ25´9DUJDVVDLG
³EXWWKDWGLGQ¶WKDSSHQ´
People around the world
tracked OR-7 when he set
off from the Imnaha Pack
four years ago, wandering
thousands of miles through
Oregon, into Northern Cali-
fornia and back. He found a
mate, settled in the Cascade
Range in southern Oregon
DQGKDVKDG¿YHSXSV1RQH
of the wolves in the pack has
a working tracking collar.
Although not able to
track and locate OR-7 like
before, Stephenson and
Vargas know where he and
his pack roam. For the past
three years, the wolf and his
mate have hunted and raised
pups around the Sky Lakes
Wilderness Area between
Prospect and Fort Klamath.
Now 6 years old, OR-7
left his pack when he was
2. His three older pups,
born last year, are full-sized
yearlings and may set out on
their own soon.
“(It)
wouldn’t
be
surprising if one of
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Stephenson said.
$700,000
Suspected
norovirus
outbreak closes
Eugene school
EUGENE (AP) — A
Eugene school was closed
for at least two days after
16 staff members called
out sick in a suspected
norovirus outbreak.
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students at O’Hara Catholic
School reported being sick.
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trying to determine the
source of the outbreak as
crews scrub the building
from top to bottom with a
chlorine-bleach mix.
Norovirus is a highly
contagious pathogen
that can cause vomiting,
diarrhea and stomach
cramps.
Lane County health
department spokesman
Jason Davis tells the
Register-Guard that
students are likely to
return to school “early
QH[WZHHN´PRVWRI¿FLDOV
decide to settle by paying a
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$70,000
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