REGION
Thursday, March 10, 2016
East Oregonian
PENDLETON
HERMISTON
Former CIA agent talks to Sunridge
students about his time undercover
Victims’ parents make
case for sex offender
Ramirez sentenced to
18 months in jail
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Between discussions of espionage
and spy recruitment at Sunridge
Middle School, fomer CIA agent
Bryan Wright had a lesson to impart.
In front of a few dozen students
during Brice Gundlach’s social
studies and journalism classes,
Wright told kids that youthful indis
cretions could have repercussions
later in life.
Wright said he was hit by one of
those repercussions during the CIA
hiring process, when he was forced
to recall stealing some cash from a
basketball concessions stand as a
teenager.
Although he had to endure
some additional grilling during the
polygraph test, Wright went on to a
career as an intelligence agent before
making the decision to return to
civilian life.
Wright, 39, was invited to speak
in front of the class by his niece,
eighth grader Macy Rosselle Wright
was already familiar with the area,
having spent the ¿rst years of his life
in Heppner.
Following his parents divorce,
Wright’s family lived in Pendleton
and Medford before settling in
Lewiston, Idaho when he was 12.
Despite growing up poor, Wright
was able to secure a fullride schol
arship to Gonzaga University, where
he graduated with a degree in interna
tional studies.
“I wanted to explore the world, I
just didn’t know how,” he said.
Wright found his answer when he
was accepted into the CIA’s clandes
tine service just after 9/11.
Wright was sent to Africa as part
of the agency’s counterterrorism
efforts.
Staff photo by Antonio Sierra
Former CIA agent Bryan Wright talks to a Sunridge Middle School
class Wednesday.
While he couldn’t disclose
the exact location or nature of his
missions, Wright said that what he
did wasn’t too different than James
Bond or Jason Bourne.
Wright regaled the class with
slightly redacted stories of using a
mysterious combination of numbers
to locate a terrorist and unexpectedly
recruiting a spy at a party he hosted.
Asked by a student whether used
any “ninja stuff” during his time with
the CIA, Wright said his primary
job as an agent was to be quiet and
inconspicuous.
“If I do my job well, I never have
to use a gun,” he said.
The work also “took a lot out of
my heart and my soul,” Wright said.
Besides the lies he told to cultivate
sources and informants, Wright said
a friend was killed by an alQaida
double agent.
Wright took a sabbatical from
20062011 to do some background
check work for a private equity group
in New York and left the agency for
good in 2015.
Wright returned home to Heppner
and is interested in leveraging his
experience in the agency to ¿gure out
ways to keep rural areas vibrant in an
increasingly urbancentric country.
In the meantime, Wright is keeping
himself busy by making media
appearances on networks like Fox
Business, consulting on Hollywood
movies and writing articles about
technology and international affairs.
Although he’s happy to be back
home in Eastern Oregon to spend
more time with his family and has no
plans to return to the agency, he has
no regrets about his choice of career.
“I’d go back in a heartbeat,” he
said.
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East Oregonian
Less than 24 hours into his ¿rst
campaign for Pendleton City Council,
Ward 3 candidate Tom Phelan with
drew from the race and pledged his
support for Dale Primmer.
“I believe that Dale has the experi
ence and knowledge to represent the
people of Ward 3 and will do what
is best for the city of Pendleton,” his
withdrawal paperwork states.
According to Phelan’s campaign
Facebook page, which had amassed
192 likes since it was created Friday,
Phelan is an insurance agent and a
longtime Little League coach.
Despite Phelan’s withdrawal,
there are still three candidates in
the Ward 3 races and 14 candidates
overall in the municipal election.
The remaining candidates in Ward
3 are Primmer, the Umatilla County
director of community justice; Don
Bennett, a retired Transportation
Security Administration employee;
and Cody Cimmiyotti, a bartender
and customer service agent.
The withdrawal deadline is March
11.
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8PDWLOOD&RXQW\GLVSDWFKFRPPLWWHH
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The Umatilla Coun
ty’s Dispatch Advisory
Committee made no progress
Tuesday on how much agen
cies should pay for equipment
upgrades and maintenance
fees.
The committee met for an
hour at the Stafford Hansell
Government Center, Herm
iston, to sort out equipment
cost sharing. Committee
members, including Pend
leton police Chief Stuart
Roberts and Hermiston
City Manager Byron Smith,
wanted to know each agen
cy’s share of the total cost.
Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Lieuallen,
commander of the dispatch,
said she did not have those
¿gures.
Smith said those dollar
amounts could affect how
much Hermiston pays for
dispatch services and perhaps
trigger a new contract with
the county for the upcoming
¿scal year.
“We need to ¿gure that
out or there will be no new
funds,” he said.
Umatilla
County
Commissioner Bill Elfering,
who heads up the committee,
agreed with Smith and others.
“Everybody needs to
know what they’re looking at
here,” he said.
Sheriff Terry Rowan said
his staff would be able to get
those numbers in a day or two
and email them to committee
members. The group decided
to meet again March 22.
Page 3A
Elfering and Rowan are
both running for reelection
this year and have chal
lengers.
The sheriff’s of¿ce also
wants participating agencies
to help hire a new dispatcher.
Lieuallen explained four
dispatchers work a shift, but
sometimes there is not enough
staff available so supervisors
¿ll in on overtime. This year,
she said, the dispatch center
will spend almost $142,000
on overtime.
Adding another position
would cut down on that, she
said, and allow supervisors
to do their job and help
dispatchers in the moment.
Elfering said he wanted
to see the cost difference
between overtime and a new
position.
could participate in his own
defense although his IQ was
“signi¿cantly low.” After the
evaluation, Davis ¿led a motion
By JENNIFER COLTON
for a change of plea. Davis said
East Oregonian
Ramirez is not “a predator” and
is unlikely to reoffend with
The victims’ parents tearfully treatment.
asked the judge for leniency
Ramirez then pleaded guilty
Wednesday morning in the to two felony counts of ¿rstde
sentencing of a man convicted gree attempted sexual abuse.
of sex abuse.
There was one charge for each
Luis
Alberto
of the victims.
Ramirez, 21, entered
Each count is a
the Hermiston Circuit
deportable offense,
Court with eight
but the family asked
counts of ¿rstdegree
that Ramirez not be
sexual abuse and two
sent back to Mexico.
counts of ¿rstdegree
Temple said that
sodomy
involving
decision is out of
two female relatives
her jurisdiction. The
who were under the
mother acknowledged
age of 14 at the time
Ramirez had a severe
of the abuse. He left Ramirez
problem, but said
the courtroom with a
he knows no one
plea deal of 18 months in jail, in Mexico and comes from a
four years of probation and a family that has suffered. The
lifetime record as a sex offender. father of the victims also spoke.
“We all do things, and we
“I’ve known him as a child,
have to pay for it,” the mother and I know something happened
of the victims said through an to him. But he is a good boy and
interpreter. “My daughters love he always respected us,” he
him. My son misses him as well. said through a translator. “I’ve
They say they forgive him.”
always taught everybody from
The court did not identify the childhood that when someone
parents by full name to protect commits a crime, they have
the identity of the victims. The to pay for it. That’s why he’s
age of the victims was not here today — because we love
released, other than that both him, not because we hate him.
were younger than 14 at the … Lastly, I want him to know
time of the incidents. Through that he’s not alone, that he can
most of the hearing the parents, always count on us.”
sitting in the back of the court
Ramirez was sentenced to
room, wore headphones and 18 months in prison, eligible for
listened to a translation of the early release for good behavior.
proceedings in Spanish while He was also sentenced to 200
Judge Eva Temple worked hours of community service
through the case.
work and 60 months of post
Ramirez, born in Mexico, prison supervision.
came to Hermiston via Cali
Ramirez will be required to
fornia to live with his aunt and register as a sex offender within
uncle. Over a period of time in 10 days of his birthday every
2010 and 2011, while a student year.
at Hermiston High School,
Ramirez, clad in a yellow
Ramirez allegedly assaulted the jumpsuit
and
handcuffs,
victims, both his relatives.
spoke little during the hearing,
In October, Ramirez was providing yes and no answers to
arrested on sexual abuse most questions.
charges. He pleaded not guilty.
“I just wanted to say that at
According
to
defense the time I was going through a
attorney Kara Davis, a lot of things being a teenager,”
psychological evaluation in Ramirez told the court. “I just
February determined Ramirez wanted to say I’m sorry.”
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