REGION
Thursday, March 17, 2016
HERMISTON
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
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attempted
aggravated
murder for shooting at
police. The other charges
The man injured by are:
four counts of reckless
Oregon State Police in
-anuary aIter he ¿red at endangering;
one count each of
them and tried to escape
near
Pendleton
faces reckless driving, unlawful
use of a weapon,
two counts of
felony attempting
attempted aggra-
to Àee police for
vated murder and
the car chase and
more.
the misdemeanor
Bryan Alberto
attempting to Àee
Corona, 24, of
for trying to run
Pendleton,
led
on foot;
troopers on a
two counts of
high-speed chase
assault of a public
Jan. 2 on back
safety of¿cer;
roads
through
and two
Umatilla County. Corona
counts of ¿rst-de-
Oregon
State
Police reported Corona ¿red gree assault.
Primus, who is running
a gun at troopers in pursuit,
and one trooper crashed his unopposed for re-election,
car into Corona’s to end the also said Circuit Judge
chase. Then as Corona got Christopher Brauer of
out of the car to run, another Pendleton presided over
trooper’s car struck him and Corona’s arraignment on
March 4, and his next court
put him in the hospital.
Corona arrived Monday hearing is April 1.
Until then, Corona
at the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton. Undersheriff Jim remains in the Umatilla
/ittle¿eld said Corona was County Jail in lieu of a
at Oregon Health & Science $1,075,000 bond. The
University, Portland, then online jail roster displays
went to the nearby Mult- Corona’s most serious
nomah County Jail, which charges as aggravated
had the medical facilities murder, not attempted
to care for him until he was aggravated murder. Primus
and Sheriff Terry Rowan,
well enough to return.
Umatilla County District who also is seeking re-elec-
Attorney Dan Primus said tion in a contested race, said
Corona faces 14 counts that information was not
in all, including two of accurate.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by Umatilla County
Umatilla County will clean up this property on Lorraine Ave. near Hermiston.
County to clean up abandoned property
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
Umatilla County will clean
up an abandoned Hermiston
property that has attracted
sTuatters since it caught ¿re
in February.
Wednesday
morning,
the
Umatilla
County
Commissioners voted to
take abatement action on a
debris-scattered property off
Lorraine Avenue north of
Hermiston. Photos provided
by code enforcement show
debris, building materials
and garbage scattered around
the property, both inside and
outside of buildings.
The house on the property
caught ¿re Feb. 6 and did
have people in it at the time,
according to emergency
reports. Police were also
called to the abandoned
home on Feb. 25 after reports
of people on the property
burning material.
Umatilla County code
enforcement began working
on the property in the summer
of 2015. The county voting to
abate a property is unusual,
according to code enforce-
ment coordinator Gina Miller.
Miller said this is likely the
¿fth abatement to come from
a vote in 10 years.
“This doesn’t happen all
that often. This is a kind of
unique circumstance where
the people who are on the
deed are no longer living,
and there has been no contact
from any heirs,” Miller said.
“This is a health hazard in
that garbage like that attracts
vermin. In the interest of
public health, we’re going to
get that cleaned up.”
In most code enforcement
cases, the county works with
the owners to bring the prop-
Photo contributed by Umatilla County
Umatilla County will clean up this property on Lorraine Ave. near Hermiston.
“This is a health hazard in that
garbage like that attracts vermin. In
the interest of public health, we’re
going to get that cleaned up.”
— Gina Miller, code enforcement coordinator
erty into compliance.
“It’s a matter of education.
That’s our ¿rst and foremost:
reaching out to people and
educating them on what
they can and cannot do on a
property, such as with solid
waste,” Miller said. “We’re
trying to do a good thing
here. When we get a property
cleaned up and we have a
resolution, that’s a really great
feeling.”
Because of the long
process of working with
landowners — often exacer-
bated by issues like weather
and health concerns — code
enforcement cases can take
months to resolve.
The commissioners’ vote
followed a judgment through
the court system for a solid
waste violation. Now that
the vote has been approved,
the next step will be to have
a representative from the
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Of¿ce post notices at the site
so anyone illegally staying
on the property has time to
relocate.
LAWSUIT: Investigation found nothing criminal
Continued from 1A
model, so Mason had the
Valdezes audit the system.
Laura
Aviles-Valdez
discovered “several ques-
tionable costs,” including
over-paying GOBHI for
administrative
services.
Mason and the Valdezes
concluded GOBHI was
underfunding the human
services department to line
the pockets of “private
human services providers
whose CEOs served on
the GOBHI board with
Commissioner Murdock.”
Mason and her compan-
ions’ demise with the county
came after the state over-
hauled reimbursement rules
for the Oregon Health Plan.
The county’s human
services billing clerk began
submitting non-Medicaid
screenings for reimburse-
ment. The Oregon Health
Plan rejected the submis-
sions in April 2015. The
lawsuit alleges the county
used those errors as an
excuse to ¿re Mason and the
Valdezes.
The lawsuit also alleges
the county leaked informa-
tion to the East Oregonian.
The EO covered the suspen-
sions and ¿rings in 2015,
but the tip to the paper did
not come from Murdock or
other county of¿cials.
The EO reported GOBHI
in April 2015 investigated
the county’s alcohol and
drug treatment program.
Henry O’Keefe, GOBHI’s
in-house attorney, con¿rmed
the investigators sent ¿nd-
ings to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice. However,
he did not discuss what
GOBHI found.
Neither Mason nor either
Valdez returned EO requests
for comment at that time.
Umatilla County Counsel
Doug Olsen said this week
that the investigation found
nothing
criminal,
and
Justice Department spokes-
person Kristina Edmunson
con¿rmed Wednesday the
agency did not open a crim-
inal investigation.
The new lawsuit demands
a jury trial and that the county
pay the three plaintiffs for
monetary losses, including
back pay and future earnings
and impairment of earning
capacity. They also seek
damages for physical and
emotional injury, humili-
ation, embarrassment and
“loss of enjoyment of life in
an amount to be determined
by a jury.” They also want
the county to pay for the cost
of the suit.
The county received
a copy of the lawsuit on
March 2. Magistrate Judge
Patricia Sullivan is presiding
over the case in federal
court in Pendleton. County
counsel Doug Olsen said
at this point the county has
nothing to say.
Attorney Robert Franz
of Spring¿eld is repre-
senting the county and did
not respond to an email
Wednesday. He has 21 days
to ¿le a response to the suit.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
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The county will then work
with Sanitary Disposal, the
sheriff’s of¿ce and commu-
nity corrections to remove the
garbage from the property.
Miller said the county hopes
to have the process completed
within the next two weeks.
More information on
Umatilla
County
Code
Enforcement — including
solid waste restrictions and
online complaint forms — is
available at www.co.uma-
tilla.or.us
———
Contact Jennifer Colton at
jcolton@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4534
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PENDLETON — Three
new of¿cers are graduating
from the state’s basic police
class to join local agencies.
Curtis Harper, 24, of
Heppner, becomes the
newest of¿cer with the
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment.
Zachary McCarl, also
of Heppner, will join the
Umatilla Police Depart-
ment. McCarl served in the
U.S. Marines in Afghanistan
and left the military with an
honorable discharge in May
2015.
And Mason Murphy
is a new of¿cer with the
Umatilla Tribal Police
Department.
They are among 39
graduates from Oregon
Public Safety Academy’s
355th basic police class
that will work for agen-
cies throughout Oregon,
according to a written
statement from the Oregon
Department of Public Safety
Standards and Training.
The class is 16 weeks
long and includes dozens of
training areas, from survival
skills to ¿rearms to commu-
nity policing. The class
graduates Friday at 11 a.m.
at the Oregon Public Safety
Academy, 4190 Aumsville
Highway S.E., Salem.