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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2016)
NORTHWEST Wednesday, April 20, 2016 East Oregonian Page 9A Brothers charged with killing Independent Party gets clarity missing Washington couple on presidential nominations SEATTLE (AP) — Two brothers wanted in the disappearance and presumed slayings of a Washington state couple may be heading for the Me[ican border, authorities said Tuesday as they charged the pair with ¿rst-degree murder. Detectives found a car in Phoeni[ that had been driven by John Blaine Reed and his brother, Tony Clyde Reed, and they said two friends of the brothers gave them a different car — a gold Acura sedan — and $500, knowing they were on the run from police. A license plate reader captured the Acura’s plate near Cale[ico, California, on Monday, authorities said. The brothers are wanted in the disappearance of John Reed’s former neighbors, Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife, Monique Patenaude, 46, who were reported missing a week ago. Investigators say they found evidence the couple were killed, and teams were searching for their bodies in a wooded 23-square-mile area around their home near Oso, 50 miles northeast of Seattle. “The e[act location of the Reed brothers is unknown, but there is reason to believe they may be trying to Àee to Me[ico,” the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Of¿ce in Washington said in an email Tuesday. Authorities described them as convicted felons who should be considered armed and dangerous, as several guns seemed to be missing from John Reed’s former home. Charging documents ¿led Tuesday said authorities found blood in the home’s bathtub, as well as in John Reed’s pickup, the victims’ vehicles, and on gasoline-soaked clothing By KRISTENA HANSEN Associated Press Snohomish County Sheriff Office via AP These undated booking photos show Tony Reed, left and John Reed. found in bags underneath a mattress outside the home. The state crime laboratory is analyzing the blood for DNA evidence. The victims’ vehicles had been driven or pushed down a steep, forested embankment, and at 3:30 a.m. on April 12, a neighbor’s surveillance camera caught the vehicles being simultaneously driven up the remote road on the way to where they were later discovered, a prosecutor wrote. The camera also recorded John Reed’s pickup traveling up the same road the ne[t day, he said. Authorities found the pickup at the home of the brothers’ parents, in the central Washington city of Ellensburg. Clyde Reed, their father, told investigators he had just cleaned the truck and added “that he did not know where his two sons were, but if he did, he would not tell law enforcement,” the charging papers said. When the brothers left Ellensburg last Thursday, they were driving the parents’ red Volkswagen — the same car authorities found in Phoeni[, detectives said. Shunn and Patenaude had long worried about getting on the wrong side of John Reed, who lived a little ways up an old logging road from their 21-acre spread in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. When they sued other neigh- bors over a property dispute more than two years ago, they avoided naming him as a defendant because they didn’t want to irk him, their former lawyer, Thomas Adams, said Monday. Court documents say John Reed had threatened to shoot the couple for cutting brush between their two properties in 2013. John Reed has been cited for a number of mostly minor offenses, but also was convicted of felonies for growing marijuana and eluding law enforcement. Tony Reed, 49, has amassed dozens of arrests and twice was under state supervi- sion — from 1989 to 1991 on drug charges, and from 1994 to 2003 for three misdemeanors, including an assault charge. Authorities believe they are now driving a 2002 gold Acura 3.2TL with Arizona plate BNN-9968. SHERIFF: Department staff has increased 85 percent since Rowan took of¿ce Continued from 1A English calls in there is always translation available. Rowan said in the more than three years since he took oI¿ce, the department has seen an 85 percent increase in staff, has made operational changes to how calls to 9-1-1 are handled and has gone from a jail capacity of 135 beds to having an average of 190 full. However, he also acknowl- edged there was still work to be done, especially in regards to decreasing response times. Throughout the evening he encouraged county residents to call him directly if they had complaints about the sheriff’s department. “If we’re not providing the service we need to be, then I want to know about it,” he said. “If I don’t know about it I can’t ¿[ it.” He heard some of those complaints on Monday. One county resident in attendance said he called to report a theft at his residence and no deputy ever made contact with him. Another said she and her teenage son went to confront a prowler on their own, even though they were unarmed, because they knew from e[perience it was likely to be hours before a deputy showed up. Rowan Some said it was hard not to feel that a slow response time might be due to race, but Rowan said that calls for service “have no color.” He said the message from county commissioners has been “no new positions” for the coming ¿scal year, but he has put in a request for four anyway. Hispanic Advisory Committee chair Eddie de la Cruz told Rowan that if people were needed to testify to the county commission about the urgency for more deputies to respond for calls of service, there were people present on Monday who could talk ¿rsthand about times they had called and not e[perienced a timely response. “If there is anything we can do to support that, we’re more than willing,” he said. De la Cruz also responded to Rowan’s question about how to recruit more bilingual employees by inviting Rowan to speak on his Saturday after- noon radio show on La Ley. Rowan is being chal- lenged for his position by Ryan Lehnert, who spoke to the Hispanic Advisory Committee during their March meeting. During that meeting Lehnert said if elected he wanted to form an advisory committee to the sheriff’s of¿ce that would function similarly to the Hispanic Advisory Committee. He also said he wanted to make hiring more bilingual deputies a priority. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian. com or 541-564-4536. PORTLAND — Gearing up for its ¿rst state-run primary election ne[t month, the Independent Party of Oregon got some clarity this week about how it’ll be allowed to pick a presidential nominee. Registered members of the IPO, which became Oregon’s third major party last year, will pick their pres- idential candidate of choice through a write-in on their ballots, but whoever claims the most votes in the state’s May 17 primary won’t necessarily get the party’s nominee. Instead, party leaders can have the ¿nal say, under certain parame- ters, the Oregon Department of Justice said Monday. It won’t affect the Republican or Democratic contests, which are restricted to voters registered in those perspective parties. But it’s the ¿rst time in recent memory that Oregon’s primary contest will have three major parties, and the IPO wanted more control over who it nominates, even when it doesn’t have its own presidential candidate, as is the case this year. “It’s not aimed at being stuck with an unappetizing choice — it was aimed at the forces of the state to not interfere with the Indepen- dent Party in a manner that was totally discriminatory,” said Linda Williams, IPO chair. While state law says the person with the most votes gets nominated or wins, the DOJ said there’s an e[ception for presidential nominations, which follows a separate process. Thus, Independent Party leaders don’t have to nominate the presidential candidate with the most write-ins, the DOJ told the party in a memo- randum. The Oregon Secretary of State’s of¿ce had e[pressed concerns about giving “veto power” to IPO leaders last month, suggesting it might be inconsistent with state election laws and asked the DOJ to weigh in. “Now that the law is clear, the IPO is free to operate within the law,” Laura Terrill, chief of staff to Secretary Jeanne Atkins, told The Associated Press. “Because of the potential for voter confusion, however, the Secretary has encouraged the IPO to make its process clear on their website or other places where the public can be informed.” IPO leaders can’t pick just anyone — if Donald Trump, for instance, won the national GOP nomination, the IPO couldn’t nominate Sen. Ted Cruz, the DOJ stated. And the party also needs the candidate’s permission to be of¿cially nominated. Williams said Monday’s memo was a victory for the IPO, saying it affords them the same rights as Repub- licans and Democrats who use delegates and superdel- egates — not voters — to ultimately select presidential nominees. “The pushback from us was, frankly, that that was unconstitutional and illegal,” said Williams, referring to Atkins’ previous position on the issue. “The state cannot step in and order a political party to put somebody as their nominee.” BRIEFLY Two Bundys seeking release from jail in Nevada case Woman’s body had been in Oregon home for 5 months LAS VEGAS (AP) — A son of rancher Cliven Bundy wants more time to prepare to seek release from federal custody pending trial in an armed confrontation with govern- ment agents in Nevada two years ago. Ammon Bundy argues in documents ¿led ahead of a Wednesday detention hearing in Las Vegas that he’s no Àight risk and no danger to the community. His brother, Ryan Bundy, is also seeking release. A delay would create a conÀict with a court order from a federal judge in Oregon. She wants Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and several co-defendants returned to Portland by Monday. There, they face charges in a U.S. wildlife refuge occupation this year. In Nevada, the defendants are among 19 people facing charges in an April 2014 standoff that stopped federal agents rounding up cattle. LA PINE (AP) — Investigators say a body recovered from a La Pine, Oregon, home is that of a woman who has been dead for about ¿ve months. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Of¿ce tells The Bend Bulletin that paramedics went to the home Friday after the woman’s sister called to report that she had fallen outside. After arriving to help the woman, the paramedics noticed a strange smell and called the sheriff’s of¿ce. The woman who fell told authorities her sister had died ¿ve months earlier. Instead of reporting it, the woman said she became depressed and started drinking. Sheriff’s Capt. John Bocciolatt said he believes the woman has a “psychological malady.” The cause of death has yet to be deter- mined. An autopsy has been scheduled. ! S R E WINN Ava Gailey Cage Ashby Dekklan Shawn Farley Edith Mickelsen Ember Bissinger Gracielee Siler Justin Emanuel Laivin Lopez L.J. Bishop Lyla Grace Williams Mason Anthony Munoz Milo Mitzenberg Seamus Kenneth Levi Padgett Shepherd Redd Eddy Sterling Danger Middleton Sylas Aparicio May 8th Let your mother know how much she is appreciated & loved! Publishes in the Hermiston Herald May 4th Publishes in the East Oregonian May 7th SAMPLE Happy Mother’s Day For a very special mother! Your Name Turn in a photo & short message for your mom. Runs in EO & the HH for only $25 per spot Contact: Stephanie Newsom 541-278-2687 • snewsom@eastoregonian.com Your Name: Phone Number: Mother’s Name: Message: Send in, or drop by your photo and information to: 211 SE Byers, Pendleton, OR 97801 333 E. Main, Hermiston, OR 97838 or email snewsom@eastoregonian.com Weston Mathew Lowary Please Claim Your Prizes in Person at the East Oregonian 211 SE Byers • Pendleton, OR 97801 between 8am - 5pm.
