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East Oregonian
Philippine
president
recognizes
abuses in
drug war
MANILA,
Philippines
(AP) — Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte acknowl-
edged abuses have occurred in
his war on illegal drugs, which
has left more than 400 people
dead in a month and alarmed
rights activists, but refused to
back down from a shoot-to-
kill order for drug suspects.
Duterte said in a speech
late Thursday that most drug
dealers and addicts slain in
gunbattles with police had
put up a ight, but added
that he was sure some were
“salvaged,” a local slang for
extrajudicial killings usually
by law enforcers.
In the case of illegal
killings, Duterte said the
government will investigate.
“They really ight back, I
know that,” Duterte said in
a speech in southern Davao
city, where he built a name
as a mayor for his extra tough
approach to crime before
becoming president. “I’m
sure there are some who were
salvaged, I am also sure of
that.”
Early Friday, he told
reporters that he gave “shoot-
to-kill” orders against drug
dealers, including politicians
involved in the illicit trade.
“I’ll really have you killed.
Look at what you’re doing to
the Philippines and I’ll forgive
you?” Duterte told reporters,
apparently enraged after
visiting a town police chief
who was shot in the chest by
a suspected drug dealer and
rushed to a Davao hospital.
“My order is shoot to kill
you. I don’t care about human
rights, you better believe me,”
he said.
Duterte’s centerpiece anti-
crime drive, focused on an
ambitious campaign promise
to end the widespread drugs
problem in six months, has left
more than 400 drug suspects
dead, many of them either in
ireights with police or under
suspect circumstances. More
than 4,400 have been arrested,
police said.
ZEPEDA: Hopes to
return to area after
inishing school
Continued from 1A
“I know she is capable, she
is hard working,” she said.
Corvallis is 267 miles
away from Hermiston, and
Olivia said that it’s going to be
hard on the family, especially
Laura’s younger siblings, but
she knows it’s what is best for
Laura. “And what’s good for
her is good for our family.”
She said she knows that
college is an opportunity for
her oldest daughter to have a
better life.
For Laura, the encour-
agement of her parents and
extended family have been a
big part of her path.
“I saw in their eyes (that)
they saw potential in me,”
Zepeda said. “So I just wanted
to complete that goal for them
and for myself.”
Her parents both made
arrangements to take their
daughter to Corvallis in
September. Until they drop
their daughter off at the steps
of the OSU campus Laura’s
parents are spending as much
time with her as they can.
Laura has a valid driver’s
license, but her mom insists
on taxiing her around when
she can, just for those extra
moments together.
Even though she’ll be
saying goodbye to her parents
and be hours away from her
home and family, Laura said
she’s ready for the challenge.
“No, everyone asks me,
‘Are you nervous?’” She said.
“But I’m not.”
Zepeda said she feels like
college is just the next step,
but hopes to come back to
the area when she’s done with
school.
“I want to come back,
yes,” she said. “For me it’s
like whenever we go over to
Portland, I feel like it’s too
much, too much noise and so
crowded and over here it’s so
peaceful.”
———
Contact Alexa Lougee at
alougee@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4534.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
SCARS: No one investigating the crash talked to Ainsworth
“I certainly feel for Rebeca. She’s
had a long row to hoe ... and
I understand her frustrations.”
Continued from 1A
boyfriend, Chance Bissinger,
28, was in the passenger seat.
They left their Pendleton
home that morning to visit
his family in Rieth.
The sun was bright, the
sky clear. They came over
the top of a blind curve a few
minutes after 7 a.m. and saw
a Dodge pickup coming right
at them.
She swerved for the
empty lane. She said she
saw the driver look up. He
swerved and again was
heading toward Ainsworth
and Bissinger. She jerked the
car back into her lane. The
pickup driver did the same.
They crashed.
The other driver was
Jacob Faber, 30, of Pend-
leton. He suffered cuts to
his left forearm, a cut lip
and bruises on his leg. He is
married to a deputy with the
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Ofice, the same agency
that investigated the crash
and cited him for failure to
maintain a lane. He pleaded
no contest to the violation in
November.
Faber claimed the steering
locked up on his 2012 Dodge
R35 pickup, according to
the crash report from former
deputy James English, but it
broke free when he slammed
on the brakes and swerved.
English noted he saw no
“skid/yaw marks on the road
from either vehicle.”
Ainsworth and Bissinger
said that is not the only
problem with the report. They
wanted to know if English
checked Faber’s cellphone,
for example, or determined if
he was impaired. And while
Bissinger’s statements are in
the report, he said the crash
knocked him out and he does
not remember speaking with
English.
And no one investigating
the crash talked to Ainsworth
— even though she was
driving.
Ainsworth does not think
the sheriff’s ofice was
trying to cover up anything.
Rather, she and Bissinger
stressed, the agency ran a
shoddy investigation into
a life-threatening crash
— Terry Rowan, Umatilla County Sheriff
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rebeca Ainsworth shows the scar running down her
left arm where doctors made the incision to go in and
reconstruct her shattered elbow.
involving the spouse of one
of their own.
Sheriff Terry Rowan
said nothing prohibits an
agency from investigating
crashes involving its own
oficers or their family, but
he acknowledged it is best
practice to have outside law
enforcement do that work.
He said he did not learn about
crash when it occurred, only
hearing about it a year later
after Ainsworth called him.
She claimed she left
messages for the sheriff in
August 2015, but he said he
never received them. Still,
Rowan said that after talking
to Ainsworth he took the
original report to Lt. Mike
Turner, the commander
of Oregon State Police in
Pendleton.
“I asked him if there was
something more to be done,
something more to look at,”
Rowan said.
The two police heads
“speculated what could have
happened and what should
have happened,” Rowan
said, and concluded the
citation was appropriate.
Turner conirmed Rowan
brought him the crash report
and he found nothing out of
the ordinary. He also said
he told Ainsworth there was
nothing more state police
could do.
“We weren’t going to
re-investigate the crash,” he
said.
Rowan and Turner said
Pendleton police responded
to the crash, and Turner said
a state trooper also made
it there too. Rowan said
having oficers from other
agencies at the scene gives
him conidence in the report
and citation.
Something apparent at the
scene, such as a driver who
is impaired, would be in the
report, he said. Still, Rowan
said he would have preferred
that English’s report showed
that he checked for impair-
ment and cellphone use.
And the deputy should have
interviewed Ainsworth.
“There are a couple of
things that should have
happened that, frankly,
didn’t,” Rowan said.
Rowan said that Faber and
Bissinger gave consistent
statements that Faber was
not on a cellphone, although
that is not in the report.
Bissinger and Ainsworth say
that Faber was looking down
before the crash, possibly at a
cellphone.
The East Oregonian
could not reach English or
Faber for comment. Rowan
said English left the sheriff’s
ofice in April to go into
private business, and Faber
did not return a call Friday.
The sheriff’s ofice
responds to 15,000-18,000
incidents a year, Rowan
said, so there are plenty of
“avenues for things to slip
through the cracks.” Part
of his role as sheriff is to
reiterate to his deputies to
follow best practices and use
common sense.
“If we come on a scene
and learn it’s a family
member of a deputy, try to
make sure we get another set
of eyes on it,” he said. “And
if possible, have (another
agency) take over the inves-
tigation.”
Even so, he said, the
deputy was the irst law
enforcement oficer at the
crash, which demanded
urgency. The deputy helped
care for the wounded and
needed to clear vehicles and
debris from blocking lanes.
“I certainly feel for
Rebeca,” Rowan said. “She’s
had a long row to hoe ... and I
understand her frustrations.”
Ainsworth worked a full-
time janitorial job before the
wreck, she said, but lost that
because she can no longer lift
the equipment. Her doctor
still has not cleared her to
work, she said. She used to
ride a bicycle for fun and
now must walk with a cane.
Even caring for her hair is
chore. Her left arm, she said,
will never regain its full
range of motion.
Faber had $50,000 in
insurance, she said, but
ambulance rides, a light in
an emergency helicopter, two
surgeries each on the arm
and leg, weeks in a hospital
bed and hours of therapy sent
her bills well beyond that.
Bissinger
said
bill
collectors are calling, so he
is picking up as many shifts
he can at his job at Barhyte
Specialty Foods Inc., Pend-
leton.
“I’m working 10-12
hours a day just to make sure
everything is paid for,” he
said, while still being there
for Rebeca.
“You don’t expect to be
28 and having to take care of
your girlfriend,” he said.
Social Security denied her
claim for beneits, Ainsworth
said, and her insurance on
Monday informed her it was
stopping payments of 70
percent of her wages. That
coverage was only good for
a year.
“Just when we thought
it couldn’t get any harder, it
did,” she said.
One sliver of silver lining
came from Echo Bike &
Board in downtown Pend-
leton. She said the business
customized a bicycle for her.
And the crash taught her a
tough lesson to double-check
insurance coverage, which
she urged others to do.
Ainsworth and Bissinger
tremble and cry when they
recall the crash. One moment,
she said, changed everything
for her and her boyfriend.
She wants to move past all
of this, she said, and she is
trying to do that.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.