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Supporters honor LaVoy Finicum in John Day on anniversary of death
HERMISTON
Teen charged
with attempted
murder for
Mother’s Day
shootout
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP
Jeanette Finicum, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum’s widow, speaks to the crowd about her husband and his beliefs Saturday. More
than 500 people turned out for a meeting in John Day to hear her message that federal lands should be turned over to states
and counties. On Jan. 26, 2016, Finicum was shot and killed by Oregon State Police on his way to a community meeting in
John Day with Ammon Bundy and others.
The meeting that never happened
one year before.
“They silenced one
man’s voice, but in
doing so, they created 13
Attorneys, ranchers
more very loud voices,”
and members of the
Finicum said in reference
Finicum family called
to herself and her 12
for political activism in
children.
the wake of the Malheur
She read a statement
National Wildlife Refuge
prepared by the family’s
occupation and the death
lawyers announcing they
of LaVoy Finicum last Finicum
fi led a notice of adminis-
year.
Jeanette Finicum — the widow trative claim as a precursor to fi ling
of the refuge occupier who was a federal civil rights lawsuit.
“While we could have fi led our
killed during a traffi c stop en route
to a meeting in John Day in the fi nal wrongful death lawsuit against the
days of the Malheur occupation — state of Oregon, it is more effi cient to
spoke to the crowd Saturday and wait a short while longer to include
thanked God and all those who the FBI in one lawsuit,” she said.
supported her and her family since
See FINICUM/10A
her husband’s death almost exactly
By RYLAN BOGGS
EO Media Group
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
More than 500 people attended “The meeting that never
happened” at the Grant County Fairgrounds Saturday.
Adalberto Flores sought help for the
bullet wounds in his buttocks early May
8 at a Hermiston hospital when he spotted
Lalo Murillo.
Flores pointed to Murillo, according
to public records from Umatilla County
Circuit Court, and told the police present,
“That’s the [expletive] that shot me!”
Hermiston police Capt. Travis Enyon
also said that’s how
it went down, and
offi cers immediately
arrested Murillo on a
warrant.
Enyon
said
Murillo, 22, was
at Good Shepherd
Medical
Center
that Mother’s Day
morning with fellow Bedolla
Hermiston resident
Alexis Manuel Paredes Bedolla, who was
17 at the time and had been shot in his right
forearm by Flores earlier in the morning.
Bedolla was too injured for police
to arrest, Enyon said, but offi cers later
booked him into the juvenile jail at the
Northern Oregon Regional Correctional
Facility, The Dalles. He turned 18 on Jan.
21, records show, and fi ve days later was
in the Umatilla County Jail, Pendleton.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges
of attempted murder, fi rst-degree assault,
unlawful possession of a fi rearm and two
counts of unlawful use of a weapon, all
related to the drive-by and shootout that
sent him and Flores, 20, to the hospital.
Court records do not show a date for his
next hearing.
The shooting may have been sparked
hours earlier at a Hermiston bar, where
Murillo “basically sucker punched”
Flores’ cousin Omar Figeroa, Enyon
said, knocking him off a chair. According
to court documents, Murillo sent text
messages bragging about the assault.
Enyon said Flores heard about the situ-
ation at the bar and went to see if anyone
needed a ride. Flores found everyone had
split, so he went to the local Jack in the
Box for a meal and headed home.
See SHOOTING/10A
Audit: ODOT culture lacks accountability, vision
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A long-awaited
performance audit of the Oregon
Department of Transportation
found the agency has a familial
culture that is lacking in dissent and
accountability and needs a clearer
and more coordinated strategic
vision for its future.
“There is no uniform clarity at
the senior level, or with governing
bodies, on priorities and the metrics
to track achieving them,” the
consultants with New York-based
McKinsey & Co. wrote in a report
on their fi ndings.
Yet, overall, the consultants
ranked ODOT’s organizational
health as better than average,
compared with other western states.
The audit is intended to ensure
ODOT is prepared to effectively
manage a potential transportation
package that state legislators could
approve later this year.
That legislation — one of
Gov. Kate Brown’s priorities as
governor — could hike gas taxes
and fees on drivers and funnel
hundreds of millions of dollars in
additional funding to ODOT.
The state in September awarded
a nearly $1 million contract to
McKinsey & Company to conduct
the long-awaited review.
The consultants found that the
culture of ODOT management
was like a family, only one without
dissent. More self-criticism could
help ODOT improve its perfor-
mance, the consultants found.
“Only 44 percent of employees
agree that leadership consistently
offers a critical perspective.
Interviews with senior manage-
ment supported these fi ndings,”
See ODOT/10A
PENDLETON
Camouflaged door
relieves Alzheimer’s
residents’ wandering
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
In the past, as the sun dipped
in the sky, came the occasional
sound of banging on the locked
steel door serving as the main
entrance to the Juniper House
Memory Care unit.
Some of the unit’s 16 resi-
dents exhibited the symptoms
of Sundown Syndrome, where
individuals with Alzheimer’s
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Staff at the Juniper house in Pendleton hired a local artist to paint a mural on the disease get agitated, disori-
doors leading from their memory care unit into the rest of the facility.
ented and restless late in the
day. They attempted to get
through the door and couldn’t.
Hence, the banging.
It was heartbreaking to see.
“A door is a big target for
someone with memory impair-
ment,” said Alanna Thompson,
health services coordinator at
Juniper House. “Sundowning
is a phenomenon with
Alzheimer’s and dementia.
From mid-afternoon to early
evening, some of the residents
See DOOR/10A