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APRIL 29-30, 2017
141st Year, No. 140
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WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Kovach
to leave
months
early
Villegas
DA asks
if murder
defendant
is feigning
psychosis
Superintendent resigned
in February, but expected
to stay through June
East Oregonian
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla
County
District Attorney Dan
Primus is seeking the raw
data from the psycholog-
ical evaluation of murder
defendant Oscar Pastor
Garcia Villegas. Primus
said he needs to make sure
he does not have a Tony
Montwheeler case on his
hands.
Police
reported
Villegas, 26, stabbed and
killed his wife, Maria
Villegas, 24, and tried
to kill their two young
children in May 2016 at
their
Milton-Freewater
home. He then sliced his
own throat. He is in the
Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton, on charges of
murder, four counts of
attempted murder and
seven related felonies.
He may choose to plead
not guilty by reason of
insanity.
Clinical psychologist
Terry Templeman of
Pendleton
evaluated
Villegas. Primus said he
fi nds some of the language
in the report concerning,
an issue he brought up
with Circuit Judge Lynn
Hampton during an April
6 status check on the case.
According to the
court record, Primus said
Templeman’s report stated
Villegas gave an “usually
high number of true
responses” to the Minne-
sota Multiphasic Person-
ality Inventory, which
measures adult personality
and psychopathology.
Templeman
also
evaluated Villegas with
the Structured Interview
of Reported Symptoms,
which helps detect when
See VILLEGAS/14A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Activity director Lisa Yeager and resident Ruth Robertson make snickerdoodles together Thursday at
Sun Terrace in Hermiston. A recent Oregonian investigation rated senior care centers by how many
substantiated complaints the Oregon Department of Human Services received about each facility.
Sun Terrace is the highest rated facility in Hermiston, receiving 69 percent fewer complaints than
other Oregon senior care centers.
State releases complaints
for senior care facilities
Local centers talk about
challenges of meeting
needs in elder care
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Senior care is a tricky business.
Many retirement and care
facilities in Oregon are getting
public attention for the amount of
complaints they received after a
report was recently published in
The Oregonian outlining senior
care data. The report compiles
complaints from a 12-year period
and the newspaper’s website,
OregonLive.com, features a map of
the state with data points for each
care facility.
The complaints marked on the
map were compiled by the Aging
and People with Disabilities divi-
sion of the Department of Human
Services. The department aims to
provide services and support for
people 65 and older, as well as for
adults with disabilities.
Among facilities in Umatilla
County, the rate of complaints
varied widely.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A recent Oregonian investigation rated senior care centers by
how many substantiated complaints the Oregon Department of
Human Services received about each facility. Sun Terrace is the
highest rated facility in Hermiston, receiving fewer complaints
than 69 percent of other facilities in Oregon.
Representatives from Ashley
Manor, which has facilities in
Pendleton and Hermiston, declined
to comment on the report. Ashley
Manor had the highest number of
complaints of facilities in the area,
and one of the highest rates of
complaint in the state. According to
the report, the Hermiston and Pend-
leton branches both received six
complaints in 2015. Three of those
complaints at the Hermiston facility
were determined to be abuse, as
were fi ve at the Pendleton branch.
A small facility in Pendleton
See SENIOR/14A
The abbreviated tenure of Pend-
leton School District superintendent
Andy Kovach came to an abrupt end
Friday.
The Pendleton School Board
at a special meeting Tuesday will
vote to accept a
separation agree-
ment signed by
Kovach that cuts
ties between him
and the district.
Back
in
February Kovach
announced his
impending resig-
nation, which had
been scheduled
Kovach
for June. The
board intends to
name Matt Yoshioka, the district’s
director of curriculum, instruction
and assessment, as the interim super-
intendent.
The district announced the moves
a day after the board voted to lay off
10 district employees due to potential
cuts in the state education budget.
In an interview, school board
chair Debbie McBee said it was
Kovach’s choice to leave the district
early for “personal reasons.” McBee
said Kovach will continue to earn
his $127,500 per year salary through
June 30 as a part of the separation
agreement.
Kovach did not immediately return
a request for comment, but he did
provide a brief statement in a district
press release.
“Pendleton is a wonderful town
and fi ne school district,” he said. “It is
with regret that I am leaving. I would
like to thank the Pendleton Board of
Directors, the district staff and the
community for their support and hard
work.”
Both Kovach and district offi cials
have been mum on the circumstances
surrounding his original resignation
See KOVACH/2A
HERMISTON
EOTEC neighbors take issue
with noise, name change
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Construction of the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center will provide
a bigger, better venue for
events like the Umatilla
County Fair, but that
community benefi t has
come with a price for the
project’s neighbors.
Property owners in the
area have banded together
to form the Hermiston
Airport Road Neighbor-
hood Association to address
nuisance complaints and to
fi ght a proposal to change
the name of Airport Road
which they share with the
project.
The city of Hermiston
has petitioned Umatilla
More inside
EOTEC approves wall
that will honor
donors. Page 3A.
County to change the name
of the road where EOTEC
is located in order to miti-
gate confusion with Airport
Way, which also branches
off of North Highway
395 but dead ends into the
parking lot of the Herm-
iston Municipal Airport.
City manager Byron
Smith said delivery trucks
and visitors frequently
turn down the wrong road
and have to turn around in
the airport parking lot and
make a left turn back onto
Highway 395. People in
town may eventually get
used to turning onto the
right road, he said, but one
of the goals of EOTEC is
to bring in events that will
attract out-of-town visitors
too.
“We want to make it
easy to fi nd,” he said.
The city chose to pursue
a name change for Airport
Road instead of Airport
Way because they believed
the word “airport” should
stay with the road actually
leading to an airport.
Airport Road residents
and business owners,
however, said the inconve-
nience of an address change
for them would be signif-
icant. Gary Culp of Gary
Culp Machine said it would
See EOTEC/3A
Staff photo by George Plaven
Who’s a dapper dog?
Tabasco, a male Chow Chow, will compete in the
Walla Walla Kennel Club Dog Show this weekend
at the Pendleton Convention Center. More on 2A.