WEEKEND EDITION IRRIGON RUNS ON MAKESHIFT TRACK SPORTS/1B HEARTS IN CAMBODIA TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS IN YOUR WORDS VIEWPOINTS/5A LIFESTYLES/1C APRIL 29-30, 2017 141st Year, No. 140 $1.50 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.