Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2017)
NATION/WORLD Saturday, July 8, 2017 FBI: Flight attendant broke wine bottle over man’s head By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE — A flight attendant broke a wine bottle over the head of a man who lunged for an exit door and fought with other passengers during a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Beijing, but it didn’t faze him, an FBI agent wrote in charging papers filed Friday. Joseph Daniel Hudek IV, 23, of Tampa, Florida, appeared in U.S. District Court, wearing a beige jail uniform and sporting a scrape or bruise below his right eye. He was arrested Thursday night after causing the distur- bance that forced the plane to return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, author- ities said. Hudek did not speak during the hearing. His attorney, Robert Flennaugh II, declined to comment. Hudek was charged with interfering with a flight crew, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is expected to remain in custody at least until a deten- tion hearing on July 13. One flight attendant and a passenger were taken to a hospital after suffering severe facial injuries, author- ities said. Perry Cooper, a spokesman for the Port of Seattle, described the injuries as non-life-threatening. A probable cause state- ment written by FBI special agent Caryn Highley said Hudek was sitting in the first row of the Boeing 767’s first-class section. He asked a flight attendant for a beer before takeoff, and was served one, but he exhibited no sign of being intoxicated and ordered no other alco- holic drinks, the attendant told authorities. About an hour into the flight, while the plane was over the Pacific Ocean north- west of Vancouver Island, Hudek went into the forward restroom. He came out quickly, asked the attendant a question, and went back in, the agent wrote. When he came out again two minutes later, he suddenly lunged for the exit door, grabbed the handle and tried to open it, Highley wrote. Two attendants grabbed him, but he pushed them away, and the atten- dants signaled for help from several passengers and noti- fied the cockpit by telephone, the complaint said. Hudek punched one flight attendant twice in the face and struck at least one passenger in the head with a red dessert wine bottle, it said. As the struggle continued, a flight attendant grabbed two wine bottles and hit Hudek over the head with each — breaking at least one of them, Highley wrote. According to one flight attendant, “Hudek did not seem impacted by the breaking of a full liter red wine bottle over his head, and instead shouted, ‘Do you know who I am?’ or something to that extent,” the complaint said. One passenger got him in a head-lock, but he broke out of it, until finally several passengers held him long enough to place zip-tie restraints on him, Highley wrote. Even then he remained combative, she said, and it took multiple passengers to keep him restrained until the plane landed and Port of Seattle police arrested him. Hudek had been traveling on a “dependent pass,” the complaint said. Such passes allow certain relatives of Delta employees to fly standby. Passenger Dustin Jones told KIRO-TV that he saw the man being rolled into the terminal in a wheelchair after the plane landed. “He started yelling for help,” Jones said. “And so he turned the wheelchair over in the middle of the airport, screaming for people to help him, just being belligerent.” BEARD: Convention center is supported through two lodging taxes Continued from 1A He said the convention center needs to focus on three things — technology, food and customer service. Beard already has several ideas revolving around these basic themes, including an app that would book space at the facility, better wi-fi for events like the OSAA 2A basketball tournament, more locally-sourced catering and joining Meeting Planners International, a trade group. For Beard, 59, it’s been a quick ascent through Pend- leton’s tourism industry for a man who’s the son of a horse- shoer and was doing livestock contracting as recently as 2013. “I’m happiest on horse- back, and that’s how I thought I would be forever,” he said. Beard grew up in a “rodeo and ranch” family in Outlook, Washington, an unincorporated community just east of the Yakama Indian Reservation. He got his first taste of the Round-Up when he was nine years old, but it wasn’t until decades later that he got his chance to make Eastern Oregon his permanent home. In 1988, Hamley & Co. bought a rope-making company Beard co-owned and operated out of Ellens- burg, Washington, and hired him temporarily to help with the transition. “I came to Pendleton and I forgot to leave,” he said. In the ensuing years, Beard coached the rodeo team at Walla Walla Commu- nity College, worked for his family’s stock contracting company and helped organize rodeos and other events. With his experience in business and event planning, Beard took a job as an event recruiter for Travel Pend- leton, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce’s tourism arm. “I went from pulling calves Nov. 10, 2013, to working for Travel Pendleton Nov. 11, 2013,” he said. Having worked with the convention center while recruiting events to the area, Beard took a shot at the convention center manager position when it opened earlier this year. The position had undergone some turnover since 2013, when longtime manager Pat Kennedy retired but continued to work on a contract basis. When Kennedy left the position permanently in 2016, City Manager Robb Corbett temporarily assigned convention center duties to Steve Chrisman, the city’s economic development director and airport manager, before reversing course and re-creating the position as a full-time job when it became East Oregonian Ex-Gitmo inmate gets apology, millions from Canada TORONTO (AP) — A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan received an apology and a multimillion-dollar payment from the Canadian government after a court ruling said his rights were abused. A government statement Friday said details of the settlement with Omar Khadr were confidential, but an official familiar with the deal said previously that it was for $8 million. A different Omar Khadr official confirmed the money had been given to Khadr. Both insisted on speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly. The government and Khadr’s lawyers negotiated the deal last month based on a 2010 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that Canadian officials violated his rights at Guantanamo. “On behalf of the government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. Khadr for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm,” said a statement from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of an American special forces medic, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr, who was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer, was taken to Guantanamo and ultimately charged with war crimes by a military commission. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the time he had already spent in custody. He returned to Canada two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress. Escaped inmate may have used wire cutters delivered by drone COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate broke out of a maximum-security prison using wire cutters apparently flown in by drone, officials said Friday, describing a new and devilishly hard-to-stop means of escape. Convicted kidnapper Jimmy Causey, 46, was recaptured at a Texas motel Page 9A before daybreak, more than two days after bolting to freedom in a plot worthy of a Hollywood script. It was the second time in 12 years that he escaped. This time, he used a smuggled-in cellphone to coordinate the delivery of the breakout tools, investigators said. Then, with dusk approaching on the Fourth of July, he cut through four fences and left a dummy in his bed that fooled his guards. He got an 18-hour head start. When he was caught, he had about $47,000 in cash, an ID card and two guns, authorities said. “We believe a drone was used to fly in the tools that allowed him to escape,” South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said. He said investigators were still trying to confirm that, and he didn’t elaborate on why they believe a drone was involved. But an official aerial photo of the prison shows rings of tall fences and an expanse of more than 50 yards between the prison perimeter and the cellblocks, making it unlikely someone could have thrown or catapulted tools to him. Kevin Tamez, a 30-year law enforcement veteran who consults on prison security as managing partner of the New Jersey-based MPM Group, said he wasn’t aware of any other U.S. prison escapes aided by drones. Third mistrial declared in ex-cop’s shooting of black teen TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A third mistrial was declared Friday in the murder case of a white former Oklahoma police officer accused in the off-duty fatal shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend. For a third time in less than a year, a jury deadlocked in case against former Tulsa police officer Shannon Kepler. Judge Sharon Holmes declared the mistrial after just four hours of jury deliberations, astonishing prosecutors and frustrating the family of Jeremey Lake, the 19-year-old man shot dead in August 2014, not long after Lake started dating Kepler’s then-18- year-old daughter, Lisa. “I’ve never encountered a dynamic like this in 25 years of practice,” said Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler. “In my opinion, there should be some compulsion placed on jurors to reach a verdict.” Holmes had instructed jurors that they could convict Kepler of first- degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter. Manslaughter carries a sentence of four years to life in prison, while the sentence on a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison. The jury deadlocked 6-6, but Kunzweiler said it was unclear if the breakdown was six for conviction and six for acquittal or six for murder and six for the lesser charge of manslaughter. FRIENDS & FAMILY EO file photo Pat Beard, circa 1989, making ropes in what is now the Slickfork Saloon in Pendleton. clear that Chrisman couldn’t handle the job on a part-time basis. Corbett said Beard stood out because of his experience in event recruitment and familiarity with Pendleton. “He talks about Pendleton in a way that gets people to come here,” Corbett said. It also helps that he played a role in bringing a major event to the facility. Eric Folkestad said he met Beard four years ago at an unmanned aerial systems conference at the convention center when he proposed the idea of starting a motorcycle rally in Pendleton. Beard helped hook him up with Kennedy and Pendleton Bike Week was born. The event grew in its second year and, ahead of the 2017 bike week, Folkestad involved Beard in a pitch to bring on Harley Davidson as a sponsor. The event is now officially called Pendleton Bike Week powered by Harley Davidson, and Folkestad said the rally can now comfortably adver- tise itself as the largest motor- cycle event in the Northwest. Although the convention center already books 145 events over 210 days per year, Beard said he’s looking for more events that bring people from outside town. Those visitors are more likely to stay in one of the Pendleton area’s 1,200 rooms, which literally helps the convention center pay its bills. The convention center is supported through two lodging taxes — the Tourism Promotion Assessment Charge and the Transit Room Tax. Combined, the taxes are expected to produce $604,000 in convention center revenue over the course of the current fiscal year. But beyond whatever Pendleton’s facilities can offer, Beard said the city itself is the biggest selling point for event coordinators, a community hospitality honed through more than a century of Round-Ups. “Our town is like Mayberry, but our Taylor is Til, not Andy,” he said. Although Beard’s current job binds him to an office, he isn’t completely divorced from his previous life. Beard lives with his girl- friend, Stephanie, in a home north of Helix. And he still has time to attend 20 cattle brandings each year. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. SUNDAY, JULY 9, 2017 ONLY! OPEN 8 AM - 10 PM 20% OFF EVENT SATURDAY JULY 8, 8 AM- 10 PM Just use your rewards card at checkout. Not a buzz club rewards ® member yet? Sign up today and start saving. Ask an associate for more details. PRESENT THIS COUPON IN STORE OR USE ONLINE % OFF 20 YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE* NOW ALSO BUY ONLINE! Discount Automatically Applied at Checkout. *Promotional offer valid only at Big Lots stores and biglots.com on pre-tax purchases. Limit one coupon per customer, per transaction. This offer does not apply to shipping charges, previous transactions, price holds, non-purchases such as rentals, deposits, charitable donations, purchases of milk, dairy products, eggs and/or purchases of gift cards. Cannot be used in combination with any other offer, coupon, discount or associate discounts. Value is forfeited if item is returned. By attempting to redeem this offer, user unconditionally agrees that decisions of Big Lots are final on all matters of interpretation, fact and procedure with respect to this offer. Valid only on in stock goods. Void where prohibited. No cash value or cash back. Coupon may not be sold. For Buzz Club Rewards members, online offer valid 7/8/17 @ 12:00 am EST until 11:59 pm EST only. To redeem online, sign in to Buzz Club Rewards account before checkout, and offer will be automatically applied. For Buzz Club Rewards members, in store offer valid all day 7/8/17 open until close. To redeem in store, present Buzz Club Rewards card at checkout. For all customers, online offer valid 7/9/17 @ 12:00 am EST until 11:59 pm PST. Online discount automatically applied at checkout. For all customers, in store offer valid all day 7/9/17 open until close. To redeem in store, present coupon to cashier at checkout. FRIENDS & FAMILY
