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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2017
142nd Year, No. 12
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One dollar
Scanner transmissions could
soon be off limits to public
Deschutes County
already uses encryption
for scanner traffi c
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Bill Medlock, 55, spends a lot of time listening to the scanner
to update his Facebook page What’s Happening Hermiston.
Medlock and other private citizens would not be able to listen
police and fi re traffi c on the scanner if the Umatilla Morrow Radio
& Data District adopts a digital radio system.
Police and fi re scanner trans-
missions in Umatilla and Morrow
counties could soon be silent.
Shawn Halsey is the director of
the Umatilla Morrow Radio & Data
District, the local governing body
with the task of providing public
safety communications for emer-
gency agencies in the two counties.
He said the district plans to seek bids
later this year or in the spring for a
radio system that would include the
ability to encrypt the signal.
Public agencies including police
and fi re departments, ambulance
services and the Oregon Department
of Transportation use public radio
frequencies to communicate with
the dispatch center and one another.
Deschutes County agencies
in late June encrypted their
transmissions, according to The
Bend Bulletin. The move rendered
personal scanners, receivers and
smartphone apps silent.
“Encryption is a common thing,”
Halsey said. “You won’t fi nd many
systems that are not encrypted.”
Deschutes County also plans
at some point to provide trans-
missions online with a 30-minute
delay. Halsey said he did not know
if Umatilla and Morrow county
agencies would take a similar route
or make certain transmissions off
limits. He said that could be up to
individual agencies.
See SCANNERS/8A
Julian Simpson
pleads guilty to
2016 murder
on reservation
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Julian Darryl James Simpson pleaded guilty
Friday to the murder of Tony Jimenez Jr. of
Pendleton. He will be sentenced for the crime
Feb. 1 at the U.S. District Courthouse, Portland.
Simpson, 24, admitted guilt to second-de-
gree murder for shooting and killing Jimenez
on March 19, 2016, on the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, according to
court records in the federal
case.
Simpson,
defense
attorney Benjamin T.
Andersen and prosecutor
John C. Brassell signed off
on the deal, which packs a
sentencing recommenda-
tion of 25 years in prison.
Judge Michael W. Mosman Simpson
accepted the terms.
The plea came four days before Simpson’s
trial was set to begin.
Co-defendant Victor Joseph Contreras,
24, in July pleaded guilty to assault resulting
in serious bodily injury, as well as possession
and shooting a fi rearm in connection with the
assault. He faces more than 10 years in prison,
according to court documents.
His sentencing is Jan. 25, also at the federal
courthouse in Portland. Judge Anna Brown
is presiding over both sentencing hearings.
Simpson remains in the Multnomah County
Jail, Portland, and Contreras is in the Columbia
County Jail, St. Helens.
Simpson and Contreras were attending a
party at the home of Beau Welch on the reser-
vation in 2016. Court documents show Welch
decided to end the party and Contreras objected.
Jimenez stepped in to help Welch. During the
confrontation outside the house, Simpson and
Contreras opened fi re. Welch took a bullet in
his lower left leg, and Jimenez was shot and
killed in the driveway.
The case landed in federal court because
Simpson and Welch are members of the
Confederated Umatilla Tribes and the crimes
took place on Indian lands.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Halloween revelers congregate at the corner of Court Avenue and Main Street on Tuesday while trick or treating in
Pendleton. More photos on PAGE 8A and online at www.eastoregonian.com
Trick or treaters fl ock to Main Street
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Art Hill, 10, of Pendleton trick or treats as Jason from the
“Friday the 13th” movie series on Tuesday in Pendleton.
Halloween revelers walk down a sidewalk Tuesday on
Main Street while trick or treating in Pendleton.
OHA may owe feds $64M for CCO payment errors
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon Health
Authority may owe the federal
government up to $64 million for
erroneous payments it made over
three years because of an error in the
Cover Oregon website, according to
OHA.
The failed website, which was
used by state agencies but never
launched to the public, miscate-
gorized people eligible for both
Medicare and Medicaid, according
to Gov. Kate Brown’s offi ce. The
mistake resulted in OHA making
$74 million in overpayments to
Coordinated Care Organizations
for patients eligible for both Medi-
care and Medicaid from 2014 to
mid-2016. The miscategorization
resulted in Oregon receiving excess
federal funding for that dual-eligible
population.
OHA was able to recoup $10
million of the overpayments from
CCOs in 2016 but lacked a mecha-
nism to recover the excess amounts
paid out in 2014 and 2015, said Robb
Cowie, an OHA spokesman.
The problem was known for some
time but was not publicized until after
Patrick Allen took the helm of OHA
two months ago. Brown selected the
former head of the Department of
Consumer and Business Services
to lead OHA after former Director
Lynne Saxton resigned in August
amid a scandal over a conspiracy to
plant negative news about a Port-
land-area Medicaid provider.
When the new leadership took
over, employees brought the miscat-
egorization issue to the agency’s
new chief fi nancial offi cer, Laura
“It’s vital that we have a
transparent, effi cient and
accountable health care
system because the lives
of so many Oregonians
depend on it.”
— Gov. Kate Brown
Cali Robison, and identifi ed it as
“a problem to be dealt with,” Allen
said.
“It was one of the echoes of one of
the problems with Cover Oregon,”
he said.
OHA estimates that about 40,400
Oregon Health Plan recipients were
miscategorized as a result of the
error. So far, the impact on OHA’s
budget has been small. Overall,
the state made nearly $7 billion in
payments for Medicaid recipients on
the Oregon Health Plan in 2016.
“It’s a very small piece of our
budget, even though it ends up being
big dollars,” Allen said.
Another error related to Cover
Oregon and Oregon Health Plan
recipients, which OHA offi cials are
still parsing out, also may require
repayment to the federal govern-
ment, Allen said. It’s still unclear
how much that error could cost the
agency or impact Oregon Health
Plan recipients, he said.
Brown publicly thanked Allen and
his team “for responding quickly” to
the revelations about the problems.
“It’s vital that we have a trans-
parent, effi cient and accountable
health care system because the lives
of so many Oregonians depend on
it,” Brown said in a statement.