REGION
Thursday, May 3, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
Audit: Oregon
Eagle cleared for return
nearly caught up Resolute
March UAS
crash attributed to
on backlog of
programming error
sexual assault kits
East Oregonian
some cases, similar samples
from the attacker, which can
be used to identify a DNA
profile.
The law requires police
to pick up a kit within seven
days after notification from
a hospital and submit it to
a forensic lab for testing
within 14 days.
State lawmakers boosted
state police’s budget by $1.5
million specifically to add
five new positions to help
with processing the kits.
Given the public interest
in the untested kits, auditors
recommend that the state
police publish the progress
of testing more frequently
on their website, as public
labs in Houston, Texas,
Idaho and Florida have
done.
State police started
a project modeling the
Houston website within a
week of discussing the idea
with auditors, wrote Capt.
Alex Gardner, director of
the OSP Forensic Services
Division, in a response to
the audit report.
The web page is up
and accessible using the
Chrome browser, but addi-
tional enhancements may
be needed, Gardner noted.
Auditors also recom-
mend that state police
launch a tracking system
where victims can see
results.
A tracking system
project modeled after one
at the Portland Police
Bureau also is in the works,
Gardner said. The agency
has received a grant to
fund the project and plan to
deploy it before the end of
this year, he said.
The testing of sexual
assault kits has led to neglect
in the processing DNA
samples from the scenes
of felony property crimes,
auditors noted. They asked
state police to come up with
a plan for addressing DNA
testing from those crimes.
“OSP decided to suspend
analysis of DNA evidence
for property crimes to
focus on (sexual assault)
kits. This creates a risk of a
future backlog of property
crime evidence at local law
enforcement
agencies,”
auditors wrote.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — “Melissa’s
Law” passed in 2016 has
spurred Oregon State
Police to make strides
in processing a backlog
of nearly 5,000 untested
sexual assault kits, some of
which dated back as far as
1983, according to a state
audit released Wednesday,
May 2.
The backlog had shrunk
by nearly 78 percent to
about 1,100 untested kits by
the end of 2017.
The progress resulted
from legislative funding for
new staff and equipment
at the state forensic lab,
more efficient technologies
for DNA processing and
a change in the way the
agency prioritizes testing of
evidence, Secretary of State
auditors wrote.
State Police estimate
they will have largely over-
come the backlog by the
end of this year.
“It is too soon to tell if
these actions will eliminate
the current backlog as
many of these changes
occurred recently,” auditors
wrote. “Yet OSP has shown
substantial improvement in
the number of kits processed
in late 2017 and early 2018
while the statewide backlog
has been significantly
reduced.”
“Melissa’s
Law,”
contained in Senate Bill
1571, was named for
14-year-old Melissa Bittler,
who was assaulted and
killed by a serial rapist
across the street from her
family’s Northeast Portland
home in December 2001.
At the time of her death,
sexual assault kits from
at least two other young
victims attacked by the
same rapist four years
earlier sat unprocessed on
evidence shelves at Portland
Police Bureau.
They were tested only
after detectives investi-
gating Bittler’s case noticed
similarities in the attacks
and sent the kits to the
forensic lab for testing.
The
kits
typically
contain hair and body fluids
from the victim and, in
Hermiston paramedic
battling cancer
Davis said Johnson’s
cancer was determined
to be job-related, which
will alleviate some of the
medical bills. He said the
GoFundMe page was to
help the family keep up
with other bills and costs.
A Hermiston native,
Johnson is also a member
of the statewide Disaster
Medical Assistance Team,
which travels to federal
events to provide medical
assistance. Johnson worked
at Donald Trump’s inaugu-
ration, and was deployed
to the East Coast when the
Pope visited in 2015. The
team is also deployed for
natural disasters, such as
hurricanes.
East Oregonian
A Hermiston paramedic
is battling cancer, and his
colleagues are trying to help
him pull through.
Mark Johnson, a para-
medic with the Umatilla
County Fire District and in
Hermiston for the past 18
years, was diagnosed with
lymphoma a few months
ago. Umatilla County Fire
District Battalion Chief
Jimmy Davis said Johnson
is receiving treatment at
a Seattle hospital, and
the firefighters’ union has
set up a GoFundMe page
asking the community to
assist with costs the family
is facing.
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The company involved
with
the
Pendleton
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Range’s first crash has been
cleared to return to the skies.
Range Manager Darryl
Abling said Monday that
PAE, a Virginia defense
contractor, completed its
review of the March 31 crash
and presented its findings to
the test range and the Univer-
sity of Alaska Fairbanks, the
entity that oversees Pendle-
ton’s range.
Abling said the range
agreed to let PAE return
to testing this week based
on the findings and he did
not anticipate the Federal
Aviation
Administration
will prevent Pendleton from
lifting the grounding order.
PAE’s Resolute Eagle
drone, an unmanned vehicle
that weighs more than 115
pounds empty but can take
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Running like the wind
A coot runs on top of the water before taking flight Monday near Warehouse Beach just outside of Umatilla.
BRIEFLY
at the so-called vit plant, which has been
slowed by safety and design concerns.
Hanford contractor
completes first building
at converstion plant
RICHLAND, Wash. — Officials at the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation have reached
a milestone by completing the first building
that will be part of a $17 billion plant to
convert radioactive waste into glass.
Contractor Bechtel National says
the building was transferred to plant
management for commissioning last month.
The sprawling vitrification plant has been
under construction for years and is supposed
to begin treating waste by 2023.
The wastes are left over from the
production of plutonium for nuclear
weapons.
Wastes from underground storage tanks
at Hanford will be converted into glass-like
logs for eventual burial in a national
repository when one is built.
Bechtel officials say the transfer of the
building shows that progress is being made
Spokane Fire Department
plans drone use in rescues
SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Fire
Department says it is planning to incorporate
the use of drones in its water rescue efforts.
KREM-TV reports the fire department is
seeking to expand the role of drones after it
began using the technology a year ago in its
firefighting work.
Fire Lt. Todd Powell says the drone has
thermal imaging, which could help rescuers
quickly locate a person in the water as it flies
above the river.
Powell says the department can
sometimes have up to three rescue calls a
day at the river during the summer.
The department is seeking permission
from the Federal Aviation Administration
to fly the drones at night and in downtown
Spokane.
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Although the hardware
and software were functional,
Ogilvie said the Resolute
Eagle was misprogrammed
by the testing team, leading
to the crash.
To avoid a repeat, Ogilvie
said PAE has implemented
additional procedural and
software checks and updated
their testing processes.
She added that the Reso-
lute Eagle started flying again
on Monday and several tests
in that span were successful.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
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on more than 65 pounds of
payload, crashed more than a
month ago in a wheat field on
Pendleton airport property,
causing a small fire.
The
Pendleton
Fire
Department was able to
quickly extinguish the flames
and no one suffered property
damage or injuries, according
to authorities.
Polli Ogilvie, PAE’s
director of marketing and
communications,
said
Wednesday that PAE was
testing an updated configura-
tion on the day of the crash.
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