Saturday, November 24, 2018
OFF PAGE ONE
PROSECUTOR: Evidence with SAFE kits can be collected up to 5 days after assault
Page 12A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
Chasing history
Jenkins said while she
may hear a victim’s case, it’s
not always viable for pros-
ecution — and she doesn’t
always want to put a victim
through a trial.
“The hardest thing to
say is, ‘I absolutely believe
you, but I can’t prosecute
your case because there’s
not enough evidence,’”
she said. “I don’t think it’s
right to prosecute a case if
there’s not a chance it’ll get
resolved. They’ll get torn
apart by a defense attorney
who’s doing their job.”
Still, she said, she reminds
victims that the outcome of
the case doesn’t erase what
happened to them.
“Let’s say we charge it,
and (the defendant) gets 200
years, which has happened,”
she said. “That doesn’t make
it OK. That’s what I tell my
victims when we start —
there is no amount of time
that will make you feel
vindicated.”
She said she leaves the
door open in case they want
to pursue it later, but won’t
push a victim if they’re not
comfortable going forward.
“This system is not made
for victims,” she said. “This
is a system designed to pro-
tect defendants.”
Edmiston said it can be an
uphill battle even if a victim
does want to proceed.
“The worst thing that can
happen is, somebody makes
the decision to report, and
the system lets them down,”
he said.
Hermiston Police Depart-
ment Lt. Randy Studebaker,
who oversees investigations,
said most of the incidents
they pursue aren’t reported
immediately.
“They usually report
days, weeks, months, years
later,” he said.
He recalled a case from
a few years ago. A girl had
been sexually abused in
Hermiston when she was 9
or 10, and then moved away.
Twenty years passed. Then,
her abuser, who had also left
town, was arrested in Texas
for a crime against another
child. At that time, he made
reference to an incident in
Hermiston.
“We did a ton of work and
matched him with the vic-
tim,” Studebaker said. “We
were within days of the stat-
ute of limitations running
out, but we found her. She
still hadn’t told anybody.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County lead deputy district attorney Jackie
Jenkins listens to a defense attorney during a pretrial
hearing for Charley Lozano Magana on Tuesday at the
Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton.
The only common thread
with these crimes, he said,
is that people don’t report
them, or delay reporting.
“We’re chasing history
with a lot of these,” he said.
SAFE Kits
One of the tools in prose-
cuting rape cases is a SAFE,
or Sexual Assault Foren-
sic Evidence, kit. Oregon
State Police announced a
few weeks ago that they had
recently completed process-
ing a two-year backlog of
SAFE kits. Evidence col-
lected from the exam can
help determine whether the
DNA of a rape or sexual
assault suspect is present.
Geoffrey Bock, an analyst
with the state forensic lab,
told the East Oregonian that
between November 2016
and November 2018, the
OSP Forensic Services divi-
sion had received 67 SAFE
kits from Umatilla County
law enforcement agencies.
Jenkins said the kits are
only sometimes useful.
“So often, it comes down
to what a SAFE kit can’t
prove,” she said. “If there
was force, if there was a lack
of consent.”
The kits are useful if a sus-
pect denies ever having con-
tact with a victim. They can
also help connect suspects
to a sex crime from an unre-
lated incident. If someone is
arrested for a felony, they have
to get a swab done, and those
results can lead to a connec-
tion with another crime.
“It creates the possibil-
ity of helping other victims,
because sometimes they
don’t know who assaulted
them,” Jenkins said. “Or lit-
tle kids who can’t vocalize
yet — which unfortunately
we have.”
Susan Stephens, a sex-
ual assault nurse examiner
at Good Shepherd Medi-
cal Center, said the hospital
completed 17 sexual assault
examinations in 2017, and
the same number in 2018
so far. Of those, she said,
they collected SAFE kits
on 15, and gave three to law
enforcement, keeping the
victim anonymous.
Stephens said evidence can
be collected up to five days, or
168 hours, after an assault.
Studebaker estimated that
the number of sex crimes
reported is likely between 10
and 30 percent of the number
that actually take place.
Resources
The impact of a sex crime
case is uniquely damaging to
all involved, Jenkins said.
“There’s a lot of blame,
guilt,” she said. “Nine times
out of 10, the mom will say,
‘I should have seen this
coming.’”
Even when choosing a jury,
Jenkins said, she has noticed
that many people will be dis-
qualified for their proximity to
a similar crime — many have
a friend or relative who’ve
gone through some sort of
abuse, but she said almost
always, someone in the room
has been a victim themselves.
There are resources
locally for victims, including
the Sexual Assault Response
Teams in Umatilla and Mor-
row counties. Those teams
are comprised of nurses, vic-
tim advocates, law enforce-
ment, prosecutors and
judges, and assist victims of
sexual assault.
The DA’s office provides
victim advocates, and gives
victims information to seek
counseling if they choose to.
Edmiston said he feels the
field doesn’t provide enough
resources for professionals
who deal with sex crimes.
“I think we’re remiss in
making sure our own people,
across the country and across
the profession, are physically
and mentally healthy,” he said.
ROUND-UP: Publicity director, general manager talk rodeo’s social media strategy
Continued from 1A
“a plank for your feet and
a plank for your butt” in
some sections, Thomas said.
Over the decades, the rodeo
has morphed in many ways,
while simultaneously stay-
ing rooted to tradition. To
this day, no advertising sig-
nage is allowed in the arena
or photographers who aren’t
properly attired in cowboy
hat, long-sleeved shirt and
jeans.
The refurbished grand-
stands offer comfort under-
cover and a mezzanine lined
with places to procure food
and drink. Spectators can
find hard liquor at three bars,
including the historic Let ‘er
Buck Room. Foodies enjoy
fancy cuisine and arena-side
seating at the 1910 Room or
find anything from Indian
tacos to elephant ears on
vendor row.
The Round-Up’s foot-
print is growing. The orga-
nization bought property
across the street, this year
tearing down the old Albert-
son’s store to make way for
a 10,000-15,000-square-foot
building to house administra-
tive offices, retail space and
a ticketing area. Additional
property will provide space
for an arena and classrooms
for Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College students and the
school’s rodeo team.
Spectators are finding
their way to Pendleton in
record numbers.
“We’re seeing a huge
increase in the popular-
ity of the event,” Thomas
said. “We’re seeing a huge
increase in the type of people
who are coming to the event.
In years past, it may have
been more like a frat party
on some Saturdays. Now we
have people buying tickets
for all week long. They’re
coming not only for the four
performances, but for the
slack. They come early and
they stay.”
Turns out, when a
108-year-old rodeo meets
modern technology and
social media, good things
happen.
“The Round-Up’s never
had a budget before to pro-
duce video, never had a bud-
get to purchase widespread
advertising,” Thomas said.
“The budgets have always
been really small. Now with
the right tools and new soft-
ware, we’re able to create
video content, high-end still
imagery and launch that out
into social media.”
They use geofencing,
which launches a location
device on people’s phones,
searching everyone within
targeted areas such as other
rodeo locations.
“In many ways it seems
like we’re just cracking
the surface,” Thomas said.
“There are new tools and
new interest.”
The demographic is chang-
WRITE-INS: M. Danes
Holmes is Adams mayor
Continued from 1A
of the name knew who they
were voting for. When it
doubt, she said, the elections
office puts names in their
own line in the tally.
Just like Mickey and his
buddy, Goofy, who ended up
with one vote. Lindell said
Mickey Mouse remains the
most popular cartoon char-
acter that people write in.
Goofy should not feel
too bad. Bruce Wayne,
Ms. America — the title,
not the actual person —
John Wayne, Tom Hanks,
Dwayne Johnson, Barak
Obama and “Basic Camp-
fire” received single votes
as well in the county com-
missioner’s race, as did
local real-life character
Mark Gomolski of Hermis-
ton and Rex Morehouse of
Pendleton.
Every race with a can-
didate on the ballot comes
with a line for voters to
write in someone else.
But the elections depart-
ment does not break out
the write-ins for all races.
In state races for supreme
court judge, for example,
the write-ins are too few
to matter. Lindell said just
about every big-name wres-
tler from the 1980s appeared
on those ballots, from Andre
the Giant to Randy Savage.
“We look at every ballot
and any write-in,” she said.
Adams and Helix res-
idents continued to fol-
low their tradition of using
write-in votes to decide who
will serve as mayor and city
councilors.
M. Dane Holmes remains
the mayor of Adams with
eight votes out of 40. Nine
candidates received two
votes each. And Kim Her-
ron won the mayor’s seat
in Helix with nine out of 37
write-ins.
Jeff Rost won in the race
for Adams City Council,
taking 13 of the 47 votes.
Monica Curtiss ran away
from the field for position 4
on the Helix City Council,
taking 22 of the 30 votes.
Glen Tipton took the posi-
tion 5 seat on the Helix City
County with 19 of 29 votes,
and Julie Harper received
20 out of 31 votes for posi-
tion 6.
Lindell said the tradition
can be troublesome. Past
elections resulted in one per-
son winning two seats.
“If they are not going to
put people on the ballot,”
she said, “they need to make
sure people are writing
names in the right places.”
ing. Nowadays, along with
cowboy hats, you see pork pie
hats and other clues that many
spectators hail not just from
cowboy country. The number
of international visitors is up.
A few years ago, Beard said,
the Round-Up even did a hip-
ster campaign.
“You see more millennial
looking people,” he said.
“They come and they have a
good time. People don’t feel
ostracized here.”
“Round-Up’s goal is to
reach out and create a new
audience,” Thomas said. “To
bring people to Pendleton.
To perpetuate the western
lifestyle in a big way.”
Both men continually
pulled the conversation
back to what they called
“the Round-Up’s core mis-
sion.” Beard referred back
to Roy Raley, local lawyer
and cattleman and one of the
rodeo’s founders.
“He created this event for
the betterment of the com-
munity and to draw peo-
ple to town,” Beard said.
“That’s one reason volun-
teers are so actively engaged.
The Round-Up contributes
to core founding missions,
which are to support educa-
tional and charitable events.”
Beard said he often asks
himself, “What would Roy
Raley do?”
He and Thomas ticked
off a list of charity and edu-
cationally related deeds.
They included giving the
high school and college use
of the facility for a nomi-
nal fee (though a wash after
contributions back to the
schools). PHS culinary stu-
dents spend the four days
of Round-Up working in
the 1910 Room with a pro-
fessional chef and earning
wages. Annual scholarships,
given by the Round-Up and
Happy Canyon foundations,
now top $50,000. Each day
of Round-Up is dedicated to
a different charity, such as
Tough Enough to Wear Pink
and Farmers Ending Hunger.
“Round-Up is very inter-
ested in being good for the
community,” Thomas said.
That was true in the
rodeo’s early days, as well,
they said.
“In 1918, they took all the
proceeds of the Round-Up
and donated it to the Amer-
ican Red Cross,” Beard said.
“They sowed good deeds
back then.”
The men linked a good
portion of the Round-Up’s
success to Native American
involvement.
“You don’t see the Native
American presence at this
scale at other rodeos,”
Thomas said. “All week long
we have the dancing, the
drumming, the beauty pag-
eant, the performance within
the rodeo and the Happy Can-
yon show. I cannot overstate
how important that is to the
success of the Round-Up.”
The men say the future is
wide open, the international
market ripe for tapping.
“The story will be told
with tools yet to be deter-
mined,” Thomas
said.
“The audience will be big-
ger and younger. The finan-
cial impact to the youth of
the community will steadily
grow.”