NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Dr. Kent Walker shuts Pendleton practice without notice
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Osteopathic
physician
and surgeon Kent Walker
shut down his Pendleton
practice Monday without
notifying patients.
The door is locked and the
lights off at the office at 202
S.E. Dorion Ave. Staff taped
a message on Walker’s let-
terhead inside the glass front.
“It is with heavy hearts,
the staff here at Pendleton
Family Practice and Sports
Medicine have to inform
you of Dr. Walker’s decision
to close his family practice
immediately,” the messages
states. “It is short notice for
all of us, and we all know
how slim the provider avail-
ability is in Pendleton.”
A call to the office
received a similar response:
“If you have reached
this messages, Dr. Walker
has closed his family prac-
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Dr. Kent Walker shut down his Pendleton medical practice
Monday with no notice to patients. Staff at Pendleton Family
Practice and Sports Medicine posted this message near the
front door stating the closure was immediate but did not
provide any reason for Walker’s decision.
tice immediately. It is short
notice for all of us.”
Both the phone and the
paper notices let patients
know how to request their
medical records, and both
thanked patients for their
years of patronage. But no
one is explaining what led to
the closure.
Walker in early 2017
faced losing his Ore-
gon medical license in the
wake of an Oregon Medical
Board review of his practice.
According to the board’s
Oregon U.S. attorney’s office seeks case delays in shutdown
payments would be in jeopardy for jurors,
court reporters, public defenders and pro-
bation officers and likely would force
changes in court operations.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott
Asphaug says Oregon’s U.S. Attorney’s
Office has furloughed a little over one-third
of its approximately 130-member staff.
Federal prosecutors and support staff
who are showing up to work in Oregon
aren’t getting paid, except for U.S. Attor-
ney Billy J. Williams.
PORTLAND (AP) — The U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice has sought to delay some
high-profile civil cases in Oregon — includ-
ing a lawsuit filed by the widow of refuge
takeover spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Fin-
icum — as the federal government shut-
down continues.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports fed-
eral courts in the state remain open and
operating, with court funding available
through Jan. 11.
After that date, if funding isn’t restored,
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Cloudy
Cloudy
A thick cloud cover
and breezy
A shower in the
morning; cloudy
Mostly cloudy and
breezy
46° 38°
48° 34°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
44° 31°
48° 37°
41° 35°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
43° 36°
49° 34°
47° 30°
44° 35°
39° 33°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
47/39
42/34
43/33
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
49/40
Lewiston
48/40
42/37
Astoria
48/39
Pullman
Yakima 44/36
46/38
47/38
Portland
Hermiston
49/41
The Dalles 43/36
Salem
Corvallis
44/38
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
40/34
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
47/39
46/32
43/32
Ontario
39/31
Caldwell
Burns
53°
33°
40°
27°
64° (1989) -4° (1942)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
46/40
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
48/35
0.00"
0.01"
0.16"
0.01"
Trace
0.16"
WINDS (in mph)
41/32
34/22
0.00"
0.02"
0.24"
0.02"
Trace
0.24"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 39/30
47/40
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
46/38
45/35
53°
40°
40°
26°
69° (2012) -9° (2004)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
48/37
Aberdeen
41/33
38/31
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
51/41
Today
Sun.
NNE 4-8
SE 6-12
SSW 4-8
S 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
43/29
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:36 a.m.
4:25 p.m.
7:16 a.m.
4:22 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Jan 5
Jan 13
Jan 20
Jan 27
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 87° in Sebring, Fla. Low -29° in Waverly, Colo.
order, Walker did not pro-
vide patients with risk notifi-
cations about medication he
prescribed and he prescribed
“controlled substances with-
out a legitimate medical
purpose or without follow-
ing accepted procedures for
examination of patients or
for record keeping.”
The order noted Walk-
er’s patient charts created
the impressions of thorough
physical examinations, but
in reality the chart notes were
“a cut and paste from previ-
ous clinical encounters, cast-
ing the veracity of the notes
into serious doubt.” Those
charts also did not “ade-
quately describe” Walker’s
process for treating patients
with chronic pain “with a
long term regimen of opioid
and benzodiazepines [drugs
for anxiety and other condi-
tions].” Among the litany of
infractions, Walker also did
not consistently use urine
tests to verify if patients fol-
lowed their treatment plan.
The board stopped shy of
revoking Walker’s license
to practice and placed him
on probation for five years,
which included limits on
prescribing opioids and ran-
dom audits of his practice.
He also had to pay a $5,000
penalty.
Walker also is a defen-
dant in the wrongful death
lawsuit from the family of
Scott Graber of Pendleton.
Graber died July 8, 2015. He
was 42. The lawsuit in Uma-
tilla County Circuit Court
accuses Walker of knowing
Graber had a history of trou-
ble with alcohol and narcot-
ics yet prescribed opioids
and muscle relaxants for him
anyway.
The lawsuit alleges Gra-
ber visited Pendleton Family
Practice and Sports Medicine
the day before he died and
showed up “visibly intoxi-
cated,” and Walker gave him
a prescription for hydroco-
done/acetaminophen. Hours
after filling the prescrip-
tion, according to the plead-
ing, Graber consumed alco-
hol and approximately 45 of
the tablets and died from an
overdose of both.
The lawsuit seeks about
$1.8 million, including $1
million in non-economic
damages for the loss Gra-
ber’s mother, Bonnie Rae
Graber, has suffered. That
case has a status check on
Jan. 25.
Walker also practices
at Sound Family Medicine
clinics in Bonney Lake and
Puyallup, Washington. Staff
there reported he was seeing
patients Friday. He did not
return a call seeking com-
ment. Walker is on probation
in Washington, according to
the Washington Department
of Health, because of his dis-
cipline in Oregon.
Chronic offender Price behind
bars in Multnomah County
By JADE MCDOWELL
AND PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Jerome Martel Price of
Hermiston faces his second
criminal case in federal court
in four years.
He took a plea deal in
2015 for trespassing on the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
according to federal court
records. This time, the U.S.
District Attorney’s Office of
Oregon charged Price, 33,
with one count of felon in
possession of a firearm. The
charge stems from Hermis-
ton police arresting Price on
Dec. 10, 2018.
Umatilla County District
Attorney Dan Primus said
his office proceeded to pros-
ecute Price on charges of
felon in possession of a fire-
arm, second-degree criminal
trespass and criminal tres-
pass while in possession of
a firearm until the federal
prosecutors stepped in. But
Primus said this is not a case
of the feds stepping on local
toes.
“They really wanted to
reach out and help Uma-
tilla County,” he said. “They
know Umatilla County is a
rural county with a volume
of cases they can help with.”
Primus said his office
has a good relationship with
the U.S. Attorney’s Office
and he sees its assistance
as a means to help make
rural communities safer. He
also said while it is hard as
a prosecutor to give up a
case, he has full confidence
in the capabilities of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office.
Hermiston police officer
Riley Studebaker on Dec. 10
arrested Price on charges of
second-degree criminal tres-
pass and felon in posses-
sion of a firearm. According
to the probable cause affida-
vit, a woman called about
2:40 a.m. to report her hus-
band was holding an intruder
at gunpoint in the alley
behind their East Gladys
Avenue home. Studebaker
arrived to find Price and the
caller’s husband in the alley.
The man told the officer
he heard his cellar door rattle
and saw a motion-activated
light turn on in his backyard.
When he grabbed his pistol
and went to investigate, he
told Studebaker he saw the
suspect in the alley near his
travel trailer and pointed the
gun at him, ordering him to
lay down until police arrived.
He also alleged that a gun
on the ground at his feet, a
loaded Springfield XDM 40
caliber semi-automatic pis-
tol, had been handed to him
by Price.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said differ-
ent states have different laws
regarding their rights when
someone intrudes on their
property and Oregon’s is “all
based on reasonableness.”
“What would a reason-
able person think was rea-
sonable force for a citizen to
apply or an officer to apply
in that case?” he said. “I
can’t speak for the property
owner, but it’s dark out, and
the property owner doesn’t
know yet if they’re missing
anything.”
Studebaker wrote in the
affidavit that Price claimed
the gun on the ground was
the homeowner’s. Price
claimed he had been out for
a walk when he knocked
on the door of the home
because he thought a friend
lived there. When no one
answered, he said, he entered
the backyard through a gate
and knocked on the cellar
door before exiting the yard.
The affidavit states secu-
rity cameras at the home
show Price entered the
backyard, walked around
and then entered the alley
to inspect a travel trailer
belonging to the homeown-
ers before the confronta-
tion. Studebaker also states
in the document the footage
showed Price handing a pis-
tol to the homeowner.
Edmiston said Price is
well-known to police in
the immediate area, and
had 36 arrests and 63 cita-
tions by local law enforce-
ment including the Hermis-
ton Police Department and
the Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Office.
He said while it is “frus-
trating” dealing with the
same person over and over
again, and citizens ask why a
chronic offender hasn’t been
taken off the streets for lon-
ger, Edmiston said real life
police work isn’t as simple
as crime shows on televi-
sion. Police face everything
from uncooperative wit-
nesses to an increasing num-
ber of restrictions coming
from rulings by the 9th Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals.
“This job is getting more
and more difficult to present
rock-solid cases to the DA,”
he said.
Price on Friday had a
detention hearing in federal
court in Portland, and Mag-
istrate Judge John V. Acosta
ordered Price to remain as
an inmate of the Multnomah
County Jail, Portland. The
court also set a two-day trial
for Price starting March 5 in
Portland.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Hayes criticized for ‘bad faith’ in bankruptcy
SALEM (AP) — The
Oregon Government Eth-
ics Commission has accused
former Oregon First Lady
Cylvia Hayes of using her
bankruptcy proceeding to
drag out a resolution of her
ethics case months longer
than needed.
The Statesman Jour-
nal reports that Carolyn
Wade, a senior assistant
attorney general represent-
ing the commission, made
the claim in a Dec. 31 fil-
ing in Hayes’ bankruptcy
proceeding. Hayes filed for
Chapter 13 bankruptcy in
July 2018.
In addition to up to
$110,000 in possible civil
penalties from 22 eth-
ics violations, Hayes has a
more than $124,000 judg-
ment against her for a pub-
lic records lawsuit The Ore-
gonian won.
Wade said the bankruptcy
proceeding is meritless.
The ethics commission
ruled in January 2018 — six
months before Hayes filed
for bankruptcy — that she
violated state ethics laws
by using her position for the
financial benefit of herself
and her business.
Many of the violations
centered around Hayes’
work on environmental
consulting contracts while
also involved as an unpaid
adviser who did energy
policy work in Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s office.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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