NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Lawmakers try to make it harder to
send some inmates to state hospital
and misdemeanors.”
Disability Rights Ore-
gon Legal Director Emily
Cooper said it’s a step in the
right direction.
“We should be encour-
aging local courts to send
people to local treatment
options when they’re found
unable to aid and assist in
their defense,” Cooper said
in a statement. “But we also
need to make sure that there
are local treatment options
to send people to. Currently,
there’s a huge gap.”
Many counties in Oregon
lack mental health services.
That means, in some cases,
the state hospital is the only
place where people can first
get a psychological evalua-
tion and then mental health
treatment while they move
through the criminal justice
system.
“Until we create more
local mental health care
treatment options, we won’t
be able to create a more
humane and effective sys-
tem for people with mental
illness in the criminal jus-
tice system,” Cooper said.
A 2002 federal court
order currently requires
defendants
who
can’t
assist in their own defense
to be admitted to the
state
hospital
within
seven days.
at the Oregon State Hospi-
tal is absolutely unaccept-
able,” state House Majority
Leader Jennifer William-
son, D-Portland, and state
Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
D-Eugene, said in a joint
statement on Wednesday.
“Failure to properly address
this issue has led the state to
a perilous point.”
The lawmakers, who
chair the judiciary com-
mittees in their respective
chambers, said they plan
to “strengthen” legislation
in SB 24, which passed the
House on Tuesday.
The lawmakers said their
changes “will significantly
restrict the ability of individ-
uals who go through munic-
ipal courts or are charged
with misdemeanors to be
sent to the state hospital.”
The lawmakers also
said SB 24 was an attempt
to address the same issues
Judge D. Charles Bailey
highlighted in his contempt
ruling.
“It saves the state hos-
pital beds for people who
are truly dangerous,” Wil-
liamson said in an inter-
view with OPB. “It solves
the problem only if we fund
community mental health
providers who can address
the needs of people who
are accused of violations
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Oregon lawmakers say
they’re going to amend leg-
islation and make it more
difficult for judges to send
people to the Oregon State
Hospital for psychological
evaluation and treatment.
The decision comes a
day after a Washington
County Circuit Court judge
found the state hospital
“willfully violated” court
orders for not transporting
people from the Washing-
ton County Jail to the state
hospital for treatment within
seven days.
Judges can order defen-
dants in criminal cases to
be sent to the Oregon State
Hospital for psychological
evaluation or to be treated
until it’s determined the
person can aid in their own
defense.
Mental health advocates
and attorneys across the
state say there are dozens of
people unable to aid in their
own defense because of
mental illness and are await-
ing treatment at the state
hospital. They say those
people languish in jail, often
becoming iller while they
wait.
“The current situation
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Clouds and sun
with a t-storm
A shower in the
afternoon
Episodes of
sunshine
Partly sunny and
warmer
Times of clouds
and sun
66° 43°
63° 45°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
70° 43°
78° 47°
85° 58°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
73° 49°
70° 49°
77° 47°
83° 50°
OREGON FORECAST
90° 58°
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
58/49
Kennewick Walla Walla
66/48
Lewiston
60/48
74/48
Astoria
59/47
56/40
69/41
Longview
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Pullman
Yakima 72/45
62/44
60/45
Portland
Hermiston
64/50
The Dalles 73/49
Salem
Corvallis
61/47
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
56/39
Bend
64/45
60/34
55/37
Ontario
74/48
0.00"
0.00"
0.14"
4.42"
4.96"
5.25"
WINDS (in mph)
Caldwell
Burns
76/48
57/35
Restraining order issued against
Hammonds’ grazing permit
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
PORTLAND — A fed-
eral judge has issued a tem-
porary restraining order
prohibiting two Oregon
ranchers pardoned last year
on arson charges from graz-
ing cattle on four federal
allotments.
U.S. District Judge
Michael Simon ruled on
June 4 that environmental
groups are likely to prevail
on their claim that the fed-
eral government violated its
own regulations by restor-
ing the grazing permit of
Steven and Dwight Ham-
mond of Diamond.
Simon also determined
the 28-day restraining order
is justified because the envi-
ronmental plaintiffs —
Western Watersheds Proj-
ect, Center for Biological
Diversity and Wildearth
Guardians — have shown
a substantial likelihood of
irreparable harm if cattle are
turned out on public land
allotments on June 7 and
July 1 as planned.
The plaintiffs and the
U.S. Interior Department,
which oversees the allot-
ments, are expected to
engage in further argu-
ments on June 28 regarding
a longer-term preliminary
injunction against grazing
while the lawsuit is pending.
Both men were convicted
in 2012 of setting fire to fed-
eral land, but were sen-
tenced to, and served, terms
less than the five-year min-
imum sentence required by
law.
In 2016, the Hammonds
were returned to prison
after 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals found they must
complete the minimum sen-
tences. Last year, President
Donald Trump issued the
ranchers full pardons and
released them from prison.
Shortly before leav-
ing office in January, for-
mer Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke ordered the U.S.
Bureau of Land Manage-
ment to reinstate the Ham-
monds’ grazing permits for
four allotments abutting
their ranch. The environ-
mental groups filed a law-
suit opposing Zinke’s order.
During oral arguments in
Dwight
Hammond
Steven
Hammond
Portland on June 4, the fed-
eral government claimed the
environmentalists lacked
justification for a temporary
restraining order.
It’s unlikely the plaintiffs
can prove that grazing will
cause irreparable injury to
the greater sage grouse and
redband trout, which are
sensitive species in the area,
said Stephen Odell, the gov-
ernment’s attorney. Their
allegations of irreparable
harm are based on “generic”
testimony of the plaintiffs’
expert, Clait Braun, who
did not distinguish between
proper and improper graz-
ing or visit the allotments,
Odell said.
“He’s never examined
the habitat about which he’s
purporting to make expert
assertions,” Odell said.
The
environmental
groups also requested the
temporary restraining order
several months after the
Hammonds’ grazing per-
mit was renewed and sev-
eral weeks after cattle were
first turned out onto one of
the allotments, he said. A
temporary restraining order
cannot be based on an emer-
gency that the plaintiffs
brought about themselves
by waiting for so long to
take legal action, according
to the government.
Most rangeland health
standards have been met
for the Mud Creek Allot-
ment, where the plaintiffs
seek to prevent cattle from
being released on June 7, the
government said. While the
allotment has fallen short of
the rangeland health stan-
dard for protected and sen-
sitive species, that wasn’t
caused by grazing but rather
due to sagebrush habitat suf-
fering from the encroach-
ment of juniper, invasive
weeds and fire, the agency
said.
Even before the Ham-
monds’ grazing permit was
revoked in 2014 due to their
earlier arson convictions,
evaluations of the allot-
ments found that grazing
levels weren’t improper or
excessive, according to the
government.
The
environmental
groups argued the Ham-
monds’ grazing permit was
restored even though they
lacked a “satisfactory record
of performance” due to an
abrupt decision by Zinke
on his last day in office in
early 2019. Associated doc-
uments were not released to
the plaintiffs until grazing
had already begun on one of
the allotments in April, said
David Becker, attorney for
the environmental groups.
Authorizing the Ham-
monds’ grazing permit vio-
lates federal regulations and
will encourage the ranchers
to again set fires and oth-
erwise harm the four allot-
ments, which have been
recovering during the past
five years without grazing,
the plaintiffs said.
A temporary restraining
order is justified because
the plaintiffs are likely to
prove the grazing permit
was renewed due to the par-
dons rather than the Ham-
monds’ track record, which
is contrary to federal envi-
ronmental and land man-
agement laws, the environ-
mental groups claim.
Zinke should also have
performed an environmen-
tal analysis of renewing the
grazing permit instead of
“categorically excluding”
it from such review, which
didn’t account for the eco-
logically important area in
which the allotments are
located, the plaintiffs said.
Grazing in the allot-
ments will damage sage
grouse habitat and streams
occupied by redband trout,
while the Hammonds won’t
suffer much financial dam-
age since they can graze
cattle elsewhere, as they
did before the permit was
renewed, according to the
environmental groups.
The temporary restrain-
ing order against grazing is
necessary because June is a
critical month for the sage
grouse, whose chicks for-
age near nests and depend
on vegetative cover to pro-
tect them from predators,
Becker said.
“It increases the likeli-
hood they won’t survive,”
he said.
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
87°
57°
77°
51°
101° (1969) 39° (1976)
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
63/47
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 54/34
63/47
0.00"
0.00"
0.30"
9.28"
6.07"
6.81"
HERMISTON
Enterprise
66/43
67/50
81°
52°
75°
51°
96° (2016) 37° (1910)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
61/46
Aberdeen
61/42
68/49
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
61/49
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Today
Fri.
Boardman WSW 10-20
Pendleton WSW 7-14
Medford
68/44
WSW 12-25
W 10-20
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
63/30
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
5:07 a.m.
8:41 p.m.
8:23 a.m.
none
First
Full
Last
New
June 9
June 17
June 25
July 2
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 108° in Needles, Calif. Low 28° in Gothic, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
BRIEFLY
Oregon Legislature
endorses popular
vote
SALEM — Oregon is on
its way to joining a move-
ment to ignore the Elec-
toral College in favor of the
popular vote in presidential
elections.
Senate Bill 870 passed
the House 37-22 on Wednes-
day after passing the Senate
nearly two months ago. The
bill joins Oregon in a group
of 15 states supporting the
effort to have the popular
vote reflected in ballots cast
in the Electoral College. The
bill now goes to Gov. Kate
Brown, who has supported
the popular vote since her
time as secretary of state.
She will sign it, a spokes-
woman said.
With Oregon, the states
would control 196 electoral
votes. The compact would
only go into effect if enough
states joined to reach the
270 electoral college votes
needed to decide an election.
Another eight states have
passed national popular vote
bills through at least one leg-
islative chamber. If all eight
states passed it, that would
add another 75 votes, accord-
ing to the movement’s web-
site. That would be one more
electoral vote than needed.
Oregon police
cleared of killing
man
PORTLAND (AP) —
A grand jury has deter-
mined two Oregon police
officers were justified in
fatally shooting a man who
was holding a woman at
knifepoint.
KPTV reported Tuesday
that Portland Police Bureau
Sgt. James Mooney and
Officer Michael Gonzalez
killed 42-year-old Jeb Col-
lin Brock on April 29.
The Multnomah County
District Attorney’s Office
says the grand jury deter-
mined the deadly force was
“a lawful act of self-de-
fense and/or defense of a
third person.”
Authorities say a third
officer used nonlethal force
against Brock when police
responded to a report of a
stabbing at a Portland home.
Police say four stabbing
victims were transported to
a hospital.
A 1-year-old child who
was in the room during the
shooting was later reunited
with the mother.
Investigators have not
revealed a motive for the
stabbings.
Bicyclist killed in
Tigard
TIGARD (AP) — Author-
ities say a bicyclist was killed
after crashing with a car in
Tigard.
Tualatin Valley Fire and
Rescue said the crash took
place Tuesday just before
8:30 p.m.
KOIN reports the bicy-
clist was a male. Authorities
said the driver of the vehicle
stayed at the scene and was
cooperating.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
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