NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Woman injured in fall at Indian Rock
Indian Rock Overlook for
the first time to watch the
sunset with her boyfriend,
Jeff Hill, when she jumped
out of the truck to take a
look over the edge. While
Hill was backing up the car,
Mulhair got too close to the
ledge and slipped over, fall-
ing 86 feet. She had taken off
her boots and sat on her butt
to scoot down to the lower
bench of the cliff for a bet-
ter view when she started to
slide. When she realized she
was falling, Mulhair flipped
onto her stomach to try and
grab something, slipping off
the cliff’s edge.
Hill immediately called
911 and the search and res-
cue team responded first.
The SAR volunteers assem-
bled a rope line so that an
SAR EMT could reach
Mulhair to assess her inju-
ries. Because daylight was
fading, they used car head-
lights and flashlights to gen-
erate sufficient lighting until
the fire department arrived.
“Besides the lack of
light, we are grateful things
worked out the way they
did,” Vora said.
Once an ambulance was
on the scene, two more
responders rappelled down
to Mulhair to assist with
her injuries and with getting
her up the side of the cliff.
Due to the severity of her
injuries, a Life Flight heli-
copter was called to trans-
port her to Kadlec Regional
Medical Center in Rich-
land, Washington. It was
By SABRINA
THOMPSON
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — La
Grande Rural Fire Protec-
tion District and La Grande
Search and Rescue put their
practice to use in a cliffside
rescue Monday evening,
according to a statement
from La Grande Rural Fire
Protection District Chief
Craig Kretschmer.
When Jacki Mulhair fell
from the Indian Rock Over-
look, the search and rescue
team, which happened to be
training for this exact type
of rope rescue on Mount
Emily, was quickly on the
scene.
Search and Rescue Lt.
Nick Vora and his team
were packing up their cars
2.5 miles away, when they
got the call. They had spent
most of the day working
on rope drills and training,
something they do the third
Monday of each month.
While rope rescue is a low
frequency type of rescue, it
poses high risks, Vora said,
which means they like to
practice a lot to stay on top
of their game.
“When we first got the
call, I was shocked,” Vora
said. “Getting that call when
we were just practicing
that type of rescue, when
we were already nearby, it
couldn’t have been better
(timing).”
Mulhair, 34, of La
Grande, was visiting the
FRIDAY
Mostly sunny;
breezy, pleasant
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny and
nice
Photo courtesy of Andrea Borges
Jacki Mulhair, 34, of La Grande, was visiting the Indian Rock
Overlook for the first time to watch the sunset, got too
close to the ledge and slipped over, falling 86 feet. Mulhair
suffered multiple injuries in her fall.
difficult to bring Mulhair
up in the basket, according
to Vora. Because it wasn’t
an entirely vertical cliff, the
rescuers had to navigate a
series of ledges.
Mulhair suffered mul-
tiple injuries in her fall,
including four broken ribs
on her left side, a broken
nose, a broken right hip, and
her right femur was broken
in three places. Borges said
more injuries may be dis-
covered as testing contin-
ues. Since arriving at the
hospital, Mulhair has had
surgery to place a rod in her
right leg and surgery to cor-
rect her hip.
“She is awake, although
she did lose conscious-
ness,” Mulhair’s sister
Andrea Borges, also of La
Grande said. “She is in a
SUNDAY
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
MONDAY
Mostly sunny
78° 50°
86° 53°
92° 58°
95° 64°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 54°
83° 50°
90° 53°
96° 64°
OREGON FORECAST
100° 68°
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
68/53
75/45
81/47
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
82/55
Lewiston
71/52
86/55
Astoria
68/55
Pullman
Yakima 82/52
71/50
83/52
Portland
Hermiston
75/55
The Dalles 86/54
Salem
Corvallis
77/50
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
78/47
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
80/51
79/42
81/48
Ontario
89/58
Caldwell
Burns
85°
67°
89°
59°
108° (1941) 45° (1939)
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
77/50
0.00"
Trace
0.12"
4.55"
5.10"
5.82"
WINDS (in mph)
87/55
83/43
0.00"
0.02"
0.17"
9.59"
6.49"
7.74"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 75/41
77/52
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
81/50
78/55
80°
64°
89°
59°
110° (1918) 43° (1913)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
71/52
Aberdeen
74/48
76/54
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
71/56
Today
Fri.
Boardman WSW 10-20
Pendleton
W 10-20
Medford
89/56
SW 6-12
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
85/45
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:23 a.m.
8:39 p.m.
10:03 p.m.
6:59 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
Aug 15
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 108° in Thermal, Calif. Low 32° in Stanley, Idaho
ton of pain, and her face is
unrecognizable.”
Mulhair lives in La
Grande with her two chil-
dren, ages 9 and 2. Right
now they are staying with
Mulhair’s youngest sister.
Mulhair works as a babysit-
ter and is a homemaker.
The family has set up a
GoFundMe page to help
with medical expenses. She
is expected to make a full
recovery, but will be closely
monitored to fight against
the likelihood of infection
and blood clots, according
to Borges.
While her injuries are
serious, Mulhair is lucky
that SAR was in the right
place at the right time.
Not all are so fortunate. In
2016, 27-year-old Warren
Webb, of La Grande, died
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
BAKER CITY — Rayn-
mon Haze Garcia, the 21-year-
old man who set the fire that
destroyed a block of historic
buildings in Huntington in
late May, pleaded guilty to
arson and reckless burning on
Tuesday in Baker County Cir-
cuit Court and was sentenced
to 55 months in prison.
Garcia, of 390 E. Jefferson
St. in Huntington, pleaded
guilty to one count of first-de-
gree arson, one count of sec-
ond-degree arson and one
count of reckless burning. He
was sentenced to 37 months
in prison on the first-degree
arson charge and 18 months
on the second-degree arson
charge.
The reckless burning
charge is a misdemeanor and
does not carry prison time,
according to a press release
from District Attorney Matt
Shirtcliff.
Garcia was originally
charged with two counts of
first-degree arson, but one
of the charges was reduced
to second-degree arson, as
required under Oregon law,
because one of the buildings
was not regularly used when
Garcia lit the fire on May 23.
The Streamliner Lounge and
Howell’s Cafe had not been
open for about one year prior
to the fire, according to the
press release.
A restitution hearing has
been scheduled for Oct. 4.
According to the press release,
restitution could be “well in
excess of
$100,000.”
Shirt-
cliff said
the victims
will prepare
records of
their losses,
Garcia
i nclud i ng
loss of the buildings and the
loss of their abilities to oper-
ate their businesses, for the
restitution hearing.
A judgment will be estab-
lished by the court and a pay-
ment plan will be developed
that Garcia must follow to
pay some part of whatever
income he makes toward
paying off the debt, Shirtcliff
said.
Garcia was eager to set-
tle the case and that is partly
why the restitution hearing
will take place later, Shirtcliff
said.
Garcia had been moved to
the Grant County Jail at Can-
yon City after he damaged a
sprinkler head in his Baker
County Jail cell, Shirtcliff
said.
Prosecuting Garcia for the
damage, which was a misde-
meanor, would have delayed
resolution of the arson cases,
Shirtcliff said. Instead, Garcia
decided to plead guilty to the
arson charges and to be sen-
tenced Tuesday, and the state
dropped the pending charges
related to damage at the jail.
Judge curtails grazing in Hammond case
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Sunshine and hot
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
81° 50°
Arsonist gets 55
months in prison
By CHRIS COLLINS
EO Media Group
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
Thursday, July 18, 2019
PORTLAND — U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Michael Simon
has ruled environmental
groups are likely to prevail in
their claim that former Inte-
rior Secretary Ryan Zinke
improperly renewed a graz-
ing permit lost by Dwight
and Steven Hammond due to
setting fire to rangelands.
Western
Watersheds
Project, Center for Biologi-
cal Diversity and Wildearth
Guardians have shown the
renewal decision was likely
“arbitrary and capricious”
because Zinke didn’t evalu-
ate the father-and-son’s prior
non-compliance
incidents
or whether they’d be “good
stewards of the land,” among
other requirements, the judge
said.
The judge entered a pre-
liminary injunction limit-
ing grazing as requested by
the environmental plaintiffs,
though the Hammonds’ cat-
tle can still graze one pub-
lic land allotment under an
amended plan suggested
by the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management.
Under the order, cattle
can consume 30 percent of
the forage available on 6,000
acres of the Hardie Summer
allotment, down from 50 per-
cent under the Hammonds’
permit, and cannot graze at
all on the 8,200-acre Mud
Creek allotment except when
briefly traveling through it.
One of the pastures within
the Hardie Summer allot-
ment will also be off-limits
to grazing and the BLM must
conduct monthly monitoring
of rangeland conditions on
the allotment, with its find-
ings submitted to the judge
in October.
Dwight and Steven Ham-
mond were ultimately con-
victed of setting a fire in 2001
Capital Press Photo, File
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon has ruled in favor of envi-
ronmental groups trying to revoke federal grazing permits
issued for Dwight and Steven Hammond.
that consumed 139 acres of
federal property, while the
younger rancher was also
found guilty of lighting a
“back burn” that spread onto
an acre of public land in
2006.
A federal judge origi-
nally imposed prison terms
of three months for Dwight
Hammond and a year for Ste-
ven Hammond after find-
ing the five-year mandatory
terms required under federal
law “really would shock the
conscience.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals overturned
that decision and the ranch-
ers were required to serve the
full five years behind bars.
They returned to prison
in early 2016 — inspiring a
notorious standoff between
protesters and the govern-
ment at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge — but were
fully pardoned and released
a year ago by President Don-
ald Trump. Apart from their
problems in criminal court,
the BLM refused to renew
the Hammonds’ grazing per-
mit in 2014 based on their
criminal convictions, cit-
ing the ranchers’ “disregard
for human life and public
property.”
However, early this year,
Zinke found that the par-
dons represented “unique
and important changed cir-
cumstances” that, along with
Hammonds’ time behind
bars and civil penalties, jus-
tified restoring the grazing
permit.
The environmental plain-
tiffs filed a complaint chal-
lenging that decision, argu-
ing that Zinke hadn’t
followed federal land man-
agement law and associated
regulations in making the
decision. The groups also
claimed they’d suffer irrep-
arable harm from grazing
impacts to the Greater sage
grouse and redband trout.
Simon has now agreed
that Zinke didn’t follow pro-
cedures for renewing a graz-
ing permit under the Federal
Land Policy and Manage-
ment Act and also that the
renewal was improperly
excluded from environmen-
tal review under the National
Environmental Policy Act.
While the judge agreed that
it’s likely the environmen-
talist have shown “irrepara-
ble harm” to the sage grouse
from grazing levels under
the Hammonds’ permit,
he determined the reduced
grazing plan wouldn’t result
in such damage.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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