NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Grant County sheriff facing ethics complaint rescinds resignation
Former OSP officer
filed ethics complaint
against Grant County
Sheriff Glenn Palmer
with DPSST
Gordon Larson.
Larson filed the ethics
complaint. He said the lost
fishing pole “is a small piece
of a much larger issue that
talks about a sheriff willing
to use all resources under
his direction to try and dam-
age a citizen.”
In 2018, Larson ran
against and lost to Palmer’s
younger brother Sam Palmer
for a Grant County Com-
mission seat. Larson claims
the sheriff has repeatedly
used his position to damage
political opponents.
Sheriff Palmer’s politics
were a flashpoint during the
2016 occupation of the Mal-
heur National Wildlife Ref-
uge, when he publicly sym-
pathized with armed militia
members who took over the
refuge for 41 days.
“Local officials, primar-
ily the sheriff and those act-
ing under his control, [are]
trying to damage me and my
family because of my politi-
cal posture against the Mal-
heur occupation, because
I opposed his brother in
a political race, and more
importantly because we’ve
called him out for his tac-
tics,” Larson said.
Palmer
declined
to
comment about the ethics
complaint.
Palmer wrote on Face-
book he intends to fight the
allegations. “I will be stay-
ing on until the end of my
By EMILY CURETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
JOHN DAY — A sher-
iff in Eastern Oregon who
announced he would resign
the day after being noti-
fied of an ethics complaint
against him now says he
will stay on the job and seek
re-election for a sixth term.
Grant County Sheriff
Glenn Palmer told county
officials at a public meeting
last week he would quit. But
he wrote in a Facebook post
Tuesday, “I am withdrawing
my resignation.”
A former Oregon State
Police officer filed the lat-
est ethics complaint with
the Oregon Department of
Public Safety Standards and
Training, or DPSST, a state
agency that enforces min-
imum standards for peace
officers.
The complaint alleges
Palmer failed to return lost
property — in this case, a
fishing pole with the owner’s
name engraved on it. The
complaint alleges Palmer
kept the pole out of personal
animosity toward a retired
Oregon State Police officer,
The Oregonian Photo via AP/Thomas Boyd, File
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, left, hugs Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer in 2015 as they enter
a meeting with homeowners in Canyon City. Palmer told county officials at a public meeting
last week he would quit. But he wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday, “I am withdrawing my
resignation.”
term,” he wrote, “and as long
as this behavior continues, I
will continue to seek reelec-
tion. I will be asking the vot-
ers for an unprecedented 6th
term as your Sheriff.”
Grant County Judge
Scott Myers said Palm-
er’s resignation was never
formalized.
“Until I had it in writing
and the ink was dry, I never
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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even considered it a feasible
statement,” Myers said.
DPSST’s policy commit-
tee plans to review the com-
plaint at a Nov. 21 hearing.
The agency has received
at least nine other com-
plaints against Palmer in
recent years. The Oregon
Department of Justice con-
cluded in 2017 the sher-
iff did not commit criminal
Walden says little about gun legislation
after El Paso and Dayton shootings
By JEFF MAPES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Sunshine, breezy
and pleasant
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very warm
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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Enterprise
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acts by destroying public
records and issuing hand-
gun licenses to out-of-state
residents.
The
state
received
another complaint against
Palmer and a deputy in Feb-
ruary 2019, alleging the
sheriff’s office has a policy
of not enforcing restraining
orders. Investigator Kris-
ten Hibberds determined the
allegations were “outside of
DPSST’s jurisdiction.”
Palmer is also known for
appointing at least 65 spe-
cial deputies — politically
supportive volunteers, usu-
ally without law enforce-
ment training — who are
authorized to act in his name
in Grant County.
The ethics complaint
made by retired OSP officer
Larson names two of these
special county deputies:
Jim Sproul and Dave Tray-
lor, claiming the men “have
written a number of vile,
patently false and inflamma-
tory remarks about me.”
Sproul and Traylor have
challenged, in a separate
and ongoing process, Lar-
son’s right to use water from
a creek on his ranch near
Canyon City.
Palmer used his Face-
book page, which has a law
enforcement badge as its
banner image, earlier this
month to encourage people
with a history of domestic
violence to seek legal advice
before buying a gun, despite
a federal ban on domestic
abusers buying firearms in
place for the last 23 years.
He addresses “gun enthu-
siasts” in the Aug. 9 post
and suggests that people
who have been convicted
of domestic violence crimes
contact a lawyer to “see if
your record can be expunged
or removed.”
PORTLAND — Since
the mass shootings in El
Paso and Dayton nearly
three weeks ago, Ore-
gon Rep. Greg Walden has
said little about whether he
would support new federal
legislation to tighten gun
laws.
That could change next
week when he holds five
public hearings in his
sprawling district, which
covers Eastern Oregon and
a portion of Southern Ore-
gon. The veteran Repub-
lican lawmaker will meet
constituents in Rufus,
Arlington, Heppner, Burns
and Tygh Valley.
Walden declined several
requests for interviews with
OPB. His communications
director, Molly Jenkins,
responded to written ques-
tions by releasing a state-
ment from Walden in which
he said he had supported
several successful bills to
improve access to mental
health care.
However, Walden said
nothing in his statement
about whether he would
back federal gun legisla-
tion. And he also didn’t say
why he voted against legis-
lation passed by the House
earlier this year that would
expand background checks.
He was silent on whether he
would back “red flag” leg-
islation that allows judges
to take firearms from peo-
ple at extreme risk of being
a danger to themselves or
others.
President Donald Trump
and many Republicans in
Congress opened the door
to action on those bills in
the wake of the El Paso and
Dayton shootings on Aug.
3 and 4. In the wake of the
shootings that left 32 dead
and 51 injured, Trump has
sent conflicting signals on
whether he wants stricter
background checks.
In the past, Walden indi-
cated a willingness to look
at tightening gun laws.
After the early 2018
mass shooting at a Park-
land, Florida, high school,
the congressman told OPB
that it “makes some sense”
to enact a national version
of the red flag law that’s
already in effect in Oregon
and 16 other states.
Oregon also has tighter
background checks, and
Walden said then that “I
think you’re going to see us
move in that direction fed-
erally, too.”
In addition to sales by
federal licensed dealers,
Oregon requires checks on
private gun sales and by
unlicensed sellers at gun
shows.
A year later, Walden
voted against a bill that
passed the House that was
similar in scope to the Ore-
gon law. Only eight Repub-
licans voted for the measure,
which Walden opposed.
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
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