OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, December 7, 2019
East Oregonian
A11
Court finds that police coerced murder confession
By JAKE THOMAS
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A Woodburn
man’s murder conviction has
been overturned after the Ore-
gon Court of Appeals deter-
mined that police coerced his
confession, telling him mem-
bers of his family, including
his infant son, wouldn’t be
released from custody unless
he admitted to the crime.
The court’s 7-6 decision,
issued Dec. 4, centers on Eloy
Vasquez-Santiago, a 37-year-
old illiterate migrant worker
with an IQ of 53. In 2012,
Vasquez-Santiago became a
suspect in the murder of Maria
Bolanos-Rivera, who had
worked with him at a berry
farm in Hillsboro.
After
Bolanos-Rivera
went missing in August,
Vasquez-Santiago abruptly
left Woodburn with his com-
mon-law wife, infant, father
and brother. His brother and
father were later arrested
in California on unrelated
charges.
While in custody, they
were contacted by Hillsboro
police detectives investigating
the murder. They told detec-
tives that Vasquez-Santiago
had admitted to killing Bola-
nos-Rivera, according to the
court ruling. They also told
detectives there was blood
on Vasquez-Santiago’s hands
and on his father’s van that he
was using the day she went
missing.
Vasquez-Santiago
con-
tinued alone to Mexico after
leaving his family in Califor-
nia. After learning his father
and brother were in police cus-
tody, he contacted the detec-
tives to secure their release.
Vasquez-Santiago also mis-
takenly thought his infant son
was in custody.
After turning himself in
at the border, he was interro-
gated by the detectives who
repeatedly told him prosecu-
tors would look favorably on
his case and his family would
be more likely to be released if
he confessed. The detectives
never corrected his misunder-
standing that his infant son
was in custody and, instead,
perpetuated it, the court rul-
ing said.
“Defendant’s family earned
their living as migrant farm-
workers, making the incapac-
itation of defendant’s father
and brother as workers a sig-
nificant economic stressor for
the family,” the court decision
said. “Defendant’s son was
still breastfeeding, increasing
the need for him to be reunited
with his mother. At the time
of the interview, defendant
had barely slept for three days.
Time and again, defendant
was told that his family mem-
bers’ freedom — something
essential for the family’s eco-
nomic well-being — turned
on defendant confessing.”
The court’s decision
also took into account
Vasquez-Santiago’s low IQ,
which it noted that courts have
associated with “subaver-
age intellectual functioning.”
The court found that the trial
court was wrong in denying
a motion by Vasquez-Santia-
go’s attorney to throw out the
confession. The appeals court
reversed Vasquez-Santiago’s
conviction and remanded the
case back to a lower court.
It’s not clear what the deci-
sion immediately means for
Vasquez-Santiago. The pub-
lic defense attorney who rep-
resented him declined to
comment.
Kristina
Edmunson,
spokeswoman for the state
Justice Department, said in a
statement the office is review-
ing whether to appeal the
court’s decision in consul-
tation with the Washington
County District Attorney’s
Office, which prosecuted the
case.
The Washington County
District Attorney’s Office
responded with a statement
that Vasquez-Santiago’s con-
fession was given “freely and
voluntarily.”
“This office is hopeful that
the Oregon Supreme Court
will review this case and pro-
vide further guidance in this
area of the law,” the statement
said.
Ryan O’Connor, a Port-
land defense attorney, said
in an email that the court
“correctly recognizes the
impact that coercive inter-
rogation techniques have on
suspects, particularly peo-
ple with intellectual disabil-
ities or mental illness.” He
also noted that the opinion is
supported by state and fed-
eral court cases that’ve found
that using threats or promises
regarding a suspect’s family
are particularly coercive.
Dialysis: Chronic kidney disease now affects 15% of Americans
Continued from Page A1
Milton-Freewater is a chore,
especially in bad weather.
Over the past year, Briggs
rose from sixth to fifth on
the Pendleton waiting list. He
figured spots only open for
three reasons: someone dies,
gets a transplant or moves.
According to the National
Kidney Foundation, chronic
kidney disease now affects
15% of Americans, thanks to
an increasing prevalence of
diabetes and obesity and an
aging population.
“Kidney disease has been
on the rise for three decades,”
said Dr. Christos Argyro-
poulos, a nephrologist from
the University of New Mex-
ico School of Medicine who
is affiliated with the NKF.
“More people need dialy-
sis. Especially in rural areas,
people are sometimes in a sit-
uation where they end up on
a waiting list for a dialysis
chair.”
Reasons include a short-
age of dialysis nurses will-
ing to move to rural areas. As
the population ages (includ-
ing about 700,000 nurses
predicted by the American
Nursing Association to retire
by 2024), an overall shortage
of nurses looms.
So, access is an issue.
Clinics can’t simply add
more hours unless they can
also find more nurses.
Terri White has her blood
filtered at a clinic near her
California home. It’s when
she travels that access to
dialysis clinics sometimes
becomes an issue.
Recently, White and
her husband planned a trip
to Pendleton to celebrate
her grandson’s third birth-
day with daughter Casey
White-Zollman and son-in-
law Casey Zollman. White
called for an appointment at
Davita Blue Mountain Kid-
ney Center in Pendleton and
learned the clinic had no
openings. Widening the net,
she called dialysis clinics in
Hermiston, Milton-Freewa-
ter and Walla Walla, Wash-
ington. All were completely
booked.
“It was extremely stress-
Contributed photo
Terri White reads a book to her grandson, Ryder Zollman, during a recent visit to Pendleton
to celebrate Ryder’s birthday.
ful,” White said.
Finally, she scored an
appointment in Kennewick,
Washington, an hour away.
The day before she arrived,
a chair at DaVita’s Hermiston
Dialysis Center opened up.
White would have to twice
drive about 40 miles to the
clinic and back from Pendle-
ton, but she would get cher-
ished time with her grandson
on his birthday.
Briggs and White got
good news this month.
Davita Regional Operations
Manager Aleisa Salutegui
said the company will add an
extra shift in the first quarter
of 2020 that expands operat-
ing hours to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday. Briggs now sits at the
top of the waiting list. White
has more chance of getting in
on her visits to Pendleton.
Salutegui said the clinic
averaged a roster of 21
patients from 2014 to 2018,
but demand grew suddenly
in 2019. Davita’s Hermiston
clinic, with a capacity of 60,
averages 42 regular patients.
Some are Pendleton residents
hoping to eventually transfer
to their hometown clinic.
Salutegui said the com-
pany keeps a close eye on
census changes and tries to
recruit talent immediately to
stay ahead of the game.
“In Pendleton, this was a
new trend,” she said. “This
was unexpected.”
While the company tries
to act quickly when demand
changes, hiring sometimes
takes a while.
“Recruiting nurses can be
competitive,” Salutegui said.
“Sometimes recruiting talent
to rural areas can be more of
a struggle.”
However, a team of four is
currently training to staff the
new shift.
A national development
last summer may change the
way patients receive dialy-
sis, shifting them away from
clinics like the one in Pend-
leton. In July, President Don-
ald Trump signed an execu-
tive order to develop policies
to encourage patients with
end-stage kidney disease to
dialyze at home rather than
in clinics. Centers, where
88% of patients get dialysis,
are more expensive. Medi-
care pays an average of about
$90,000 annually for each
patient receiving dialysis at
centers.
The order also pushes for
earlier diagnosis of kidney
disease and the streamlining
of the kidney matching pro-
cess. The order comes with
lofty goals — reducing end-
stage kidney disease by 25%
by 2030 and having 80% of
patients with newly diag-
nosed end-stage kidney dis-
ease receiving home dialy-
sis or kidney transplants by
2025.
Reaction to the executive
order is mixed.
Richard Knight, president
of the American Association
of Kidney Patients, calls the
move a win for patients.
“We are totally behind the
executive order and advocat-
ing to push it forward,” said
Knight, who underwent dial-
ysis himself before getting
a kidney transplant. “Home
dialysis provides better
outcomes.”
He said one reason more
patients don’t choose home
dialysis is fear, but “training
helps the fear go away.”
Argyropoulos,
the
nephrologist affiliated with
the National Kidney Foun-
dation, isn’t convinced. He
said Trump’s goal regarding
patients in home dialysis may
be unrealistic. He points to
Canada, which has reached
25% after a concerted effort.
Home hemodialysis isn’t
right for everyone either, he
said. People with poor eye-
sight, cognitive impairment
or frailty will struggle.
Knight hopes critics will
give the strategy a chance.
“Instead of saying we
can’t do this and we can’t do
that, let’s get started and see
where we can go,” he said.
Davita, one of two indus-
try giants in this country,
watched its stock value drop
after the executive order was
announced, then rebound.
DaVita CEO Javier Rodri-
guez said in a news release
the company is accelerating
its role in providing educa-
tion and technology for home
dialysis patients.
Argyropoulos
expects
smaller clinics to start dis-
appearing with the shift to
home dialysis.
“Some clinics will close in
the next few years because of
the executive order the presi-
dent signed,” he said. “When
you reduce the money flow-
ing into the system, you
effectively institute a pay
cut.”
White, who has a genetic
condition called polycystic
kidney disease, watches these
new developments with inter-
est. She used home dialysis
for a while, but developed
hernias from the process and
had to stop. A transplant isn’t
an option because of a lung
condition that reacts badly to
anti-rejection drugs.
Three days a week, she
sits in her dialysis chair
watching television, look-
ing at her iPad or cheerfully
shooting the breeze with
other patients. Since she sits
in the first chair, they call her
the greeter.
“This is my lifestyle now,”
she said. “I have to make the
best of it.”
She reads of new devel-
opments in process — an
implantable artificial kidney,
wearable artificial kidneys
and the use of pig kidneys.
As for Briggs, he’s ner-
vous about home dialy-
sis, but considering it for
the future. Because of his
own health challenges, he’s
developed empathy for oth-
ers and acceptance of his
circumstances.
“I can’t change it,” he said.
“For whatever reason, this is
the plan for me.”
He rejoices in the small
victories, such as the soon-
to-be switch to the Pendle-
ton clinic, saying, “It feels
like Christmas.”
Police: Change affects what types of question officers can ask during traffic stops
Continued from Page A1
He said the ruling could
eventually cause a decline in
DUII enforcement.
The ruling follows a crim-
inal case involving the Bea-
verton Police Department.
An officer lawfully pulled
over defendant Mario Arre-
ola-Botello for failing to sig-
nal during both a lane change
and turn. While Arreola-Bo-
tello was searching for paper-
work, the officer asked about
the presence of weapons and
drugs in the vehicle, and if he
would consent to a search.
Arreola-Botello — who
primarily spoke Spanish,
according to the ruling —
agreed to the search. The offi-
cer found a baggie of meth-
amphetamine, and an arrest
ensued.
Arreola-Botello was even-
tually charged with posses-
sion of methamphetamine,
despite his attorney motion-
ing to suppress the evidence
obtained during the search
and later appealing the con-
viction — the argument
being that the questions lead-
ing up to the search were
irrelevant to the traffic stop
at hand and lacked constitu-
tional justification.
The Oregon Court of
Appeals rejected the argu-
ment set forth by attorney
Joshua Crowther, but this rul-
ing overturned that decision,
and it forms part of the move
around various studies that
show people of color are more
likely to have their vehicles
searched during traffic stops.
“Our conclusion today —
that all questioning must be
reasonably related to the pur-
pose for the traffic stop —
will ensure that an officer’s
questions are not based on
such biases,” the ruling states.
Days after the ruling was
issued, the Oregon Criminal
Justice Commission released
traffic stop data from 12
of the state’s largest law
enforcement agencies. The
report showed that people in
minority groups are slightly
more likely to be cited during
a traffic stop than white peo-
ple. The Portland Police
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Some law enforcement agencies are changing how officers
conduct traffic stops following an Oregon Supreme Court
ruling that changes what questions an officer can ask after
pulling someone over.
Bureau was twice as likely
to search black people than
white, according to the data.
Data on medium and
smaller
agencies
will
come out in the next
two years, according to
the commission.
Edmiston said he felt the
Hermiston Police Depart-
ment drives away from bias.
“We really proud of the
fact that we have a force that
is proportional to the commu-
nity,” Edmiston said.
According to 2018 Census
Bureau estimates, Hermis-
ton’s Hispanic or Latino pop-
ulation is at 36.7%.
He said that almost 26% of
officers with the department
are bilingual.
Kara Davis, assistant
director of Intermountain
Defenders Inc. in Pendleton,
said the ruling could reduce
discrimination. She said
sometimes it’s something
related to another culture or a
lower class that can draw an
officer’s attention.
“It’s not the people we
consider ‘good people’ in our
society,” she said. “They’re
not going to ask a random
lawyer if they have weapons
on them.”
She said back when she
took on possession cases,
about half of them started
with traffic stops.
“I wouldn’t say that the
average traffic stop leads to
a criminal case, but a lot of
criminal cases lead to traffic
stops,” she said.
And she doesn’t think
that’s going to stop, because
the ruling doesn’t affect
an officer who requests a
search based on reason-
able suspicion — the smell
of alcohol on someone’s
breath, or the sight of pack-
aged drugs on the passenger
seat, for instance.
“I wish the public knew
they had the right to say no to
anything the officer requests
voluntarily,” she said. “Peo-
ple get nervous around police
officers. That if they say no,
they’ll look guilty.”
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts said rulings
like this one could cause
a “prevailing attitude of
defiance.”
“I don’t think it’s going to
change the way we do busi-
ness significantly,” he said.
Roberts added that offi-
cers at the police department
are trained to identify signs of
potential misconduct before
requesting a search during a
traffic stop.
Because of Pendleton’s
size, he said, officers are usu-
ally already acquainted with
the offender population and
who might have drug para-
phernalia or an outstanding
warrant already.
“It’s different in a large
urban area,” he said. “That’s
a luxury we have, living in a
smaller population.”