DECEMBER 15, 2003
Smoke Signals 5
Warrior Interrupted: Tribal Member Brad Leaio Reflects On Tragedy
Brad Leno continued from page 4
Leno stumbled back to find Castellon.
"I peeled back a piece of the car (that was covering
him) and he looked fine. When I found him, he still
had his seat belt on," said Leno.
Leno said he ran to get help.
A neighbor driving by stopped. "I told her to call
911," said Leno. She looked at Castellon and said
right away that he was dead.
Leno didn't believe it.
Brad has since dreamed different endings to that
night. His brother and sisters have had their
dreams, too. Two weeks before the accident, Brad's
younger sister, Brandy, had the only dream she
would have about the accident.
"I was riding in the car he wrecked," she said.
"All I see is the dash lights and the road ahead. Then
I see the car flip and roll like I wasn't there, just
watching (from beyond the scene)."
Leno's younger brother, Brett, who answered the
call from the McMinnville hospital, said, "I see Rue's
ok (in the dream)," said Brett. "Matt's still alive but
they couldn't even find Brad."
Leno's parents are as sad about this as they can
be. Two years have not altered the size of this sad
ness. "I could give you the minutes and hours, too, (of
the time he has been incarcerated)," said Lonnie Leno,
Brad's dad.
"I miss him," said Tammy Leno, Brad's mother,
though she sees him at MacLaren every week. Tears
still come to her eyes when she talks about it. His
father's voice cracks and he has to stop in the middle
of talking from time to time.
"It doesn't seem like two years," said Brandy.
Leno pled guilty to Manslaughter II. It is a Mea
sure 11 crime based in part on the Grand Jury testi
mony of Rue Bailer, the accident's other survivor,
testimony which is not publicly available.
"The real problem in our negotiations," wrote
Leno's attorney, Kristen Winemiller of Portland in
an email response to questions, "was Measure 11
that despite all of the evidence we gave the prosecu
tor of Brad's good character (not just a lack of crimi
nal history but positive contributions to the commu
nity), Measure 11 would have prohibited a judge from
taking that into consideration at sentencing, had
Brad been convicted. Certainly, Rue's prospective
testimony made a conviction for a Measure 11 of
fense appear to be the likely result of going to trial
and put Brad at risk of being convicted of an even
more serious Measure 11 offense: Manslaughter I
with its mandatory 120 month sentence, rather than
Manslaughter II, with its mandatory 75 month sen
tence." "Would the state have considered a lesser sentence
without that testimony?" asked D.A. Berry, "I'm not
going to speculate on that."
The difference has driven a wedge between the Leno
and Bailer families. After being neighbors for all
those years," said Rita Bailer, Rue's mother, "We
lost more than the one kid," she said.
"This accident
really took a toll
on Rue," she
said. And
through his
mother, Rue de
clined to talk
about the acci
dent. "He wishes
Brad well and re
ally thinks that
Brad can make a
difference but he
can't talk to any
body," said Rita
Bailer.
Leno was sen
tenced to 75
months without
the chance of parole.
The possibility remains, like a sword over his head,
that he still will be sent to one of Oregon's adult
facilities to finish his sentence. MacLaren will keep
him as long as he behaves, according to Thompson.
To have every possible chance of staying at
MacLaren for the duration of his sentence, Leno has
been succeeding in program after program. In his
first three months at the MacLaren, he earned the
"high tag" rating, which allows him full privileges,
as far as that goes, but in short, it means he is doing
everything asked of him.
He has successfully completed the drug and alco
hol program in Grover Cottage and moved on to Hall
Cottage, which mainly houses older boys and enables
them to continue "taking ownership, making amends
and giving back to the community," according to a
source at the facility. He has been an active partici
pant in the "Pooch Program," in which the boys take
care of and train abused dogs as a way to make them
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Bonded Brad Leno and Marilyn Porter, the mother of Matthew
Castellon, the boy who died in the accident, at Brad's high school
graduation at MacLaren. They have become good friends.
good pets again.
"It takes caring and patience and empathy," said
Thompson, "all qualities these boys need." Perhaps
because Brad comes naturally by many of these quali
ties, he has taken well to the program.
And he has been active in the Native American
programs at MacLaren. He takes sweats weekly
with his father and others and participates in Long
House activities.
"Before I came (to MacLaren)," said Brad Leno, "I
didn't have much to do with my culture."
Now, in addition to a growing cultural awareness,
and maybe because of it, he is looking ahead, maybe
for the first time. What he really wants to do is get
out to his old high school in Willamina and to other
groups of kids throughout the area and try to pre
vent another kid from facing Matthew Castellon's
fate, and his own.
The question is, would the kids listen?
"I do feel it would make a bigger impression if he
went now," said Tammy Leno, his mother. "Being
young and knowing the kids" would make the differ
ence. Leno's situation is unique in another way. As this
tragedy unfolded, Brad Leno made an early effort to
visit Castellon's mother, to say he was sorry, to ac
cept blame. It could not have been an easy thing to
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Matthew Castellon
The makeshift
memorial for Castellon
at the site of the fatal
crash is still visited by
friends affected by the
tragedy.
. ...
It
1,
It;
do right after the accident, but Leno did it.
"I hurt so bad for that young man (Brad Leno),"
said Tribal member Marilyn Porter. "It hurt so bad
that he would have to live with this. I wanted so bad
to take away the pain. I still can't imagine what
he's going through."
They became fast friends and have remained
friends since. , Porter visits Leno at Ma,cL.aren and
continues to care about his well-being.
As a result, early on, the families kicked around a
plan not only to have Brad speak to schoolmates and
others, but to have Marilyn Porter go, too. And
Lonnie Leno has all along been ready to join them
and provide his unique perspective.
"The courts had their own idea," said Marilyn Por
ter. "They couldn't let (Brad Leno) out this quickly
considering the seriousness of his crime... I raged
about that. Brad said he would go chained hand
and foot in prison garb, it didn't matter. He wanted
to go out bad, as bad as I wanted to go out
(and tell this story)."
Interestingly, MacLaren superintendent
Lawhead, said that though this kind of effort
"never happens" at the facility, he has no
record of a formal request being made. "I
would entertain that discussion. It's certainly
a thought that is outside the box, but maybe
it's worth a shot for the benefit of other youth
in the community."
"It matters now that my son's death serves
a purpose," said Porter from her living room
on quiet street of manufactured homes in
West Salem.
"I lost the love of my life," she said.
At the same time, she said, "It's not in me
to be bitter or to be angry. It's just not there."
The accident changed her, though. "No,
this is not how I was before (the accident). If
someone asked me, (I'd tell them) I'd go out
and find him and kill him to make sure he'd
never do it to anyone else, but I gave it to
God. From then on it was God working."
"I would hope I would be as strong as her if
the roles were reversed," said Lonnie Leno, Brad's
father.
For Brad Leno, the process has enabled him to
reconnect with his parents in ways he hasn't con
nected with them for years. "I talk to her more now,"
he said of his mom. "We go more deep. We never
talked about my feelings or things before." And for
his dad, Leno said, "We went back to the relation
ship we had when we were younger. We talk about
things we want to do."
Every parent wants to know that his or her son is
OK or at least not suffering more than he or she has
to. "We did a lot of work getting him to believe that
MacLaren is an opportunity," said Lonnie Leno.
"I told Brad, 'When you first get there, you may
have to look for something that's the best part.'"
He also told his son, "Anytime they give you an
opportunity, you take it."
"They told us, Tour son's one of the best. He
doesn't belong here,' he said. "At first, it lights you
up and you think, 'We'll get him out of here,' but of
course, with Measure 11, he has to stay."
"I really want him to walk out with me (every
time I go)," said Lonnie of his son, "but knowing
that I can go back in a few days really helps me to
leave."
Although Castellon was not a Tribal member, "he
wanted to be one so bad," said Porter.
"He went to sweats. He wanted to learn
to drum." When he died, his mother had
him cremated. "I dropped the ashes over
Spirit Mountain," she said.
A few weeks after Castellon's death,
his mother finally got around to review
ing and clearing off the messages on her
telephone answering machine. One was
from Matthew. He told her that he was
fine and that he loved her.
Leno's sister, Brianna, who had begged
him not to go out that night, thinks she
could have done more. "Why didn't I
hide the keys?" she asked herself.
Leno's mom wished she had called him
to come home. "He was already in
trouble and he wasn't supposed to be
out," she said.
"Perhaps the most to be learned from
such a horrible event," said the district
attorney, "is to realize that none of us, particularly
young people, inexperienced in both driving and
drinking, are immortal."
"My hope," said Marilyn Porter, "is when Brad
gets out of MacLaren, Brad and I will have such a
bond that we will be lifelong friends."
Brad Leno's scheduled release date is February 7,
2008.1