20
S moke S ignals
JULY 1, 2016
'I had no premonition'
LENO continued
from front page
dai that night – Evan Rue Baller of
Willamina and Matthew “Matteo”
Castellon of Sheridan.
According to Yamhill County
District Attorney Brad Berry, Leno
was traveling 76 mph on Fort Hill
Road at 4 a.m. when he lost control
of the vehicle and hit a telephone
pole. Leno and Baller walked away
from the crash, but Castellon, who
was sitting directly behind Leno,
died.
“I remember the car,” says Ber-
ry 15 years later. “I don’t think
I had ever seen a car – I’ve seen
lots of cars that were smashed and
crashed – but it was amazing that
we had two people in the car walk
away from it. I remember that from
being on scene. Literally, there
was only one weld holding that car
together from being totally split in
half. I think it’s amazing they didn’t
have more deaths.”
Palomar remembers a police
officer knocking on her front door
at home.
“I had no premonition,” she says.
“There was nothing to prepare me
for the upcoming news.”
She immediately thought of her
son, Matteo, and wondered if he
had gotten himself in trouble while
spending the night with a friend.
She had no idea what she was about
to hear.
“He told me that my son had
been in a car accident and died,”
remembers Palomar. “I remember
pushing my hands out in front of
me and I said, ‘God I can’t do this.
You’re going to have to do this for
me.’ Everything was spinning out of
control. Matt was my last one home
(last of her three children to live at
home). He was the most like me as
far as affectionate and social.”
Palomar says the officer remained
with her until a friend could come
over. The next morning she penned
a letter to God that became the
poem she read at Matteo’s funeral.
She remembers Brad’s mother,
Tammy, calling her to see if Brad
could come see her.
“When I opened the door to Brad’s
knock, we looked at each other and
then stepped into each other’s arms
and held each other,” says Palomar.
Leno, the son of Tribal Elder
Lonnie Leno and his wife, Tammy,
remembers that he had been to
Palomar’s residence with Matteo
before, but he had never met her
until that moment on her porch.
“I honestly expected that this
woman was going to come out of her
house and punch me or slap me or
start cussing at me because I was
the cause of her son passing away.
That’s what I expected,” says Leno.
“I was fully ready for that and felt
that I deserved it, you know? So I go
up there and she answers the door
and all she wants to do is hug me.”
Leno says Palomar’s kindness
was confusing.
“It was very hard,” says Leno.
“At the time I’m beating myself
up, tearing myself apart about this
whole situation and the last person
Matthew “Matteo” Castellon
I would ever expect to have any
compassion for me, sympathy for
me and even care about me in the
slightest, just wants to give you a
hug. From that point on we kept
in contact.”
Leno says Palomar asked him to
stay in touch with her and to keep
her aware of his court dates. He
honored her request.
“In no way would I have ever
wanted to bring any more hard-
ship to her so if she didn’t want to
have anything to do with me after
that point I would have respected
her wishes,” says Leno. “But with
her saying ‘keep in contact and let
me know what’s going on I want
to know’ then that was the least I
could do.”
Palomar says she watched Leno
face the charges associated with
the crash with courage. She says
he proved himself by not running
and hiding from responsibility, not
making excuses and accepting the
consequences.
“I had to know him,” says Palo-
mar. “I had to know who he was. I
wanted to know what his thoughts
were. I wanted to know what this
young man was about.”
On Nov. 13, 2001, Leno was
convicted of second-degree man-
slaughter and driving under the
influence of intoxicants. He was
sentenced to 75 months in prison.
His blood alcohol level at the time of
the crash was .16 – twice the legal
limit in Oregon.
“I recall that even as this case
was proceeding, that she (Palomar)
harbored no ill will and didn’t seem
to hold anger toward him,” says
Berry. “She certainly had tremen-
dous grief over the loss of her son,
but she did not harbor that kind of
anger or animosity. I don’t think
that happens very often. This is
a very individualized response to
such a tragic event.”
Palomar visited Leno at MacLar-
en Youth Correctional Facility and
made having a relationship with
her easy by the way she treated
him with kindness and concern.
She seemed to care for him in the
way one would care for their own
child, he says.
“I brought her into one of the
treatment groups that I was doing,”
recalls Leno. “I introduced her and
told my story. After that she was
able to come in as a regular visitor
of mine and just visit.”
Time has brought reflection for
Leno. He is now a father. He still
wonders.
“Even to this day, I don’t know
if I was in her shoes,” says Leno.
“I don’t know if I could be that
forgiving. I don’t know and I’ve
been the person. I know that it
was an accident. I never intended
for it to happen. I was a young kid
that made a stupid decision. Even
today, I don’t know if I could be so
forgiving.”
During Leno’s sentencing, Palo-
mar told Judge John Collins that
she had met privately with Leno
and that their meeting had been
healing for both of them.
Leno’s attorney, Kristen Winemi-
ller, explained to Collins that Leno
had been speaking out in the com-
munity and sharing his story with
other students in an effort to make
them aware of the consequences as-
sociated with drinking and driving.
“No matter what I do I can’t make
up for Matteo,” says Leno. “By go-
ing out and speaking if I can reach
at least one person; if one person
decides to make a different decision
because they listened to me, then
that’s a way of making up for it.”
Winemiller, now a partner at
Pacific Northwest Law, says she
was not surprised to hear that Leno
had served his sentence and was
working for the Tribe and doing
well. She also said she was not sur-
prised to learn that the relationship
between Leno and Palomar had not
only continued, but thrived.
“He had tremendous potential
and he had a very, very close rela-
tionship with her even as the case
was progressing,” says Winemiller.
“She was one of his very strongest
advocates. It was a very tragic
situation that he would have done
anything to be able to take back.
I remember him telling her at the
time that he wished he could have
substituted himself for her son.
“So when I got reports back from
MacLaren that he was doing well
there, that he was well-liked by
staff, that he was very involved in a
lot of cultural activities and academ-
ic pursuits, that was exactly what
I had hoped and expected to hear.”
Winemiller says she admires
Palomar.
“She’s an amazing person,” says
Winemiller. “Watching the way she
handled herself was uplifting. As
heart-wrenching as the whole sit-
uation was, it was also rewarding.
Just watching that relationship
that already existed between the
two of them and the way they held
each other up and moved each other
forward was really a treasure to be
able to be a part of and observe. She
is an exemplary human being.”
Winemiller believes Palomar’s
love and support played a role in
Leno doing so well after the acci-
dent and sentencing.
“I think it gave him a real sense
of real hopefulness and obligation
and brought with it some courage
that I think a lot of people just
don’t have,” says Winemiller. “It
was incredibly insightful and really
intelligent of her to recognize, even
as she was going through all of that
pain, how much influence she could
have on Brad by talking to him that
way on the front end. And it worked
beautifully.”
Brad’s uncle, Tribal Council
Chairman Reyn Leno, said he has
made good decisions after making
one really bad one.
“He went from a kid to an adult
in a second,” says Reyn Leno. “He
still has to live with that every day.”
Reyn Leno says he is thankful
to Palomar for her kindness and
compassion.
“She is remarkable to be that
open-minded,” he says. “It’s an
incredible situation and I think if
people really knew the whole story
they could learn a lot from them.
She was open-minded enough to
come up with the best solution
and it just shows that Tribes are
families.”
Palomar says getting to know
Brad has been a “wonderful” expe-
rience. The two had dinner together
in March.
“What an amazing young man.
He has become like my son,” says
Palomar. “It feels just like he is my
son. I’m pleased that God has put
us in each other’s lives.”
Brad says he is thankful for Palo-
mar and the support he gets from
her means a lot to him.
“This is a very unique situation,
but we have been able to come to-
gether and build a relationship out
of all of this,” says Brad. “Against
all odds. Who would have even
thought that was possible.”
Palomar says she has a message
for Tribal members she hopes they
will heed.
“My thought was I want every
Tribal member to realize that this
is pretty much the hardest thing
anyone will ever have to go through
– being part of the reason that
someone died or being the parent
of a child that is lost in this way,”
says Palomar. “It’s a hard thing,
but it doesn’t have to be the end;
that doesn’t have to be the dead
end of a life. He kept going and
kept going and has done so well. He
keeps reaching out to me like a son.
And so I want all Tribal members
to know: don’t give up. No matter
what you’re struggling through
right now, don’t give up.”
Palomar credits her faith for her
salvation.
Leno credits his salvation and his
redemption to her.
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