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OREGON NEWS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2019 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A The cost of dissent in Grant County ■ Former OSP officer Gordon Larson is pondering leaving his home due to extremists he claims are led by Sheriff Glenn Palmer By Emily Cureton Oregon Public Broadcasting Gordon Larson’s world burned in 2015. His ranch lost timber, livestock and infra- structure. His family’s house narrowly escaped the Canyon Creek Fire; 43 other homes in his Eastern Oregon commu- nity weren’t so lucky. More than four years later, Larson’s property shows a resolve to stay: new fences, a new water system and charred stumps in every direc- tion. “What we love about it is a sense of solitude and a sense of belonging to something big- ger than you,” Larson said. But after all the effort to recover, he and his wife have talked about leaving their home of more than 20 years. And not because they’re afraid of wildfi re. “The only reason is because we have a group of extrem- ists led by a sheriff,” said the 55-year-old former police offi cer. In 2014, Larson retired as an area commander for Oregon State Police after a 27-year career. He volunteered for 12 years on the Grant County School Board. Last year, he ran for a seat on the County Commission, “and I’ve regretted it every day since then because it began this nightmare,” he said. His opponent was Sam Palmer, younger brother of a controversial law enforcement offi cial in the region, Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. Larson lost the election deci- sively. During the campaign, the sheriff reported Larson for a timber theft that forest man- agers say never happened, and the sheriff’s supporters challenged his water rights. It’s not the fi rst time this sheriff stands accused of using the power of his offi ce, and the zeal of his supporters, to target people who criticize his activism. Larson is the latest to have a bitter feud with Palmer — a sheriff elected by a few thousand voters but supported by anti-government groups across the West known as the Patriot Movement — in an isolated community where many express disdain for state regulations. Larson said he clashed with this broader political shift to the right. Like Palmer, he is a registered Republican. “But they want to portray me as not a good enough Republican … or a Democrat,” Larson said. Palmer denied targeting his former law enforcement colleague. “I’ve always considered Gor- don a friend. When he retired, he did an about-face. I don’t know what I did, or whether it was the occupation tie-in,” the sheriff said. White House photo Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, shown on the right with arms raised above his head, appears in a White House Facebook photo from Sept. 27, 2019. Emily Cureton / Oregon Public Broadcasting Gordon Larson watches a stream fl ow on his Grant County ranch. and do it as neighbors. We don’t need your help.” That highway confrontation resulted in OSP offi cers fatally shooting a member of the Bundys’ group. Robert “Lavoy” Finicum became a martyr within the Patriot movement. Finicum attempted to break through a police roadblock, shouting “I’m going to go meet the sheriff,” and “You back down, or you kill me now,” before police shot him. Special deputies appointed by Palmer later accused Lar- son of having a role in inter- cepting the occupation leaders. The retired OSP commander with connections to the FBI was suspicious in the eyes of the Patriot movement. Even years later, Larson’s name appeared on a list of people accused “for the cold blooded murder of Lavoy.” “You will all be judged in time and will pay the fi ddler,” reads the public Facebook post by Jim Sproul, directed at Lar- son, among others. Sproul has a close connection to Palmer: He’s spoken on the sheriff’s behalf in news stories and was appointed by Palmer in 2014 as “public lands patrol,” according to county records. Sproul protested Larson’s use of irrigation water in June 2018, on the same day as David Traylor, another special deputy once appointed by Palmer. In Oregon, affi davits like this can trigger a rarely invoked state regulation to cancel water rights. Basically: Use it or lose it. If two people swear you aren’t using the water, you can lose your claim to it, unless you prove them wrong. “It’s just shy of $1,000 to have a judge hear our case,” Larson said. He cut a check to the Oregon Water Resources Department, which will make a decision based on the recom- mendation of an administra- tive law judge. In 2018, the agency’s own staff review of irrigation on ‘You will all be judged’ the property states nonuse The rivals agree on one wasn’t an issue. thing: 2016 was a turning Larson’s hearing has been point. The year opened with delayed several times, and in anti-government groups tak- an unusual move, the agency ing over the Malheur National has closed it to the public Wildlife Refuge in next-door “based on security concerns.” Harney County. In January, both Larson and ‘It’s their loss’ For years, Palmer has op- Palmer went to a meeting in Grant County where occupa- posed the U.S. Forest Service, tion leaders Ammon and Ryan arguing its land management Bundy were invited to speak. policies create poverty and Confusion and tension fi lled a wildfi re. He ended a contract packed room at the John Day so his deputies would no senior center as people waited longer patrol its campgrounds and roads. But in 2018, the for the Bundys to arrive. sheriff reached out to the Soon, information trickled in about a confrontation with agency to accuse Larson, his brother’s political opponent, of law enforcement on a snow- stealing logs. Palmer said he covered highway 60 miles didn’t initiate the report. away. Instead of the invited “It was given to me and I speakers, there were prayers and an open mic for people to forwarded it to the Forest Ser- vice. It’s a timber issue out of state their grievances. Larson was the only person our jurisdiction,” Palmer said. It’s unclear who made the to speak against the refuge occupation. “The Bundys and initial report, but the Forest Service put out a press release this entire group need to go home,” he said. “Maybe some at the time saying it acted on of us feel like we’ve been mis- information from the Grant treated by the Forest Service, County Sheriff’s Offi ce and found no evidence of stolen but by God, we can stand up timber. Still, the accusation continued to reverberate. A special deputy appointed by the sheriff in 2015 repeated the allegation to an environ- mental group, and it spread on social media. Palmer accused his own political opponent in 2012. In the weeks before an election, the sheriff made a complaint to OSP about Richard Gray, a John Day police offi cer run- ning against him. Palmer’s report claims Gray accessed fi les at the sheriff’s offi ce with- out permission. OSP declined to investigate, “as there was no indication of criminal activity,” a spokesman said. Palmer sent a memo to his staff banning Gray from the county jail and sheriff’s offi ce. Gray went on to become the John Day chief of police, and years later, he fi led an ethics complaint mentioning the incident. “I ran for Offi ce of Sheriff and during (the) election campaign, Glenn Palmer lied on several occasions accusing me of doing many dishon- est things,” Gray said in the complaint. Ironically, it was Larson, then a state police command- er, who Palmer called fi rst to report Gray, according to a report Palmer later deleted from his electronic records system. Palmer downplays any offi cial connection between himself and former special deputies like Sproul and Tray- lor. The sheriff opened a fi le cabinet and retrieved a hand- written letter of resignation signed by Sproul, dated July 2016. That’s two years before Sproul challenged Larson’s water rights and about three weeks before The Oregonian published an investigation about Palmer’s practice of credentialing his supporters. Palmer said except for search and rescue, the depu- ties have resigned or their credentials lapsed. In 2016, the local manager of 911 services was among those to contact the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training with concerns about the special deputies’ access to law enforcement information. After her complaint, dispatchers who coordinate fi rst responders across a 4,500-square-mile area lost access to arrest histories and other records kept by the sheriff’s offi ce. “There have been many times where offi cers will ask us about something, and we’ll say, ‘We don’t have access. We can’t look at that,’ ” according to Valerie Maynard, dispatch manager for Grant County Emergency Communications Agency. “Denying us informa- tion is not a benefi t to the public. It boggles my mind, honestly.” Palmer defended the move in an email: “We have cases that are sensitive and confi - dential. … They are a dispatch center and under our contract should be answering our phones and radios. They are not an investigative agency.” During an interview, he was dismissive of the complaints the state standards agency has received about him — at least 14 since 2016. “I know I’ve got some people out there that don’t like me and that’s their prerogative,” Palmer said. “It’s their loss.” Ammon Bundy came to Palmer’s defense in a 2016 Facebook video, to say the state has no authority over the Grant County sheriff and to “encourage all people who love to be free to stand with Sheriff Palmer and help defend the people’s power as a republic.” Palmer has his own history of activism. This year, a lob- bying group paid his way to Washington, D.C., to attend events focused on “illegal alien crime.” In 2012, he accepted a nod for “constitutional sheriff of the year” by a national group that considers sheriffs the “ultimate law enforcement authority in their respective jurisdictions.” “It’s been slow to heal follow- Palmer plans to run for a sixth term as sheriff in 2020, ing the Canyon Creek Complex as he fends off his latest ethics Fire,” he told a local reporter in 2018, while he was running for complaint. county commissioner against ‘I have become an extremist’ Sam Palmer. “People view each Larson fi led a complaint other through a political prism against Palmer in August, rather than if they are good though the roots of their neighbors.” confl ict date back years. He The divisions have taken a fi rst publicly criticized Palmer’s toll on Larson. He describes leadership during the Malheur feeling betrayed by the state occupation. Before that, at he once worked for, and he’s the same time the sheriff was taken his own drastic actions becoming the darling of anti- to hold it accountable, like se- government groups, the state cretly taping calls with public police commander gathered offi cials, “because I don’t trust intelligence about them. them.” “I was part of the Oregon After the fi re, the occupa- Department of Justice Titan tion, the ongoing feud with group, which monitored ex- Palmer, Larson starts to sound tremism,” Larson said. as edgy and paranoid as the Soon after he retired from type of anti-government activ- law enforcement, the 2015 ist he might have monitored. Canyon Creek Fire burned “I have become an extrem- more private property than ist against bad cops. I have any Oregon wildfi re in the become an extremist against past 80 years. Resentment liars, and I’ve become an ex- rose from the ashes in Grant tremist against state agencies County, as residents demanded that participate in trying to an investigation into the U.S. destroy someone’s livelihood Forest Service’s response. and take their water,” Larson Larson said he focused on said. rebuilding from the losses on “At least for the time being, his ranch. that’s me.” Dream Home 8 2 3 1 4 6 5 7 Electrical By: E astern O regon E lectric, I nc. Brent Joseph, owner CCB 151441 541-523-9176 1 Lumber by: Insurance from Miller’s Lumber & Truss Lighting & Cabinets 3815 Pocahontas Gregg Hinrichsen 1722 Campbell 541-523-7778 2 Paper Delivered by Vinyl Windows by: Baker City Herald NeHi Enterprises 1915 First Street ccb#155399 4 Call to have your home related business added to this ad monthly Storage Building from Roof By: Countryside Sheds D&H Roofing www.countrysidesheds.com & Construction Inc. Shop Display: 10102 S. 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