LOCAL
THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021
CHARGED
and was physically removed by police, ac-
cording to a press release from the Baker
Continued from Page 1A
County Sheriff’s Offi ce.
Kirby was arraigned Tuesday, June 8 in
According to a report from Deputy Gabe
Baker County Circuit Court. She is sched- Maldonado, Kirby entered the Sell-Rite
uled to enter a plea to the charges during a store twice. The fi rst time, Kirby took sev-
hearing June 23 at 1:30 p.m. Bail was set eral food and pet food items, with a total
at $12,000.
value of less than $100, and pushed the
The incident started about 4:31 p.m.
cashier twice.
when the Baker County Dispatch center
Kirby then left the store but returned
received a report of a theft at the Haines
a few moments later, again pushing the
Sell-Rite store. A woman allegedly took
cashier while trying to take cigarettes, ac-
items without paying, and pushed the
cording to Maldonado’s report. The cashier
cashier. Store employees told police that
had “substantial” shoulder pain but didn’t
the woman had driven away, and they
need medical treatment, Maldonado wrote.
described the gray car.
He wrote that Kirby used her turn
While deputies were driving toward
signal at a wide spot in the highway near
Haines on Highway 30, they saw the sus- Milepost 46, about four miles north of
pect’s vehicle, a 2013 Dodge Dart, driving
Baker City, but then continued driving
south, toward Baker City, near Milepost
south on Highway 30.
45 at Chandler Corner, about midway
Kirby signaled and slowed again near
between the two towns.
Wingville Road, but then pulled back onto
Deputies turned around and tried to
the highway.
stop the vehicle, but the driver pulled over
After driving about 100 feet along a
a few times, each time driving away again private driveway on 10th Street, Kirby
before coming to a complete stop, said
refused to leave the vehicle when police,
Ashley McClay, public information offi cer
with guns drawn, ordered her to get out,
for the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce.
according to Maldonado’s report.
Three Sheriff’s Offi ce cars were involved
She was “subsequently physically pulled
in the pursuit, McClay said. Speeds were
out of the vehicle as she held onto the
55 to 60 mph.
steering wheel, then fl ailed her arms and
Baker City Police Detective Chris Sells legs to keep from being apprehended,”
deployed spike strips near Chico Lane,
Maldonado wrote.
near the city limits. The strips defl ated two
According to Maldonado’s report, Kirby
of the car’s tires, but Kirby continued driv- “showed signs of being under the infl uence
ing south, pulling into a private driveway of narcotics.”
on 10th Street south of Hughes Lane.
She also told Maldonado that she had
Kirby refused to get out of the vehicle
money in her purse to pay for the items.
GUILTY
through two stop signs.
Clawson’s arrest happened 10
Continued from Page 1A
days after he deposited $145,200
Baker City Police offi cer Justin
from a federal loan into an account
Prevo arrested Clawson at 11:45 p.m. at Umpqua Bank that Clawson and
on Aug. 21, 2020, at the intersection
his girlfriend had opened.
of Second Street and Auburn Avenue,
Clawson received the Economic
according to court records. His earli- Injury Disaster Loan through the
est release date on that conviction is Small Business Administration
Dec. 17, 2021, according to Oregon
(SBA). That was one of the fi nan-
Department of Corrections records.
cial aid programs included in the
Clawson, who was driving the
CARES Act that Congress passed in
2016 Dodge Challenger he bought
late March 2020.
with part of the federal loan, failed
According to court documents,
to stop and drove south, running
shortly after depositing the
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
HARVEY
Continued from Page 3A
Bill Harvey requests that
the Ethics Commission dismiss
all allegations that he received
more money for mileage and
meals during the spring and
summer of 2020 than is autho-
rized under the county’s travel
policy.
The case started when Greg
Baxter, Baker County district
attorney, filed a complaint with
the Ethics Commission on Sept.
16, 2020. The Ethics Commis-
sion voted 6-0 on Nov. 6, 2020,
to assign an investigator to look
into the allegations in Baxter’s
letter.
during a brief conversation at
the County Courthouse, that
he had found docks for sale and
that he planned to have his son
help him with move. Bennett
told Myers, the Ethics Commis-
sion investigator, that he didn’t
consider his statement an official
approval of Harvey’s plan but
rather a “conceptual” idea, one
that would be decided by all
three commissioners during a
public meeting.
But Harvey contends that,
given the limited time frame, he
took Bennett’s statement as tacit
approval.
“It is foolish to think that
(Bennett) thought my request
was conceptual and that the
plan would come back to the
County Commission consider-
ing there was only a three-day
window of time,” Harvey wrote
in his response to the Ethics
Commission. “If Commissioner
Bennett had said ‘no we need
to review this,’ of course I would
have not gone forward.”
sioners — Bennett and Bruce
Nichols — tabled the matter, he
withdrew his proposal. His son
wasn’t hired to do any work on
the building.
Reimbursements
Myers, after reviewing reim-
bursement forms for Harvey’s
travel, mainly to the county’s
Hewitt and Holcomb parks near
Richland, concluded that Harvey
submitted 32 mileage requests
at a rate of 54.5 cents per mile.
That’s the higher of the county’s
two rates, and one paid only
when no county vehicle is avail-
able. When an employee chooses
to use a personal vehicle, even if
a county vehicle is available, the
mileage reimbursement rate is
Moving docks
35 cents per mile.
Harvey concedes that he
The 32 requests that Harvey
hired his son to help move the
submitted totaled $535.42 more
docks, and that the county paid
than he would have received
William Harvey $1,710 for the
under the 35-cent rate, Myers
work.
wrote.
In his May written response
In his written response to the
to the Ethics Commission, Bill
Ethics Commission, Harvey
Harvey wrote that there was a
notes that none of the three
Building work
three-day window to move the
available vehicles Myers men-
In his written response to the tions in her report is a pickup
docks, and that he mentioned
his plan to hire his son to fellow Ethics Commission, Harvey
truck.
concedes that he proposed hiring
Commissioner Mark Bennett.
Harvey wrote that he used
Harvey said Bennett told him his son to help with demolition
his personal work pickup, rather
on the building at 2200 Fourth
the idea “sounds good to me.”
than one of the county vehicles,
St. But the elder Harvey said
Bennett said in January
because he needed a pickup
2021 that Harvey did mention, that after the two other commis- truck to haul various items.
$145,200, Clawson made multiple
large cash withdrawals at the drive-
thru window of the Umpqua Bank
branch in Baker City.
On Aug. 17 he received a $49,905
cashier’s check from the bank to buy
the Dodge Challenger.
Umpqua Bank investigators not-
ed the unusual activity on Clawson’s
account and reported it to the SBA.
SBA loan documents showed
that the loan was made to benefi t
Halperin Manufacturing Company
in San Diego, California. Though
there is no record of any such
company, the loan application listed
the company’s owner and claimed it
employed 350 people. Investigators
contacted the person listed as the
owner, but that person denied own-
ing or being affi liated with any such
company.
In early September 2020, inves-
tigators from the SBA and the U.S.
Secret Service learned about Claw-
son’s arrest near Baker City while
driving the Dodge Challenger.
Clawson later told authorities that
he had received a large inheritance
from his father, including $30,000 in
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cash he had on his person during a
subsequent arrest.
On Sept. 11, investigators in-
terviewed Clawson at the Baker
County Jail. Clawson claimed to have
received the $145,200 from a woman
with whom he had an online dating
relationship. He said he didn’t know
what to do with the money and, after
he stopped communicating with the
woman, he started spending the
money. Clawson admitted to using
the SBA money to purchase the
Dodge Challenger and several other
vehicles.
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