THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
An ending
that fails
to satisfy
The resolution of the criminal case against Shawn
Quentin Greenwood in the January 2020 shooting
death of Angela Parrish in Baker City might have
failed to satisfy anyone, regardless of their interest,
personal or otherwise, in the matter.
There will be no trial.
A jury of Greenwood’s peers will not have a chance
to review evidence and hear witnesses testify and
then determine whether the prosecution had proved
beyond a reasonable doubt that Greenwood was
guilty of fi rst-degree murder.
Greenwood will not put on a defense.
The question of his legal culpability in Parrish’s
death is not without an answer, to be sure.
On Sept. 3 Greenwood pleaded no contest to three
charges — criminally negligent homicide, fi rst-degree
burglary and attempting to elude law enforcement.
Though this isn’t equivalent to a guilty plea, it does
have the same legal effect. Judge Matt Shirtcliff sen-
tenced Greenwood to a total of 90 months in prison
on the three charges, although Greenwood, who has
been in the Baker County Jail since January 2020,
probably will be released in about 5½ years due to
credit for the time he has served.
As disappointing as this outcome might be to
those who believe Greenwood is guilty of murder
and deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison,
Baker County District Attorney Greg Baxter was in
an unenviable position. A signifi cant part of his case
against Greenwood was either banned from trial,
or potentially limited in its use. Baxter could hardly
be expected to go to trial with such a weakened
case and thus risk having Greenwood be acquitted.
Especially when he negotiated a plea deal in which
Greenwood, by pleading no contest, didn’t explicitly
admit his guilt but also accepted a conviction and
the resulting penalties.
Greenwood, meanwhile, faced his own choice: go
to trial against a weakened prosecution but also the
possibility of being convicted of fi rst-degree murder
and a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, or
take the plea deal and a much shorter prison term.
This unusual situation arose because of the al-
leged actions of Baker City Police Detective Shannon
Regan, the lead investigator in Parrish’s death. Bax-
ter concedes, both in court and in written motions,
that a forensic investigation conducted by the Oregon
Department of Justice found evidence that Regan’s
police department computer alone was used to access
and to play recordings of fi ve privileged phone calls
between Greenwood and his attorney, Jim Schaeffer
of La Grande.
Schaeffer fi led a motion seeking to dismiss all
charges against Greenwood. Shirtcliff denied that
part of the motion, but the judge did rule as inadmis-
sible a signifi cant amount of evidence that Regan
collected and was involved with. Baxter argued
that he should be allowed to call as witnesses other
offi cers who could testify about the evidence they
saw or helped to collect. But there was no guarantee
that Shirtcliff would have allowed those witnesses
to testify to that effect at trial. And even if they were
allowed, Baxter would have been forced to present
his case to a jury, about a fatal shooting, without be-
ing able to show jurors bullets and other potentially
vital evidence.
Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby put Regan on
paid administrative leave. She is the subject of a
criminal investigation related to the privileged
phone calls.
This situation highlights the American criminal
justice system’s commitment to protecting the con-
stitutional rights of defendants.
It also offers a dramatic reminder of how vital it is
that everyone involved in that system — including
police offi cers who investigate crimes — be scrupu-
lous in preserving those rights.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald
Your views
Quieting trains in Baker a matter of common sense
This letter is in rebuttal to the letter that was published
in the Aug. 28 edition of the Baker City Herald. It started
out to be a very interesting read. After the fi rst few para-
graphs it kind of went south. I’m not from “New Joisey” or
“New Yaak,” but I have been in Baker, not Baker City, for
the better part of my 74 years. I lived 1/2 block from the
railroad tracks when I was in junior high and high school.
At that time there were three or maybe four trains in a
24-hour period. Sometimes at night they wouldn’t even use
the air horn. Now it is just basically a solid blast all the way
through town, and there are somewhere between 24 and 30
trains in a 24-hour period.
The prevailing wind comes from the north. If you live on
the south side of the tracks, including the golf course, Hill-
crest and many offi ce buildings, including the Baker City
shops and yard, it is diffi cult to have meetings because they
have to pause their meetings since they can’t talk or hear
over the train whistles.
About the “nut cases from other places,” maybe you
should take a look around you. There are nut cases in
Oregon also; maybe even a few right here in Baker. As for
listening to the Sons of the Pioneers, I grew up with that
music. I don’t remember if they did the song “Hear that
lonesome whistle blow,” but I do remember that song and it
is no problem hearing the whistle blow now, if it just weren’t
so often and so loud! If this plan didn’t have benefi ts, why
would La Grande and Pendleton already have it done?
Safety for school kids, better property value, etc. It just takes
a little common sense.
“Change happens, live with it.”
You can follow this plan on Facebook at facebook.com/
shhtrain or sign a petition at bit.ly/qzbakere
Larry Smith
Baker City
Don’t like mandates? What would you do instead?
Don’t like Governor Brown’s handling the pandemic by
mandate? Think it curtails your freedom?
Have you considered these facts?
• Baker County’s vaccination rates are among the lowest in
the nation.
• Asking people to “please” get vaccinated is obviously not
working.
• Over 95% of persons admitted to hospitals lately are un-
vaccinated, which proves that the Moderna vaccine is safe and
effective, even against the surging delta variant.
• Oregon’s ICU’s are so full of unvaccinated patients, Gover-
nor Brown has mobilized Oregon National Guard units to help
hospitals deal with the COVID crisis, including St. Alphonsus
Hospital and Grande Ronde Hospital.
• While irresponsible unvaccinated patients are taking up
ICU beds, other patients urgently needing hospitalization have
to wait.
Given these circumstances, what would you do, if you were
governor of Oregon?
I’d really like to hear from you via email tubingen@eoni.com
or phone 541-523-6760.
Gary Dielman
Baker City
Complaints about rights misstating Constitution
Been pondering these “Constitutional” sheriffs’ grandstand-
ing letters to our governor about protecting the people’s rights
(Thank you Sheriff Ash for not getting caught up in this circus
sideshow) along with the constant whining about “my God
given Constitutional rights” and misbelief that state mandates
aimed at ending a local and worldwide health emergency, via
vaccines and masks, is somehow comparable to the Commies
or Nazis! Craziness as disturbing, scary and dangerous as it is
ridiculous. All this angry “minority” rhetoric had me picking up
a copy of the Constitution to fi nd out why “our” City Council
would think it wise or necessary to challenge the governor’s
mandates: “there is no ambiguity in Oregon’s vaccine or mask
requirements or the legal authority of Oregon OSHA to enforce
those requirements, districts must follow state law.”
First thing l discovered, “God” is not mentioned in the
Constitution. Therefore impossible that God had anything to
do with your Constitutional rights. Amendment XIV: Section
1 offers a shadow of hope: “No State shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States; nor deprive any person of life, liberty or
property, without due process of law.” These clauses are under
constant debate, none of it is defi ned? The expert consensus
defi nes it thus: Protection by the government of the enjoyment
of life and liberty subject nevertheless to such restraints as the
government may prescribe for the general good of the “whole.”
Imagine that! I didn’t read about anyone’s right to compromise
my health and liberty by ignoring scientifi c based mandates
protecting the “whole,” my neighbors, our children, from a
raging pandemic. I didn’t fi nd the right for a conspiracy driven
mayor and a partisan City Council to pursue a lawsuit against
its own state without a vote of the citizens? Another lawsuit
might be considered?
Finally. Laying with my head on a saddle, hearing a distant
steam locomotive’s whistle is nostalgic. Having a diesel mon-
ster roar past your home or school blaring a horn at decibels
that can impair you for life is insane ... get real.
Mike Meyer
Baker City
EDITORIAL
Brown rains on students’ parade
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown welcomed
students back to their schools Tuesday,
Sept. 7 with the equivalent of scrawling
F’s on their report cards and sending
them straight to the principal’s offi ce.
“It is with mixed emotions that we
are welcoming our kids back to school at
this time,” Brown said during a phone
call with the media.
The governor used the pronoun “we.”
She ought not be so presumptuous.
There is no doubt that for quite a lot
of students, parents, teachers and other
school staff, the resumption of in-person
classes was nothing like the ambivalent
occasion that Brown portrays.
It was joyful. Period.
Which it should be.
The delta variant is more contagious
than previous strains. Vaccination rates,
including in Baker County, are far too
low to prevent widespread infections.
Hundreds of Oregonians are being
treated in hospitals for severe COVID-19
cases. Dozens have died over the past
month. These facts are beyond dispute.
But schools are different.
They aren’t immune to this virus, of
course.
But there is ample reason to believe
that, given reasonable precautions of the
sort the Baker School District has em-
ployed, and continues to follow, includ-
ing masking indoors, health screenings
and frequent sanitation, students can
continue to attend school safely and
without contributing much, if at all, to
the virus’ spread.
But rather than celebrate this,
Brown and offi cials at the Oregon De-
partment of Education ushered in the
new school year by urging districts to
cancel or curtail extracurricular activi-
ties through at least Oct. 1.
This, the fi rst of what’s likely to be
a series of “School Health Advisories”
from the state, was announced under
the specter of closing schools and having
students return to the inaptly titled
“comprehensive distance learning,”
which is distant but hardly comprehen-
sive.
Colt Gill, director of the Department
of Education, offered a thinly disguised
warning that if schools fail to heed the
advisory, kids might soon end up sitting
in front of computers rather than at
their desks.
This isn’t entirely implausible, to be
sure.
Those who underestimate this virus
do so at their peril.
Yet it is not too much to expect that
Brown and other state offi cials, even
while acknowledging the legitimate
risks of in-person classes, and promoting
valuable precautions such as vaccina-
tions and masks, could be more enthu-
siastic about what is, for thousands of
families, a milestone accomplishment.
What students heard instead is that
they shouldn’t be allowed to play sports
and take part in other activities that are
such a vital part of the experience.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor