BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, NovEmBER 5, 2022 A3
LOCAL
“The investigation is
ongoing into possible
co-conspirators and
more charges against
other individuals are
anticipated.”
— Baker City
Police Chief Ty Duby
Arrest
Continued from A3
“The investigation is on-
going into possible co-con-
spirators and more charges
against other individuals are
anticipated,” according to
Duby’s press release.
The circumstances of
the incident that led to the
charges against Winston are
detailed in a probable cause
affidavit from Baker City
Police Sgt. Wayne Chastain.
The investigation started
when Chastain and Duby
met on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at
the Baker County Jail with
an inmate.
The inmate told Chastain
and Duby that a few weeks
earlier he and his girlfriend,
along with Winston and an-
other man, drove to Pendle-
ton to buy fentanyl. Accord-
ing to the affidavit, Winston
had sold a boat and wanted
to use the money to buy fen-
tanyl.
The inmate said the group
bought fentanyl and then
drove back to La Grande,
where police stopped their
car, arrested Winston and
seized the fentanyl.
About a week later, the
inmate said, he was with
his girlfriend at his grand-
mother’s home in Baker
City.
He said Winston and
a man came to the home,
threatened him and his girl-
friend with a revolver and
told the pair to get in their
car or they would hurt the
inmate’s grandmother.
Winston and the man
drove the inmate and his
girlfriend to 1690 Indiana
Ave., where, according to
the inmate, Winston and
several other people as-
saulted him and his girl-
friend and another man
who had also been in the car
in La Grande when police
confiscated the fentanyl.
The inmate said Winston
broke a chair over his girl-
friend’s head, causing a cut,
cut her hair off with a knife
and slapped her face, giving
her a black eye.
The inmate said Winston
and two other men wouldn’t
let them leave the home
until they had repaid Win-
ston for the fentanyl, and
threatened them with a dou-
ble-barrel shotgun.
The inmate said he of-
fered to steal tools from a
Baker City shed as partial
repayment for the fentanyl.
According to Chastain’s affi-
davit, a Baker City resident
reported the theft of tools, as
the inmate described, in the
early morning of Oct. 25.
The inmate said that
when he returned to 1690
Indiana Ave. after stealing
the tools, his girlfriend had
secured $200 through a cash
app and given it to Winston.
Later that morning, Win-
ston drove the inmate and
his girlfriend to his grand-
mother’s home and let them
go.
The inmate was arrested
later that day in Baker City
and has been in the jail
since.
Chastain wrote in his af-
fidavit that he and Duby, af-
ter interviewing the inmate,
talked with his girlfriend and
his grandmother. The girl-
friend corroborated most of
the inmate’s account.
Chastain wrote in his af-
fidavit that the inmate’s girl-
friend told him that the day
after the alleged assault at
1690 Indiana, she had con-
tact with Baker City Police
officer Justin Prevo, who
asked her about the inju-
ries to her face. She said she
told Prevo she had been in
a fight.
Prevo confirmed the
story, and told Chastain that
he had body camera footage
of the conversation.
The inmate’s girlfriend
also told Chastain that a
couple days after the inci-
dent at 1690 Indiana, Win-
ston and a man came to the
home where she was staying
and stole a duffle bag and
other items.
Myatt
Continued from A1
Besides the in-person
crowd, the event was lives-
treamed on TV, Chase said.
Among those watching on
TV, back in Baker City, were
Chase’s parents, Jill and Nick.
“We watched it live, it was
really neat,” Jill Myatt said.
“Because we didn’t know what
he placed either.”
Chase was honored for his
work studying, and promot-
ing, something of a niche in
the livestock industry — rab-
bits.
With his younger brother,
Tyler, he raises rabbits on the
family’s Feather Goat Farm,
combining research with en-
trepreneurship.
Chase’s research project in-
cludes charting meat yields
from individual rabbits, and
analyzing how to produce
quality and virtually fat-free
meat. His project won the
first-place award at the Or-
egon FFA state competition
in July.
“We are so proud of Chase
and all of his work in this proj-
ect,” said Bibiana Gifft, FFA ag-
ricultural teacher for the Baker
School District. “Many people
don’t realize that students in
the agriculture sciences pro-
gram conduct rigorous scien-
tific research projects.”
By winning the state com-
petition, Chase qualified for
the national convention Oct.
26-29.
Gifft says the program has
seen some tremendous imag-
ination and vested effort since
its inception in 1928, and
that the students are regularly
pushing new techniques.
“Students have tested the
effect magnetism has on plant
growth, compared water fil-
tration for sediment and pu-
rity, and examined methods
to prevent food spoilage,” Gifft
said. “Every student selects
Dementia
Continued from A1
But many seniors, even in
Baker County, don’t live close to
family and don’t have a strong
support system. This often
makes living with dementia
overwhelming for them and
for their spouses or other care
partners.
These conditions have led to
the formation of a group known
as Dementia Friendly Baker
County. Beth Mastel-Smith,
a professor at the University
of Texas at Tyler, is helping
to guide the development of
this local organization. Mas-
tel-Smith lives in Baker City and
teaches remotely in the universi-
ty’s nursing program.
The group’s goal is to help
people with dementia live in-
dependently for as long as pos-
sible.
The first steps toward that
goal are assessing the com-
munity’s needs and educating
residents so they can respond
effectively to a variety of situa-
tions. This is especially import-
ant for people in retail, banking,
restaurants, law enforcement
and other areas most likely to
involve interaction with people
who have dementia.
Many people use the terms
dementia and Alzheimer’s dis-
ease interchangeably. However,
dementia, which is also known
as neuro-cognitive disorder, is
actually the umbrella term for
a group of symptoms which
may be caused by a number of
conditions. Alzheimer’s disease
is the most common, but there
could be as many as 100 other
conditions, as explained by
doctors Nancy Mace and Peter
Rabins in their highly regarded
book, “The Thirty-six Hour
Day.” One example is vascu-
lar dementia, which may result
from a series of small strokes or
diseases that affect the arteries
in the brain. Two of the other
more common dementias are
Lewy body dementia and fron-
to-temporal dementia.
The causes, symptoms, treat-
ment and prognosis of those
conditions vary. Symptoms of
dementia can include impaired
ability to remember, organize
information, reason, plan, speak
or move (affecting walking,
writing, etc.). Confusion may
be evident in areas such as time,
location and language. Some
people experience significant
changes in moods or in per-
sonality, and some may experi-
ence paranoia or hallucinations.
Symptoms may vary from one
day to the next, although the
trend is continued decline over
time.
Contributed Photo
Chase Myatt on stage, second from left, before a crowd of 67,000
people, being honored for his work in rabbitry on Oct. 29, 2022.
their own research topic, and
we are honored that Chase
was recognized at such a pres-
tigious level and is able to im-
plement his research findings
directly into his business.”
Gifft, along with Baker’s
FFA educator Nicole Mer-
chant, were recognized for
their own work with the FFA
in December 2021, when they
received the Outstanding
Middle/Secondary Agricul-
tural Award for an 11-state re-
gion. The pair traveled to New
Orleans to receive the award.
National FFA convention
Merchant said Chase com-
peted in the National FFA
Agriscience Fair, which is part
of the convention.
“To qualify, FFA mem-
bers working as individuals
or teams in grades seventh
through 12th grades are re-
quired to conduct a scientific
research project pertaining to
the agriculture or food science
industries and win their state’s
FFA agriscience fair,” Mer-
chant said.
“Chase competed in Ani-
mals Systems Division 1 and
placed fourth in the nation
with his project titled ‘Process-
ing Age to Maximize Profits of
Meat Rabbits’, ” Merchant said.
“He found through weigh-
ing his live rabbits weekly and
tracking his feed inputs that the
most profitable age to butcher
a meat rabbit is 10 weeks. As
he grows his business this will
help him turn a greater profit
and provide a better product
for his customers.”
The trip wasn’t all business
for Chase and the nine other
Baker FFA students who at-
tended the national conven-
tion.
“It was really nice, we were
gone for a week,” Chase said.
“When we were in Louisville
we went to the Mammoth
Caves, and the Henry Clay es-
tate, and also Keeneland, the
horse racing track.”
Although Chase was Bak-
er’s lone award winner at the
national event, the other stu-
dents attended “to build lead-
ership skills, connect with
business and industry leaders,
network with colleges, and
gain more agriculture and
FFA knowledge,” Merchant
said.
The other Baker partici-
pants: Jose Armenta, Makayla
Rabourne, Sage Baker, Mason
Downing, Zoey Justus, Ethan
Morgan, Seth Holden, Ella
Wilde and Colton Clark.
Armenta placed 21st in
Plant Systems, Division 3.
Another student, Henry
Hester, who has moved out of
Oregon and didn’t go on the
trip, was 11th in Natural Re-
source Systems, Division 1.
Chase said he spent a lot of
time posing in front of the dis-
play for his research project,
answering occasional ques-
tions from passers-by.
The officials who judged
the projects had already done
their assessments remotely in
September.
What came next, however,
was anything but dull.
“When I went up on stage
there were 67,000 people there
watching,” Chase said.
Chase says he hasn’t been
idle since getting his national
merit. He intends to expand
his rabbit business.
“I wanted to thank Tami
Foltz, she was my 4-H leader,
and when I started 4-H in
fourth grade she got us into
raising rabbits and has been
mentoring me for the last few
years,” Chase said.
He also thanked Gifft and
Merchant, who inspired him
to submit his work for judging
at the state level, which led to
to his national honor.
“I also wanted to thank the
Baker FFA chapter and all of
the members for supporting
me,” Chase said.
Importance of Evaluation
Other reasons include, “a sig-
nificant change in personality
Making the subject even
more complicated are the many or loss of appetite, or difficulty
sleeping.”
other conditions that might
An evaluation is important
have some similar symptoms.
for a number of reasons.
These include mental illness,
1. It is necessary to determine
brain injury, drug interactions,
the cause of the symptoms so
and even urinary tract infec-
tions in older people. Milder
appropriate steps can be taken.
symptoms like occasional for-
Infections, for example, can be
getfulness or mis-
treated with anti-
The group’s goal biotics leading to
understanding are
quick recovery.
normal experi-
is to help people a Dementia,
ences of aging and
on the
with dementia live other hand, is usu-
not symptoms of
permanent
dementia.
independently for ally
and progressive,
To sort all of
as long as possible. but some treat-
this out, it is im-
ments may reduce
portant to consult
symptoms.
with a medical professional. A
2. Understanding the person’s
common general guideline is
to seek help when memory and condition will guide decisions
about health and safety, includ-
thinking ability seem to decline
ing things like cooking, taking
significantly and impact life
medications, driving, and living
functions and safety.
alone.
LuAnn Cook is an adult
3. Financial and legal issues
nurse practitioner at St. Luke’s
get more complicated as de-
E.O.M.A. clinic in Baker City
mentia progresses.
who works with many elderly
4. An early diagnosis gives
patients. She advises seeing a
medical provider, “if the person time for planning and making
adjustments in care. Finding
is having symptoms of short-
care givers can be a slow and
term memory loss or difficulty
difficult process.
using familiar equipment, such
5. A diagnosis may provide
as a microwave or stove.”
Gerald Floyd “Jerry” Grover
June 4 1939 - October 28, 2022
Gerald Floyd “Jerry” Grover,
83, of Baker City, Oregon, passed
away on October 28, 2022, at his
residence. A private graveside
service will be held in the near
future in Bend, Oregon.
Jerry was born on June 4,
1939, in Cortland, New York. He
graduated from Marathon High
School in Marathon, New York.
After high school, Jerry attended the New York State
Ranger School and studied environmental science and
forestry. After moving to Oregon, Jerry worked for the
Forest Service and fought wildfires on the Hot Shot
crew out of Redmond, Oregon. In 1968, Jerry earned
a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University
and was able to pursue his dream of being a wildlife
biologist. Jerry worked for the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife for 30 years, retiring in 1998.
On June 14, 1964, Jerry married Barbara L. Winslow
in Bend, Oregon, and together they had two daughters,
Cheryl and Amy.
Jerry loved wildlife and nature, and in his spare time,
he enjoyed hunting, fishing, taking road trips, gardening,
bird watching, Indian beadwork, and reading.
Jerry is survived by his daughters, Cheryl (Harold)
Myers, of Denham Springs, Louisiana, and Amy White
of Baker City, Oregon; brother, Benjamin Grover of
Marathon, New York; and his grandchildren, Nicholas,
Alyssa, Ryan, Jayme, Chandler and Kameron.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara L.
Grover, and his grandson, Tristan.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be
made to an animal charity of your choice through Gray’s
West & Co. Pioneer Chapel at 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker
City, OR 97814.
To leave an online condolence for the family of
Gerald, please visit: www.grayswestco.com.
opportunities for participation
in clinical trials.
6. Understanding of the con-
dition(s) will help guide interac-
tions with the affected person.
It can reduce unrealistic expec-
tations or assumptions about
the person’s behavior and mo-
tivation. (e.g., “She’s just being
stubborn.”)
7. Some dementias have ge-
netic elements. Knowing your
family medical history may help
family members recognize and
respond to signs of cognitive
impairment.
Mace and Rabins remind
their readers that, “Even when
the disease itself cannot be
stopped, much can be done to
improve the quality of life of
people who have dementia and
Requests
Continued from A1
“I’m a little concerned with the
unintended consequences of all of
these,” Harvey said.
Harvey said he would like all de-
partments to consult with commis-
sioners before applying for grants.
“Please come to us with your
ideas, concerns, wants, and wishes
before moving forward to get pub-
lic support,” Harvey said.
Commissioner Mark Bennett,
who, along with Harvey, will end
his term Dec. 31, 2022, agreed.
“The awkward part is that if they
go out and get grants and we’re not
aware of it, and we don’t sign off,”
Bennett said. “And the rule is, his-
torically what we’ve done, was that
any of them over $5,000 require at
least the commissioners’ signatures
or the commission chair’s signa-
ture. I think we need to follow that
policy because there’s lots of com-
plications.”
The county does not have a pol-
icy requiring departments applying
for grants of more than $5,000 to
get approval in advance.
Commissioner Bruce Nichols
said if they decide to have that writ-
ten policy, all departments should
follow it.
“I don’t want to have microman-
agement of various departments
but if they’re significant to the con-
sequences for a grant that’s going
to affect the rest of the county, then
yes it’s necessary that we have that
before the commission board so we
can see what those ramifications
might be and what the cost might
be,” Nichols said.
Nichols, whose term continues
through 2024, said he does not
have a problem with the Aftermath
K9 Grant, saying the dog would
pay for itself and save a “tremen-
dous amount of manpower hours
and dollars the county would be
putting out on a search and rescue
mission.”
“I think it’s probably a very good
idea that we go along with this but
it would be nice to know a bit more
about it, too,” Nichols said.
their family members. ... it is
important to remember that
confused people and their fam-
ilies do still experience joy and
happiness.”
The Dementia Friendly Baker
County task force will continue
to meet and share information
on topics such as Alzheimer dis-
ease, caring for a person with
dementia, self-care, and other
related topics. In addition, op-
portunities for learning, respite,
and recreation will be discussed.
For more information or to
share ideas about related needs
in Baker County, please call
Beth Mastel-Smith at 713-416-
5690 or email her at
bmastelsmith@uttyler.edu.
Online resources are available
at alz.org and dfamerica.org.
Bruce Emery Clark
January 7, 1947 - October 30, 2022
Bruce Emery Clark was born
in Portland, Oregon, on January 7,
1947, to Harry and Nadine Clark.
He graduated from Wilson High
School in 1966 and was drafted
and joined the Navy and served
until honorably discharged in
1968. Bruce met his wife, Denese
Elskamp, in 1974 and they were
married in 1977. They had one son,
Ian Mathew Clark, born in 1978, and they also received
custody of his daughters, Lisa and Jessica. Bruce
continued his education and graduated from Portland
Community College with a degree in electronics. He
worked at several high tech companies in the Portland
area including OECO as a quality engineer, Sequent/
IBM as a senior supplier engineer, Radysis as a
senior manufacturing engineer, and Danaher as senior
manufacturing engineer. He retired in 2016 at the age
of 69. In 2018 he bought Denese her dream home in
Baker City. He loved the small town environment and
the many new friendships he formed. He loved to hang
out at the Bearded Dog and VFW.
Bruce lived life to the fullest and spent many years
traveling to Mexico to vacation, scuba dive, and drink
tequila. Music was his passion, he always had to have
the finest stereo equipment and enjoyed listening to
his extensive collection of concert DVD’s. His other
hobbies were reading, building computers, fine dining,
and he was considered an expert on wine and micro
beers. He also spent most of his summers camping and
loved the outdoors, especially Rockaway Beach. Bruce
and Denese spent the last 2 summers before his illness
traveling in their motor home and covered Northern
California and the entire Oregon Coast. Even though
he did not practice any particular religion he was very
spiritual and read the entire Bible. He was a loving
husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. His
passion and integrity to those he loved was unwavering.
His infectious smile and laugh will live on forever.
Bruce is survived by his wife of 45 years, Denese
Elskamp Clark, son, Ian Clark (Margie), Lisa Clark and
Jessica Merrick. Grandchildren, Kayla Londos, Josie
Merrick, Douglas Merrick, Ryan Maughmer, Kenzie
Denniston, Urijah Clark, Emery Sue Clark. Great-
granddaughter, Chevy Maughmer. Cousins Michael
(Pam), Tom (Jill), David (Lois) Maurice, and Margret
and Russ Stillwell.
He was preceded in death by his father and mother,
Harry and Nadine Clark, sister, Janet Clark, mother-in-
law, Bette Elskamp, and brother-in-law, Jim Elskamp.