The BulleTin • Thursday, March 4, 2021 A13
COVID-19
Oregon
reaches
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The Associated Press
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ABOVE: Boneyard Beer has been acquired by Deschutes Brewery. The deal is expected to help Boneyard expand its capacity to can beer, a process that proved challenging during
the pandemic. BOTTOM LEFT: Celia Ripple walks through the Huppmann brewhouse Wednesday while interning at the Deschutes Brewery on Simpson Avenue in Bend. BOTTOM
RIGHT: The founder of Boneyard Beer will maintain ownership of Boneyard Pub, located at 1955 NE Division St. in Bend.
Beer
Continued from A1
“It’s an exciting deal. In our 33
years of being in business, this is the
first time we have been involved in
a deal like this,” said Fish. “The op-
portunities are great, and we look
forward to digging in and realizing
those.”
The deal allows Boneyard to move
its production and canning opera-
tions to the Deschutes Brewery pro-
duction facility near the Old Mill Dis-
trict. The deal will make Lawrence
a shareholder of Deschutes Brewery
and an employee. He will continue to
be responsible for the direction and
production of Boneyard’s beer, said
Fish.
Bart Watson, the Brewers Associa-
tion chief economist, said there have
been a number of similar deals in
recent years. Trend shows that buy-
ers are looking for brands with either
strong growth potential or that help
to diversify their existing portfolios.
Sellers, he said, are generally looking
for access to capital, scale and distri-
bution.
“Brewing is very competitive, and
that competitiveness has increased
in recent years,” said Watson. “The
pandemic has exacerbated the pres-
sure on breweries as craft brewer
sales have dropped due to the higher
percentage of draught beer that craft
brewers tend to sell.”
Crash
Continued from A1
He even blamed Edwards
herself, telling police she was
“probably putting on makeup”
at the time.
But on Wednesday in De-
schutes County Circuit Court,
Cooper, 43, struck a different
tone at his sentencing hearing,
tearfully asking Edwards’ fam-
ily for forgiveness.
“I’m sorry for the loss of
your daughter. I wish I could
give you answers. I wish I
could give you your daughter
back, and that will never be
able to happen. I know how
much that must hurt,” he said.
Cooper, who had no prior
criminal record, pleaded guilty
last month to one count of
criminally negligent homi-
cide, for which he will serve 18
months with the Department
of Corrections, and his driv-
er’s license will be revoked for
“They shouldn’t notice anything at all. The branding will be
same, the same artwork, the same attitude, still brewed in
Bend, Oregon. Any brewing of Boneyard at Deschutes will
be under the strict supervision of Boneyard Beer owner Tony
Lawrence himself. He will supervise the flavor match. We
look forward to that process.”
— Gary Fish, founder of Deschutes Brewery Inc.
The agreement takes effect in 30
days. Fish said he is not anticipating
any job losses from the deal and from
the consumer’s perspective, nothing
will change.
“They shouldn’t notice anything
at all,” said Fish. “The branding will
be same, the same artwork, the same
attitude, still brewed in Bend, Or-
egon. Any brewing of Boneyard at
Deschutes will be under the strict
supervision of Tony himself. He will
supervise the flavor match. We look
forward to that process.”
Lawrence, who grew up in Bend
and has previously worked for De-
schutes Brewery, agrees that the end
product won’t look any different but
will simply become more widely
available.
“For our customers that will be a
great thing,” said Lawrence. “The liq-
uids we produce will be as quality and
interesting as they ever have been.”
Boneyard is expected to benefit
life. Cooper relocated since the
crash from Redmond to Island
City in Eastern Oregon.
“There are no words that
will adequately express the
depth of pain from the loss
of sweet Sara,” said Edwards’
mother, Shauna Silveira. “Our
family is forever shattered. The
brokenness will be with us the
rest of our lives.”
It was early on the morning
of March 21, 2019. The sun
was not yet up and it was cold
and Highway 97 was slightly
wet, though it was not raining,
according to Deschutes County
Deputy District Attorney An-
drew Steiner, who represented
the state in the case.
The three drivers involved
in the crash were each head-
ing to work. One was Edwards,
driving from her home in Red-
mond to her job as a fashion
merchandiser at the Bend J.C.
Penney, a position she was
“fiercely” proud of, according
from Deschutes Brewery’s network
of distribution, which goes out to 35
states and some international loca-
tions. Fish said they will first target
markets along the West Coast.
“We think there is terrific demand
out there,” he said.
Boneyard, which produced 30,000
barrels of beer in 2019, is a recent
entrant to canned beer. For 12 years
the company relied on its draft-sales,
but that became challenging when
COVID-19 hit and pubs and bars
were forced to close their doors.
In April last year, Boneyard an-
nounced it would start selling canned
beer and take advantage of surging
sales of beer at grocery stores as con-
sumers focused on drinking at home
and at virtual parties.
But the journey into mass can-
ning proved challenging and “created
enormous logistical issues,” said Law-
rence. The agreement with Deschutes
allows Boneyard to produce more
to her obituary.
Driving a Mack concrete
truck in the opposite direction
was Michael Cucera, 36. The
other driver, Cooper, resided
just south of Red-
mond in the Desert
Terrace Mobile Estates
on the highway’s west
side.
Prosecutors said
Cooper pulled par-
tially into the south-
bound slow lane, caus- Cooper
ing Edwards to swerve
to avoid him.
Crash reconstruction anal-
ysis shows Edwards swerved
left to avoid Cooper, then over-
corrected, lost control and
went into a fishtail. Her vehicle
veered left, crossing all lanes of
traffic.
She was hit head-on by
Cucera’s truck and died in-
stantly.
“Her car was mangled be-
yond recognition,” Steiner said.
canned beer.
“I have always been curious what
would happen if Boneyard was in
all the chain stores up and down the
West Coast. This partnership will be
the catalyst to do so,” said Lawrence.
The acquisition is not the first big
brewery deal in Bend. In 2014, An-
heuser-Busch bought Bend craft
brewer 10 Barrel Brewing Co.
For Deschutes Brewery, the acqui-
sition is welcome news after a chal-
lenging year. In May, the company
announced it was laying off 60% of
its workforce amid the COVID lock-
downs. That came on the heels of a
10% workforce reduction in 2018
when the business streamlined its op-
erations.
Deschutes Brewery has pubs and
tasting rooms in Portland, the Port-
land International Airport, Bend,
and Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke had
been tapped for a second brewery,
but those plans were shelved when
the craft beer market softened from
oversaturation. The deal with Bone-
yard could be a fresh restart for the
pioneering beer maker.
“It’s made sense to both parties to
see if we can create something that
the sum is greater than the parts,”
said Fish. “We’re very excited to get
Boneyard beers to people who want
it.”
e e
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Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com
Reporter Suzanne Roig contributed to this report.
“It was draped hundreds of
feet.”
A witness driving behind
Edwards reported to police
she was driving close to the 65-
mph speed limit at the
time. The same wit-
ness saw Cooper pull
over farther down the
highway, then drive
off.
Police searched for
weeks for the other
driver. One week af-
ter the crash, officers
interviewed residents of Des-
ert Terrace Mobile Estates,
including Cooper, who lied
about knowing nothing about
the wreck, Steiner said. With-
out being asked, Cooper re-
portedly said, “You know, the
real problem here is that peo-
ple on this highway don’t yield
to us when we come out of this
neighborhood.”
Police were eventually di-
rected to an anonymous com-
ment on the website of a local
television station . “I know who
did it,” a woman wrote.
Police identified the com-
menter, and it was revealed she
was a friend of Cooper’s wife.
Cooper and his wife were in-
terviewed by police separately.
“He again emphasized
that the problem was people
weren’t yielding to people from
his neighborhood who pulled
out,” Steiner said. “His story
was just demonstrably false.”
Five months later, a grand
jury charged Cooper with sec-
ond-degree manslaughter.
Cucera suffered a concus-
sion in the wreck that kept
him out of work for a year. The
father of three wrote in a vic-
tim impact statement that he’s
haunted by nightmares of the
crash and months of counsel-
ing have only scratched the
surface.
“I see headlights and hear
screeching. I do what I can to
SALEM — More than 1
million people in Oregon
have been vaccinated against
COVID-19, officials said on
Wednesday.
The total number of doses
administered in the state had
reached 1,019,767, the Oregon
Health Authority said. The first
dose was given on Dec. 14.
Approximately 1 in 5 Ore-
gonians who likely are eligible
have received at least one dose,
officials said.
The vaccine has been deliv-
ered to every Oregon county,
long-term care and residential
care facility, adult foster homes,
group homes for those with
disabilities, hospitals, mass vac-
cination events, mobile events,
clinics, tribal health centers,
group homes, congregate care
settings, pharmacies, outpa-
tient clinics, federally qualified
health centers and other loca-
tions throughout the state, offi-
cials said.
“This could not happen
without the partnerships that
have been strengthened and
developed to move Oregon
closer to community immu-
nity, and the thousands of pro-
viders, volunteers, nurses and
countless other Oregonians
who made this happen,” Ore-
gon Health Authority Director
Patrick Allen said in a state-
ment. “Every day we are deliv-
ering more than 22,000 doses
of vaccine that will bring us to
the end of this difficult journey
for so many.”
The state reported 27 ad-
ditional COVID-19 related
deaths on Wednesday, raising
the state death toll to 2,252.
State officials also reported 276
new cases, increasing the state’s
total number of cases during
the pandemic to 156,287.
Health officials continue
to encourage all Oregonians
to take protective measures
such as social distancing and
wearing masks to help keep
themselves and others safe and
healthy.
Brooke Herbert/Oregonian file
Kelli Newcom, R.N., preps vials of
the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be
administered to teachers and ed-
ucators at The Oregon Convention
Center in Portland in January.
maintain control of the vehi-
cle after the windshield ex-
plodes in my face on impact.
I’m trapped in my vehicle and
and I crawl out and look for
the other driver,” Cucera wrote.
“That’s usually the point that I
wake up.”
Wednesday’s hearing was
heavily emotional despite the
participants appearing by
video from separate locations
due to COVID-19 protocols.
Edwards’ parents and two
older brothers described the
horror they’ve lived with for
the past two years.
Her brother Kyle LaRue
asked Cooper to live the rest of
his life “for others.”
“I’d be lying if I said I’ve
learned to forgive you. I haven’t
even tried that hard,” he said.
“I’ll be spending the rest of my
life trying to not let this rage and
grief and despair destroy me.”
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Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com