The BulleTin • Thursday, May 6, 2021 A3
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
LOCAL & BRIEFING
Vehicle strikes, kills
pedestrian in Madras
A pedestrian was struck and
killed by a vehicle Tuesday
night in Madras.
At 11:18 p.m., a person re-
ported the incident on U.S.
Highway 97 near L Street .
The victim, a 59-year-old
man, was dead when emer-
gency personnel arrived, ac-
cording to a Madras Police
news release. The man is a
local resident, but authorities
have yet to release his name.
The man was struck at a
point where the highway speed
limit drops from 35 to 25 mph.
The driver of the four-door
passenger vehicle stayed on the
scene and cooperated with au-
thorities, police said.
The investigation is ongoing.
The results will be forwarded
to the Jefferson County Dis-
trict Attorney for review.
Bend, La Pine residents
wake up to smoke
Residents of Bend and La
Pine woke up to moderate lev-
els of smoke Wednesday fol-
lowing prescribed burns in
southern Deschutes County.
The Air Quality Index
reached 62, a moderate (yel-
low) level, on Wednesday
morning in Bend, according to
the Oregon Department of En-
vironmental Quality. The in-
dex in La Pine reached 55.
Smoke from the prescribed
burns covered much of Bend,
with Pilot Butte and other land-
marks obscured in the haze. The
prescribed burns are conducted
to reduce brush and under-
growth that can create condi-
tions for out-of-control wildfires.
At the moderate air-quality
level, some pollutants may be a
health concern for a small num-
ber of people who are unusually
sensitive to air pollution.
Klamath Falls, which had
an air-quality level of 155, was
the city in Oregon with levels
in the unhealthy (red) category
on Wednesday.
One of the burns in Central
Oregon occurred on 326 acres
of land southeast of Bend, ac-
cording to Central Oregon Fire
Info. More prescribed burns are
planned for Wednesday south
of Crescent and south of Sisters.
The burn near Sisters will occur
on 197 acres covering two units.
Local residents can receive
alerts about prescribed fires or
wildfires by texting COFIRE to
888-777.
Former property manager
jailed for embezzlement
A former Redmond prop-
erty manager was convicted of
stealing more than $13,000 in
tenant rent money.
Shonny Shury Vernon was
sentenced
this week in
Deschutes
County Cir-
cuit Court to
seven days
in jail af-
ter pleading
Vernon
guilty to one
count of ag-
gravated first-degree theft.
Vernon, 50, was formerly
employed by Cascade Prop-
erty Management as a property
manager for the Bluffs Apart-
ments complex in Redmond,
according to court documents.
In May 2018, a number of
residents of the complex were
shown to be behind on their
rent. Nearly all of them were
able to provide receipts showing
they had in fact paid their rent.
The management company
audited Vernon’s work and
found thousands of dollars
missing.
Police discovered many of
these payments were cash, and
many were MoneyGrams that
had been altered to be paid to
Vernon instead of the Bluffs
Apartments, according to
court documents.
Vernon was found to have
stolen more than $13,000 from
tenant rental payments. An ad-
ditional $300 in petty cash was
also missing.
In addition to jail, Deschutes
County Circuit Court Judge
Wells Ashby ordered that Ver-
non serve two years probation
and pay full restitution to Cas-
cade Property Management
and First Financial Asset Man-
agement.
Vernon’s attorney, Michelle
McIver, said her client’s crimes
were not drug related and that
she stole to feed a gambling ad-
diction.
“Ms. Vernon is quite re-
morseful,” McIver said. “She
has been quite forthright in
how she came to take advan-
tage of an employer that was
always good to her.”
Following her arrest, Ver-
non found other employment
and has not hidden her crime,
McIver said. She’s to have noth-
ing to do with money in her
current role.
“Ms. Vernon understands
that all this is very generous of
her present employer,” McIver
said.
PSU will require vaccines
for most students, staff
Portland State University offi-
cials said Wednesday the school
would require on-campus stu-
dents, faculty and staff to be
vaccinated against COVID-19
starting in September.
Students will have to verify
their vaccination status before
starting on-campus classes in
the fall term. Students can claim
a “personal, medical or reli-
gious exemption” to the vaccine
requirement. Details of the re-
quirements for faculty and staff
had not been finalized.
— Bulletin staff and wire reports
Judge declines to release
one brother in Capitol case
BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
A federal judge on Tuesday declined to re-
lease college senior Matthew Klein, one of two
Oregon brothers accused in the Jan. 6 breach
of the U.S. Capitol, after finding his parents un-
suitable to supervise him pending trial.
The ruling came after prosecutors submitted
examples of text messages that showed Klein’s
mother and father warning Matthew’s younger
brother, Jonathanpeter Klein, that “braggers
get caught.”
Their mother also sent texts to Jonathan-
peter Klein warning him that his “phone is not
encrypted,” that he should “[b]e careful what
[he] say[s]” and that he should “clear [his]
phone” or that he should “[p]ull a Hillary and
use a hammer” and “bleach” to destroy the
phone, according to court records.
Matthew Klein, 24, and Jonathanpeter Klein,
21, both have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy
to defraud the United States, aiding and abet-
ting in the obstruction of an official proceed-
ing, obstruction of law enforcement during
civil disorder, destruction of government prop-
erty, entering and remaining in a restricted
building or grounds and disorderly conduct in
a restricted building or grounds.
FBI/Submitted
Jonathanpeter Allen Klein, 21, on right, a self-de-
scribed Proud Boy, with brother Matthew Leland
Klein, 24, on left, according to the FBI.
Matthew Klein’s lawyer had urged his client’s
release to his parents in Baker City, describing
them as deeply religious Christian missionar-
ies and very responsible people. Matthew Klein
wants to continue his education at George Fox
University, said defense attorney Steven R. Kiersh.
Matthew Klein enrolled at the Christian
college in Newberg in fall 2017 and had been
attending up until his arrest on March 23, ac-
cording to the university.
“He was a senior, but he is no longer a stu-
dent at George Fox,” George Fox spokesman
Rob Felton said Tuesday.
Virus-infected inmates seek class-action status
BY NOELLE CROMBIE
The Oregonian
A new legal filing asks a federal judge to grant
class-action status to prisoners who were diag-
nosed with COVID-19 as well as the estates of
prisoners who died after contracting the illness.
The latest request was submitted Monday in
an ongoing lawsuit that alleges the Oregon De-
partment of Corrections failed to protect in-
carcerated people from the virus that has swept
through the prison system.
According to the latest figures from the
state, 3,607 prisoners have tested positive for
COVID-19 and 42 have died.
Corrections officials, the U.S. District Court
filing states,, have “willfully and wantonly ig-
nored the public health threat caused by this
global pandemic and, as a result, class members
have been harmed, and lives have been lost.”
Lawyers ask the court to designate three
classes: one for people who were diagnosed
with the virus, another for people who were
not offered vaccines by Jan. 1 and a wrongful
death class made up of the estates of people
who had COVID-19 and died while in prison.
Any money damages awarded in the case
would be determined by a jury or the court,
said Juan Chavez, one of the lawyers represent-
ing the plaintiffs.
“Enough time has elapsed where we now
have to look at the wreckage and it’s not pretty,”
he said. “The state had an opportunity to save
people and they didn’t so now they have to pay
and be held accountable.”
Jennifer Black, a spokeswoman for the de-
partment, declined to comment.