A2 The BulleTin • Friday, January 21, 2022
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COVID-19 data for Jan. 20
Deschutes County cases: 36,867 (675 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 225 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 4,561 (45 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 62 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 5,666 (128 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 70 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 559,976 (10,034 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 5,916 (8 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at St. Charles Bend on
Thursday: 63 (4 in iCu).
The Bulletin had been tracking the seven-day average case
count based on state data since local cases were first reported,
until the state stopped providing county-level data for
weekends or holidays. When data is available, The Bulletin will
continue to publish information about the pandemic.
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7 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday
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ADMINISTRATION
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heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
Lawsuit: Brown unlawfully commuted
sentences of nearly 1,000 inmates
BY ZANE SPARLING
The Oregonian
Two Oregon district attor-
neys and the relatives of three
homicide victims on Wednes-
day accused Gov. Kate Brown
of unlawfully freeing nearly
1,000 inmates, filing a new le-
gal challenge that seeks to slam
the gate on over 70 proposed
commutations.
District attorneys Patri-
cia Perlow of Lane County
and Doug Marteeny of Linn
County are among the parties
alleging Brown has violated
clemency procedures that
require victim notification.
The lawsuit, filed in Marion
County Circuit Court, asks
a judge to halt Brown from
allowing those convicted of
crimes as minors from apply-
ing for commutation.
“We are asking that the court
compel the governor to fol-
low the laws that are already in
place,” said Monique DeSpain,
a lawyer for the Kevin L. Man-
nix law firm, which filed the
Bulletin file photo
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commuted the sentences of 912 inmates who
were deemed at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, according to
a June 2021 letter she wrote to state lawmakers.
case on behalf of Perlow, Mar-
teeny and the homicide vic-
tims’ relatives.
Brown commuted the sen-
tences of 912 inmates who
were deemed at heightened
risk of contracting COVID-19,
according to a June 2021 letter
she wrote to state lawmakers.
The freed inmates were med-
ically vulnerable, had com-
pleted at least half their sen-
tences and were not serving
time for crimes against people.
Brown also commuted the
sentences of 41 inmates who
fought the historic Labor Day
2020 wildfires, according to
the June letter, which is cited
in the lawsuit. Those released
didn’t “present an unacceptable
safety, security, or compliance
risk to the community,” the let-
ter said.
Forty-four inmates and three
jailers have died of COVID-19
since the onset of the pan-
demic, state records show.
The lawsuit alleges Brown
broke rules requiring individ-
ual commutation applications
and unlawfully delegated her
responsibilities to state agen-
cies.
“This lawsuit is not personal
on my part,” Marteeny said in
a statement. “I believe our laws
put limits on (Brown’s) actions.
I am working to enforce those
limits.”
Perlow, in a statement, ar-
gued Brown was ignoring
crime victims’ statutory and
constitutional rights. “The gov-
ernor’s priority is offenders of
crimes, many of them violent,”
Perlow said.
A spokesperson for Brown
declined to comment.
Aliza Kaplan, a Lewis &
Clark Law School professor
who frequently helps inmates
prepare clemency applications,
said the governor’s actions
were in line with historical
standards.
“She’s using it in the exact
way it should be used,” Kaplan
told The Oregonian. “These
people have been punished sig-
nificantly, and even in a place
like prison, they have managed
to rehabilitate themselves, and
the governor is offering them
mercy.”
The lawsuit also seeks to
halt Brown’s reconsideration of
youth offenders’ sentences.
The Oregon Department of
Corrections said in October
that some 250 youth offenders
would be eligible for commuta-
tion if a 2019 law giving them
“second look” hearings halfway
through their sentences were
to be retroactive.
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REDMOND BUREAU
LOCAL BRIEFING
High Desert Museum among
grant recipients from commission
The High Desert Museum and Tower
Theater Foundation are among several
Central Oregon nonprofits awarded
grants from the Oregon Arts Commis-
sion for 2022.
The largest award for Central Oregon
went to the High Desert Museum, which
will receive $17,725 from the commis-
sion this year. The Tower Theater Foun-
dation Inc. was awarded $8,077. Awards
also went to BendFilm ($7,016), Sisters
Folk Festival ($8,589), and Sunriver Mu-
sic Festival ($4,899).
At the High Desert Museum, the fund-
ing will help support bringing arts and
culture in programming and exhibitions,
said Heidi Hagemeier, museum spokes-
person. An example is the works of three
Native American artists that will be fea-
tured in an upcoming original exhibition
“Imagine a World,” which opens Jan. 29.
COCC plans ‘car-mencement’
for 2022 graduates
Central Oregon Community College
health and safety — COCC is pleased to
share that this year’s ceremony will again
take place as a drive-thru ‘car-mence-
ment,’” said Alicia Moore, the college’s
vice president of student affairs.
Graduates will be grouped into waves
based on their major and “for social dis-
tancing and logistical purposes.” They
will remain in their vehicles until they
step out and onto a stage to receive their
degree or certificate, with faculty joining
at certain times.
Madras man struck by car, killed
Central Oregon Community College/Submitted photo
Central Oregon Community College had a “car-mencement” ceremony in 2021.
announced Thursday that it will hold a
drive-thru ceremony for students gradu-
ating from the college in 2022.
A press release from the college said
the ceremony on June 11 in Bend was
moved to drive-thru in an effort to pri-
oritize “student, staff and community
health, and building upon the successful
precedent of last year’s drive-thru cere-
mony.”
“After overwhelmingly positive feed-
back from students, their families and
many staff members — as well as out of
an abundance of caution for everyone’s
A Madras man walking in the road
on U.S. Highway 97 after his car ran
out of gas was struck by a car and died
Wednesday night.
Anthony Manuel Hernandez, 40,
was walking in the southbound lane
between Redmond and Bend when he
was hit by a black Mercedes GI5. The
driver was Howard Dietrich, 45, of
Portland, Oregon State Police reported.
Police and emergency medical per-
sonnel responded to the scene of the
crash at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
— Bulletin staff reports
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, Or 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
CORRECTIONS
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stories are accurate. if you know of an
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EMBEZZLEMENT OF $1.6M
Former adoption agency bookkeeper gets 4.5 years in prison
BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
A former bookkeeper for an
international adoption agency
who stole more than $1.6 mil-
lion from her employer and
her own family was sentenced
Wednesday to 4½ years in fed-
eral prison.
U.S. District Judge Marco A.
Hernandez said he considered
that the fraud spanned about
eight years and affected multi-
ple victims.
Melodie Ann Eckland, 56,
of Hillsboro pleaded guilty to
wire fraud, aggravated identity
theft, filing a false tax return
and willfully failing to collect
or pay payroll taxes.
She was also ordered to pay
more than $1.6 million in res-
titution.
The illegal scheme was dis-
covered in March 2018, when
one of the owners of the Jour-
neys of the Heart adoption and
surrogacy agency received a
call from a Premier Commu-
nity Bank representative in-
quiring about several business
checks that had been presented
for payment with a signature
of the owner that appeared to
be forged, according to prose-
cutors.
Eckland stole funds directly
from the adoption agency’s
business account at the bank by
using the Journeys of the Heart
computer to make unauthorized
wire transfers to her personal
U.S. Bank account and by writ-
ing unauthorized checks to her-
self, according to prosecutors.
To hide her fraud, Eck-
land maintained two separate
QuickBooks files on the adop-
tion agency’s computer.
To cover the money she had
stolen, Eckland applied for
loans from at least five lending
agencies on behalf of the adop-
tion agency, using the names
of the agency’s owners without
their permission. Eckland al-
tered agency financial records
to make it appear as though she
owned the agency and was au-
thorized to enter into the loan
agreements. Beginning in 2016,
Eckland stopped making the
agency’s quarterly employment
tax payments to the IRS and
stopped filing employment tax
returns. As a result, the agency
owed more than $94,000 in
past due employment taxes.
In a further attempt at a cov-
er-up, she transferred $123,900
she stole from an account be-
longing to the estate of her de-
ceased brother-in-law to the
adoption agency’s bank account
by forging her husband’s signa-
ture, according to prosecutors.
Eckland, who worked as the
bookkeeper for the adoption
agency from 2011 until April
2018, spent the money from
her thefts on gifts and living ex-
penses for her adult children,
trips to Hawaii, Mexico and Dis-
ney World, groceries and living
expenses, prosecutors said.
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