News
Blue Mountain Eagle
A5
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Sagaser sentenced to 271 days in jail
Defendant withdraws motion to withdraw guilty pleas
Matthew Eric Sagaser
elected not to withdraw his
guilty pleas at his last court
appearance and was sentenced
according to the original plea
agreement.
Sagaser, 31, Mt. Vernon,
was arrested in October and
charged with 29 counts related
to domestic violence, including
kidnapping, strangulation and
assault, as well a separate case
for drug and other charges.
LETTERS
Continued from Page A4
What are sheriff’s
intentions?
To the Editor:
Sheriff Palmer has chosen
not to respond to the questions
I asked of him in the Eagle (ad-
vertisement Jan. 20).
Quoting Palmer from (the
Oregonian) last week: “There
are no and never has been any
public safety concerns that
would indicate that these people
put our community at risk or in
jeopardy.” Surely the events of
last Tuesday night would now
prove otherwise, when an armed
militant criminal was willing to
kill or be killed. There is ample
evidence posted on video by the
militants themselves that many
more would do the same.
Again I would ask Sheriff
Palmer if he intends to continue
to encourage and welcome this
militant group, which we know
now includes federal criminals,
into Grant County. Is that the
voice you want speaking for
you? What do you think these
outsiders can do for you that you
cannot do for yourselves? Have
they proven it anywhere else?
I would ask Sheriff Palmer
once again what his intentions
are concerning continued asso-
ciation with this group. He said
also, “I am not hiding anything.”
Sometimes actions speak louder
than words.
If he feels in good conscience
that his political belief does not
allow him to ful¿ll the duties of
the of¿ce, which he is sworn to
do, he should resign.
Judy Schuette
John Day
He was sentenced Jan. 19 to
a total of 271 days in jail with
credit for time served and 36
months of supervised probation
with no contact with the victim.
He was ordered to pay a $600
¿ne and $6,72 in restitution to
Blue Mountain Hospital. His
license was also suspended for
six months.
Through negotiations with
the district attorney’s of¿ce,
Sagaser originally pleaded
guilty to one count of pos-
session of methamphetamine,
one count of coercion, three
counts of fourth-degree as-
sault and one count of stran-
gulation Nov. 5. Before being
sentenced, Sagaser requested
a new attorney and to with-
draw his guilty pleas.
“Ultimately, on (Jan. 19),
Mr. Sagaser withdrew his
motion to withdraw his guilty
pleas,” Deputy District Attor-
ney Matt Ipson said. “... Sa-
gaser was just sentenced per
the agreement set forth in plea
petitions from November 5.”
do not want to be spun and side-
stepped by any of his voices on
his deputized committee. (We
already have heard from Kerr,
the Smith clan, Traylor, Preston
and Sproul.) Nor will we be ma-
nipulated and told what to think
by radical outsiders he would
invite into our community.
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge was seized by lawbreak-
ing, armed militia. They stopped
being mere protesters when
they picked up their weapons
and broke into refuge build-
ings. They are criminals. They
promote their radical ideology
at the point of a gun, and have
threatened to kill law of¿cers
who interfere.
Glenn Palmer was asked
by the Blue Mountain Eagle
editor where he stood — for
or against the siege. He stated
he didn’t know. The people of
Grant County deserve better.
We want to know: Is it “Yes” or
“No”? We don’t want another
spin of his political leanings. We
want to hear directly from him:
Does he uphold the law or not?
That’s all we elected him to do.
Or, has he become the voice of
constitutionalists who see him
as the single legal authority of
the county? We did not elect him
to use his of¿ce to propagandize
his political beliefs.
Here are two questions for
Sheriff Palmer: Have you sup-
ported the takeover at Malheur
Refuge or not? Do you see
yourself as the elected sheriff of
Grant County, or as the Supreme
Court Justice of Grant County
who believes he has the power
to interpret what is “the law”? If
he cannot enforce the laws of the
state of Oregon or federal laws,
he should resign.
Kay Steele
Ritter
Occupation could
affect gun rights
To the Editor:
The whole wildlife refuge
occupation drama has been
blown out of perspective. Land
owners are under attack from
big business and dubious rela-
tionships between government
of¿cials or their children to take
away land and land rights for
kickbacks.
The occupants of the wildlife
refuge could have been starved
out. They could all be handed
summons for trespassing with
daily escalating ¿nes. They
could have been given a dead-
line to leave peacefully and then
been told that the roads would
be severed to and from the lo-
cation and that any cost to deal
with them would be their re-
sponsibility. The media could be
banned from giving them a plat-
form to grand stand. As much
as I feel for these people unless
they want to be martyrs, which
is their right, they are acting
stupid. If this gets out of hand,
their actions could effect the gun
rights of all of us. They will be-
come the image our government
wants all of us supporters of the
US Constitution to have. Give
it up guys before you make it
worse for everyone.
Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Pennsylvania
Re-elect Sheriff
Palmer
To the Editor:
Americans must face the
stark reality that their constitu-
tional rights are being shredded.
Nearly every action taken by the
federal government today vio-
lates the Constitution that sher-
To the Editor:
The people of Grant County
deserve answers from Sheriff
Glenn Palmer himself, and we
her in a place where she was
not likely to be found. He re-
portedly committed coercion
by threatening the woman
to not leave an area, not tell
hospital staff about the nature
of her injuries and not tell a
third-party about the cause of
her injuries.
The woman was injured by
Sagaser allegedly strangling
her, striking her head against
concrete, head-butting, kick-
ing and elbowing her and
shooting at her with a CO2
airsoft gun from within ¿ve
feet.
iffs, appointed deputies, local
and state government, state law
enforcement, federal employees
and the military have taken an
oath to defend. The sheriff may
truly be the last hope for saving
our constitutional liberties.
The County Sheriff is elected
by, for and of the people, and is
our last line of defense against
an oppressive and over-reaching
government and tyranny. The
sheriff is the powerful executor
of the law, and the supreme law
of the land is the United States
Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The Constitution does not
endow the federal government
with police power and therefore
Article III, Section 2, Amend-
ment VI, and the Tenth Amend-
ment reserves that right to the
states and to the people. A sheriff
has the power, the authority and
the responsibility to resist tyr-
anny and unconstitutional laws
and actions, even those local
political ¿gures and others who
support federal dominion based
on personal gain that perpetu-
ates the continuing downward
spiral of our local economy.
The sheriff is the preemi-
nent law enforcement authority
in our county, and he is elected
by the ultimate power source,
we the people. It is time for us
to re-elect Grant County Sheriff
Glenn Palmer who will defend
our citizens from all enemies of
our Constitution and our Bill of
Rights. The future of our consti-
tutional republic may depend on
it, so carefully consider before
you assign this honor to what
may be unproven applicants that
will feed at the federal govern-
ment trough with local support-
ers.
Bob and Judy Kerr
Canyon City
ers, processors, wholesalers
and/or retailers, as well as med-
ical marijuana processors and/or
medical marijuana dispensaries
as stated in Measure 91, be-
fore the voting citizens of Long
Creek in November. Mayor
Porter stated it as “green light,”
do not allow a vote; “yellow
light,” allow a vote. He asked
for public input to say whether
we wanted a “green light” or a
“yellow light.” The ¿rst meet-
ing was then round-tabled for a
week so the council members
could review the options.
Finally, the council “tie and
tiebreaker” tool was used with
the argument that the pot grow-
er would bring in economic
growth. The mayor opted for
a “green light” to break the tie
and deny those of us registered
to vote the right to vote! Mea-
sure 91 was crammed down our
throats even though at least 55
percent of voters in the county
voted against it which included
Long Creek city voters!
This was the real issue here!
Leslie Barnett
Long Creek Lodge
Long Creek
February 10 th , 2016 - Echo, Oregon
AUCTIONEER:
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Grant County
HEALTH
Department
528 E. Main, St. E,
John Day
Monday - Friday
8am - 5pm
Karen Triplett, FNP
Services Provided:
The Grant County Road
Department began a culvert
replacement project on Can-
yon Creek Lane, County Road
65, south of Highway 395
Monday. It is anticipated this
project will last for approx-
imately two to three weeks.
Traf¿c will be reduced to one
lane with Àaggers at all times.
For more information, con-
tact the road department, 541-
575-373 or 541-575-013,
7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays
through Fridays.
To the Editor:
The article on the front page
of the Jan. 27 edition (of the Ea-
gle), “Long Creek pot grower
gets green light”, was a misrep-
resentation of the actual issue.
Six of us willing to attend the
city council meeting knew the
deck was stacked against us,
but were brave enough to want
our voices heard. There were a
number of attendees from the
drug culture in Monument con-
tributing to those “singing to the
choir,” but who are not eligible
to vote here.
The purpose of that city
council meeting was whether
to adopt an ordinance to put the
issue of allowing or prohibiting
recreational marijuana produc-
THE FINEST HOURS PG-13
Culvert
replacement
project begins
Blue Mountain Eagle
City should have
sent pot ban to
voters
JOY PG-13
COPS & COURTS WILL
RETURN NEXT WEEK
Does sheriff
uphold the law?
counts of contempt of court.
The alleged abuse occurred
since July against the same
woman in different locations
around Grant County such as
Dog Creek, John Day Fossil
Beds National Monument and
Sagaser’s home.
He was arrested in Canyon
City, after the Grant County
Sheriff’s Of¿ce and John Day
Police Department worked
together to investigate the re-
ported incidents.
According to the indict-
ment, Sagaser kidnapped the
woman by secretly con¿ning
03436
Blue Mountain Eagle
Per
the
agreement, all
other charges
were dismissed,
including one
count of sec-
ond-degree kid-
Matthew napping, four
Sagaser counts of coer-
cion, six counts
of fourth-degree assault, four
counts of menacing, nine
counts of recklessly endan-
gering another person, one
count of felon in possession of
a restricted weapon, one count
of criminal forfeiture and two
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Grant County Health Department does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin,
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