A10
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
MOSLEY
PALMER
Continued from Page A1
of a stolen vehicle — all fel-
onies — as well as ¿ve mis-
demeanor counts of making a
false statement in a title appli-
cation.
The four counts the state still
intends to pursue accuse Peter-
son of ¿rst-degree aggravated
Artists on
display
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Artwork
by mixed-media artist Theresa
Weil will be on display at The
Corner Cup in John Day starting
Thursday, March 31, through
the month of May.
A meet-and-greet reception
with Weil will be from 7-9 p.m.
on Thursday at The Corner Cup.
The exhibit, “Because She
Cares,” features portraits of 12
women leaders of nonpro¿ts
throughout Oregon, using a
technique Weil created and calls
“cut-paper collage.”
The event is sponsored by
the Juniper Arts Council.
In addition to the exhibit,
Weil will spend a day as an art-
ist-in-residence in art teacher
JJ Collier’s classroom at Grant
Union Junior-Senior High
School today. Collier secured
an Oregon Cultural Trust grant
from the JAC for the classroom
visit. To learn more about Weil,
visit tweil.com.
Contributed photo
Canyon City resident Emily Mosley, front right, with
her friend and fellow missionary Bethany at the
temple Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Contributed photo
Young Cambodian
children wave as they
join the Youth With
A Mission group for
activities.
changed my whole perspective
on life, my thinking of who I
am and what I actually need
in life. These kids that we met
just wanted us to love them.”
She plans to return to the
Montana school in June, this
time to be a part of a sports
school.
She’ll go on to teach bas-
ketball skills and how to set up
theft of more than $10,000 in
cash, ¿rst-degree aggravated
theft of vehicles and equipment
worth more than $50,000, pos-
session of stolen vehicles worth
more than $50,000 and ¿rst-de-
gree theft of more than $5,000
in cash. The indictment states
the alleged incidents occurred
between March 5, 2012, and
Feb. 21, 2013.
The charges stem from an
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a camp or tournament and will
spend the last three weeks in
Taiwan teaching children.
“I really have felt through
the whole experience I got to
really learn who God says I
am,” she said. “I really start-
ed to feel like I’m supposed
to teach and mentor young-
er girls in sixth through 12th
grade and be a part of their
lives to be an encourage-
ment.”
Mosley has shared her ex-
periences with her youth group
at The Church of the Nazarene
in John Day, and also plans to
speak to a wider audience in
the future.
Her mission showed her
how “God is moving all over
the world,” she said. “We saw
so many lives changed, and
seeing all that God did amazed
me and impacted me so much.
I will never forget all the
wonderful people I met or the
great experiences I had.”
investigation by the Oregon
State Police and the Oregon
Department of Justice that be-
gan in May 2013. Police served
a search warrant in October
2013 at property in the Monu-
ment area and seized ¿re vehi-
cles and evidence for the case.
The indictment count for
possession of a stolen vehi-
cle lists “a 1970 Ford, a 1974
Freightliner, a 1983 Ford L9M,
a 1993 Ford F350, a second
1993 Ford F350, a 1965 West-
ern States, a 1966 Ford 900, a
1974 Western States, a 1986
Ford Econoline, and a 1988 In-
ternational.”
For about a decade, Peter-
son was a vocal advocate for
establishing a rural ¿re protec-
Contributed photo
Emily Mosley of Canyon City with children in
an orphanage in a village outside the city of
Battambang as she served with a worldwide
program called Youth With A Mission.
tion district in the Monument
area. He was chief of Monu-
ment’s city department at one
time and also acted as chief of
the rural district that was yet to
be formalized.
After the rural district was
formed by voters in Novem-
ber 2012, the newly installed
board and Peterson differed on
its management and operation.
Noting challenges with meet-
ing procedures, operations,
equipment and leadership, all
of the board members resigned
in December 2012. The board
was re-established in January
2013 when the Grant County
Court appointed new members.
In May 2013, Peterson no-
ti¿ed the board he intended to
sue them. His attorney at the
time, Brett J. Hall, asked the
board, the new district’s ¿re
chief and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry to stop harass-
ing Peterson.
Hall’s letter mentioned Pe-
terson’s efforts to obtain grants
for ¿re equipment for a rural
district. Hall said Peterson be-
lieved both the original and
the new board members held
private, unlawful meetings,
and when Peterson raised con-
cerns, they began retaliating
against him.
“This includes demands that
he return the equipment and
machines that he had invested
hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars in, accusing him of theft,
initiating multiple criminal
investigations, and a general
continuing campaign of harass-
ment,” Hall wrote.
Hall also released an April
25, 2013, letter from Palmer to
Oregon Department of Forestry
State Forester Doug Decker, in
which Palmer said he started
investigating “an alleged crim-
inal case” in 2010 between the
city of Monument and the ru-
ral ¿re district over equipment
obtained “legally and lawfully
through ODF” by Peterson.
Palmer said “there was a
dispute as to who lawfully
owned what equipment and
how some of the funding was
channeled through the City’s
Your Rural Fa mily Health Clinic
Grant County
HEALTH
Department
528 E. Main, St. E,
John Day
Monday - Friday
8am - 5pm
Karen Triplett, FNP
03597
Services Provided:
Continued from Page A1
In a nearby village, Mos-
ley served at The Joy Center
where they taught English to
students, from preschool-age
through 21.
They also held health clin-
ics, where they helped youths
wash their hair with lice
shampoo, braiding the girls’
hair and clipping nails.
In Battambang, Cambo-
dia’s second largest city, Mos-
ley stayed at a YWAM school.
“We got to do evange-
lism, talking with people on
the streets in the slums — the
houses look like they’re bare-
ly put together,” she said. “We
got to see lives changed.”
Mosley also served in an
orphanage in a nearby village
for a week.
“At this orphanage, a lot
of the kids actually had fami-
lies, but they put their kids in
the orphanages so they could
get an education,” she said. “It
was an awesome experience.”
The sad part, she said, was
learning of the neglect and
mistreatment of the children
by their families; some of the
girls were sold out for prosti-
tution.
“We had the opportunity to
tell them how important they
are,” she said.
She recalled one 8-year-old
girl, holding her hand for two
hours.
Mosley called her “saatna,”
meaning beautiful girl. She
said the girl just needed to hear
something nice for once.
“The whole experience was
so eye opening,” she said. “It
• Primary Care
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Exams
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Children Exams
• Immunizations
• Family Planning
• Contraception
• Pregnancy Testing &
Referrals
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Referrals
• Cacoon
• WIC
• High Risk Infants
• Maternity Case
Management
Grant County Health Department does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin,
disability, or age in admission, treatment, or participation in its programs, services and activitie s, or in employment.
Appointments
available
Call and schedule your
appointment today!
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888-443-9104
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High school art show
Gallery 15 in Burns is host-
ing a regional art show for stu-
dents at Burn, Crane and Grant
Union high schools.
The show will run from Fri-
day, April 1, to Saturday, April
16. An opening night reception
will be at 5 p.m. on Friday.
The gallery’s winter hours
are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednes-
days through Saturdays at 76 E.
Washington St in Burns. To learn
more, visit www.artinburns.com.
Federal Tax ID number and
their (Dun & Bradstreet num-
ber).” He said Ryan Joslin, the
district attorney at the time, in-
formed the parties the issue was
a civil matter.
Palmer’s letter indicated the
¿re district board believed it
rightly owned the equipment,
because it was procured with
grants in the name of “Mon-
ument Rural Fire District.”
However, Palmer said “the
grantee” — Peterson — ob-
tained the equipment legally
and still possessed it.
Palmer also said the equip-
ment was on private property,
and there was no probable cause
a crime was committed, nor jus-
ti¿cation for a search warrant.
“As it stands right now ... I
do not have enough evidence,
nor do I believe I have the au-
thority to intervene in this dis-
pute,” he wrote.
In Oregon law, it is a de-
fense against prosecution for
theft “that the defendant acted
under an honest claim or right,
in that ... the defendant reason-
ably believed that the defendant
was entitled to the property in-
volved or had a right to acquire
or dispose of it as the defendant
did.”
When Palmer deputized
Peterson, he joined a long list
of Grant County deputies. The
sheriff has deputized 69 peo-
ple in a variety of categories,
including deputy, corrections,
reserve, search and rescue,
chaplain, special deputy, public
lands patrol, public lands dep-
uty and natural resource com-
mittee.
Oregon law says sheriffs
are responsible for the con-
duct of their deputies.
Palmer did not respond to
a request for comment.
April 4 - 9, 2016
If It’s a
NAPAGold Filter
It’s On Sale.
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721 W. Main St.
John Day, Or
97845
541-575-1850
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Open Mon-Fri 7am-6pm
Sat 8am-5pm
Closed Sunday