Wednesday, December 30, 2020
MyEagleNews.com
152nd Year • No. 53 • 14 Pages • $1.50
Year in review
Mt. Vernon man charged
with rape and kidnapping
Bail reduced to
$330,000 as police
continue interviews
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Contributed photo
From right to left standing, Anthony Allen, Tom Schad from the National Solar Observatory and Gage Brandon on the day of
the eclipse with Donavan Smith, left, and Declan Jensen, right, seated with the computers.
The positively good news during
a mercilessly negative year
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wildfires, a pandemic and more brought their share of
challenges to overcome in 2020.
However, the communities in Grant County persevered
and provided gems of good, positive news — even when it
seemed scarce. Here are a few highlights from the year.
Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment” and published
in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Smith and Brandon were freshmen when they partici-
pated in the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse
experiment along with GUHS graduate Declan Jensen and
her friend Anthony Allen, Rocklin, California.
A Mt. Vernon man has
been charged with forcible
rape and kidnapping.
Brogan C. McKrola, 22, is
accused of rape, sodomy and
sexual abuse — all by forc-
ible compulsion — as well
as kidnapping, according to
information filed in Grant
County Circuit Court by Dis-
trict Attorney Jim Carpenter
Dec. 21.
Carpenter said in a press
release Dec. 23 that McK-
rola was indicted by a grand
jury Dec. 23 on charges of
first-degree rape, first-degree
sodomy, first-degree sexual
abuse, second-degree kidnap-
ping, three counts of strangu-
lation and furnishing alcohol
to a minor.
Carpenter said the charges
stem from events at a party
in the 400 block of South-
west Brent Street in John Day
Dec. 19, involving numerous
minors and alcohol.
Carpenter said he appre-
ciates the “quick response
by Blue Mountain Hospi-
tal, (Sgt.) Scott Moore of the
John Day Police Department
and the Oregon State Police
Forensic Unit.”
In a Mon-
day status
check hear-
ing, McKro-
la’s attorney
asked Judge
Gregory L.
Brogan
Baxter
to
McKrola
reduce McK-
rola’s bail
from $750,000 to $50,000.
Chief Deputy District Attor-
ney Riccola Voigt requested
the court keep the bail amount
at $750,000.
Voigt said the police are
currently interviewing other
potential victims that have
come forward with similar
allegations.
Baxter reduced the bail
amount to $330,000.
The court scheduled a plea
hearing at 1:15 p.m. Jan. 19.
Baxter told McKrola not
to have any contact with
his accuser. He also encour-
aged McKrola not to discuss
the case with anyone but his
attorney.
Carpenter said any infor-
mation about this incident
or others can be directed
to Moore at 541-575-0030,
Director of Victim’s Ser-
vices Kimberly Neault at
541-575-4026 or Voigt at
541-575-0146.
McKrola also has a court
date scheduled at 1 p.m. Feb.
9 for a pending driving under
the influence of intoxicants
charge in Malheur County.
CASA fundraiser brings in $16,000
Grant-Harney County
CASA celebrated another
St. Patrick’s Day benefit din-
ner with music, dinner and
Three Grant Union High
laughter, but it was an event
School students and Grant
that highlighted the growing
Union science teacher Sonna
generosity and support from
Smith went beyond spec-
the Grant County commu-
tating the 2017 eclipse and
nity, according to an article
got published in a peer-re-
from March 11.
viewed science publication,
Community members
Eagle file photo came together for the fourth
according to an article on
The dinner featured silent and live auctions for people to sup- annual Court Appointed
Jan. 15.
Grant Union graduates port Grant-Harney County CASA.
Special Advocates St. Pat-
rick’s Day Dinner and Auc-
Donavan Smith and Gage
Brandon, who were seniors at the time of the article, were tion on March 6 and managed to raise an estimated gross
shocked that the experiment they conducted more than two income of $16,839, which is about $2,000 more than last
year.
years ago came up again, and now they are published.
The data and research were cited in the article, “Accelera-
tion of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as
See Good news, Page A14
Grant Union eclipse
data published
in science journal
2020 Eagle investigative highlights
The pandemic did not stop
the Eagle from digging to
find the truth
deputy who had been on paid leave for
over a year after being recorded having
sexual conversations with an inmate at
the jail.
Emergency Operations Center
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
With many events, including public
meetings, canceled because of COVID-
19, the Eagle continued to provide rig-
orous reporting through public records
requests and investigations in 2020.
With Grant County and Oregon
under states of emergency, much was
unknown about the pandemic and local
efforts to address it. The Eagle uncov-
ered a proposal to create a secretive
Neighborhood Watch program that was
canceled after details emerged. The
Eagle discovered the COVID-19 Emer-
gency Operations Center overspent its
original budget by 60% and originally
claimed too much in reimbursement for
county court labor costs.
Continuing to cover the pandemic,
the Eagle elbowed its way into a secret
meeting held by Eastern Oregon county
commissioners in Prairie City.
The Eagle also did a deep dive into
the backgrounds of the two candidates
Eagle file photo
Grant County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave
Dobler addresses County Court in May.
Dobler served as the county’s Emer-
gency Operations Center incident com-
mander from March to late May.
on the November ballot to be Grant and
Harney counties’ circuit court judge,
bringing to light information from their
pasts.
To cap off a year full of investiga-
tions, the Eagle published a story in the
works for more than a year regarding a
Grant County established its Emer-
gency Operations Center in early March
to respond to the pandemic.
On the recommendation of Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer, Grant County Court
members appointed Dave Dobler, a
sheriff’s deputy, to head up the EOC.
Ted Williams, who had been the coun-
ty’s emergency manager for four years,
stepped down after the court’s decision.
Later that month, Dobler announced
that the EOC would begin training 11-15
volunteers on a Neighborhood Watch
program in significant county areas.
Dobler said the volunteers would
patrol neighborhoods in unmarked
vehicles and report to the EOC via
county-purchased radios if they saw
something.
Dobler declined to provide the names
of the volunteers. The Eagle submitted a
public records request. On April 1, the
EOC scrapped the program altogether,
See Investigative, Page A14
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Grant County Health Department Clinic Manager Jessica Wine-
gar, left, gets swabbed for a COVID-19 test at the Grant County
Health Department by Medical Assistant Cindy Baker.
Winegar continues nurse practioner
education amid pandemic
False COVID-19
rumors cause
backlash against
health department
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
As far back as Grant
County Health Department
Clinic Manager Jessica Win-
egar can remember, she
always wanted to be involved
in taking care of other people.
She said her mother
thought that she would
become
a
veterinarian,
which, she said, is similar to
a nurse.
“I just always wanted to
be involved with helping peo-
ple,” she said.
That drive is why she
decided to go back to
school to become a nurse
practitioner.
“I can do this much as a
nurse,” she said, “but I want
to be able to do more.”
Winegar, a single mother
from Prairie City, said she is
16 weeks — just one semes-
ter — from reaching that
goal.
She said completing that
goal amid the pandemic has
been a real challenge, to say
the least. Especially when
the community is looking
to the health department for
answers that, at times, have
not been readily available.
“We’re just doing the
best that we can with the
best available evidence and
knowledge,” she said. “And
everything is going to con-
tinue to change.”
Winegar said she feels
like the health department
and Community Counseling
Solutions have grown stron-
ger throughout the pandemic.
She said last month, after
a commenter on Facebook
said the 87-year-old COVID-
19-related death did not die
from the coronavirus, the
staff grew even closer.
People in the community,
she said, accused the health
department of somehow
financially profiting from
tracking the death as a corona-
virus death. The health depart-
ment receives no funding
See Winegar, Page A14