BRINGING ‘A FAIRY TALE CHRISTMAS CAROL’ TO LIFE | PAGE A8
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
MyEagleNews.com
153rd Year • No. 4 • 16 Pages • $1.50
Changes coming
to John Day
Police
Department
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
under Phase I, where producers can only shoot
wolves chasing livestock if they meet the three
previous conditions, have already undertaken
nonlethal actions and the taking occurs in an
area during a time period in which ODFW has
determined a situation of chronic depredation
exists.
Chronic depredation in Phase I is defined as
four depredations in a six-month period by the
same wolves. The definition of chronic depreda-
tion changes in Phases II and III to two confirmed
kills in nine months.
The plan also allows wildlife officials to
consider killing wolves that habitually prey on
livestock.
Wallowa County Commissioner Todd Nash
said the wolf populations would continue to grow
in Oregon. He said the state’s wolf plan and the
different phases are nearly as restrictive as those
under the federal restrictions.
“This isn’t about whether we have wolves or
don’t have wolves,” he said. “Until you have sig-
nificant changes within the Oregon plan, we will
continue to have wolves, and we will continue to
have ever-increasing numbers of wolves.”
John Day Police Department will
look different later this year — but how
different is yet to be determined.
Police Chief Mike Durr plans to
retire at some point this year, and the
city council is consider-
ing multiple options for
the department after his
departure.
John Day City Man-
ager Nick Green said
at a Jan. 19 city coun-
cil work session one
John Day
option is to hire a new
Police
Chief
chief, but the job post-
Mike Durr
ing would have to go
out this month and the
chief would likely be hired from outside
the county.
Another option would be for the city
to work with the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office to establish an alternative solu-
tion, which might look like the sheriff’s
office providing two officers to work in
John Day that would use the equipment
at the JDPD.
The city council asked Green to talk
to Sheriff Todd McKinley to get a bet-
ter idea of what working with the GCSO
would look like. Green said, if the city
were to make an agreement with the
GCSO, it would be important to not lose
the identity of the JDPD.
“I don’t want to lose the identity or
recognition of the police department,
and I think at some point, if we’re suc-
cessful in adding 100 new people, we’re
going to need (the police department),”
Green said.
A police agreement with GCSO
could free up city funds to be used for
other projects. The police department is
the largest general fund expenditure the
city has with their audit for 2020 show-
ing police expenses at $442,340.
Green said $35,000 to $40,000 a year
is pulled from the city’s utility account
with another $45,000 received from the
agreement with the school district for
the school resource officer.
“I think that money would go a long
See Wolves, Page A16
See Police, Page A16
File photo
With federal Endangered Species Act protections removed, Oregon will now manage its gray wolf populations.
Environmental groups challenge federal wolf delisting
Oregon plan allows killing wolves caught in the act of biting, wounding, killing livestock
Oregon’s management of
wolves
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Baker County saw a confirmed wolf
kill Thursday as groups of environmental-
ists have challenged the Trump administra-
tion’s decision to remove gray wolves from
the list of endangered species in the lower
48 states.
The groups said that wolves have not suffi-
ciently recovered in areas on the West Coast, and
removing federal protections will inhibit their
recovery.
John Mellgren, a lawyer with Western Envi-
ronmental Law Center, one of the groups chal-
lenging the delisting, said the government
essentially said there are enough wolves in the
Great Lakes states to meet the Endangered Spe-
cies Act’s definition of recovery for the entire
country.
“And so it doesn’t matter what’s going on in
Washington, Oregon, and California or Colo-
rado,” Mellgren said. “Wolves occur across the
entire country.”
Mellgren said the Trump administration’s
decision impacts the western two-thirds of
Washington, Oregon and California.
The Oregon Department Fish
and Wildlife removed wolves
from the state endangered spe-
cies list in 2015, though the
federal Endangered Species
Wallowa
Act designation remained in
County
Commissioner the state’s western two-thirds.
With wolves federally del-
Todd Nash
isted, people may now shoot a
wolf caught in the act of biting, wounding or
killing livestock or working dogs in Oregon,
provided they have not baited or taken actions
to attract wolves, they preserve the scene and
they contact ODFW 24 hours after the shooting.
The Oregon Wolf Conservation and Man-
agement Plan manages wolves according to
phases. Currently, most of Eastern Oregon —
east of Highway 395 at the southern border
up to Highway 20 to Bend and then up to the
northern border on Highway 97 — is under
Phase III, where livestock producers can shoot
wolves caught in the act of chasing livestock or
working dogs if they meet the other three condi-
tions above.
West of the highway 395-20-97 boundary is
Fired deputy sues county for whistleblower retaliation, wrongful discharge
Smith claims in lawsuit
Palmer, Mobleys
‘orchestrated’ plan to get
him arrested, discharged
from sheriff’s office
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
A sheriff’s deputy who was fired
before entering a plea on criminal
charges is suing the county and sev-
eral employees.
Former Grant County Sheriff’s
Office deputy Tyler Smith claims
Grant County and its employees vio-
lated his constitutional rights under
the First and Fourteenth Amend-
ments, retaliated against him as a
whistleblower and wrongfully dis-
charged him from employment in a
complaint filed Dec. 21 in U.S. Dis-
trict Court in Pendleton.
In addition to the county, the suit
names former Sheriff Glenn Palmer,
District Attorney Jim Carpenter,
Undersheriff Zach Mobley and for-
mer Deputy Abigail Mobley as defen-
dants and seeks damages for lost
wages and distress as well as punitive
damages and attorney fees.
Smith claims in the suit that Palmer
and the Mobleys “orchestrated” a plan
to get him arrested and removed from
the sheriff’s office.
Eagle file photo
Grant County Undersheriff Zach Mobley, left, and Sheriff Glenn Palmer sit in
on a discussion on the recruitment of a new emergency management coordi-
nator at a Grant County Court meeting May 27.
County Judge Scott Myers said
county policy prohibits discussing
active litigation. Attempts to contact
Palmer were unsuccessful, and the
other defendants did not respond to
questions from the Eagle.
Smith was fired Dec. 17, 2019,
before he entered a plea on criminal
charges against his spouse includ-
ing attempted rape. A Sept. 27,
2019, grand jury indictment filed in
Grant County Circuit Court accuses
Smith of attempted first-degree rape,
attempted first-degree sex abuse and
fourth-degree assault in 2018. He
pleaded not guilty April 30, 2020, and
is awaiting trial.
Smith claims in the lawsuit the
defendants retaliated against him after
he reported allegations that Abigail
Mobley, who was still employed as
a deputy at the time, had used illegal
drugs and had a sexual relationship
with an inmate who was incarcerated
for drug crimes to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice on July 31, 2019.
According to DOJ officials, they
did not investigate the allegations of
drug use but determined through doz-
ens of recorded jail phone calls that
Abigail Mobley was having sexual
conversations with former inmate
Darren Mortimore. DOJ officials con-
cluded, however, there was not “a rea-
sonable likelihood of proving beyond
a reasonable doubt that Ms. Mobley
committed the crime of custodial sex-
ual misconduct.”
Grant County Human Resources
Manager Laurie Cates said the reason
Smith was terminated was condition-
ally exempt from public disclosure
under an Oregon law shielding per-
sonnel discipline actions.
A court order prevents Smith from
carrying firearms while he awaits
trial, but he claims in the suit this was
only an excuse to terminate him.
“Defendants claimed that the rea-
son was because (Smith) could not
carry a firearm pursuant the condi-
tions of his release,” the suit states.
Abigail Mobley
Tyler Smith
“However, that reason was false
both because there were duties he
could perform without a firearm and
because the past practice within the
department was to keep persons on
administrative leave during the pen-
dency of criminal cases until the crim-
inal cases were resolved.”
Abigail Mobley was on paid
administrative leave from March
18, 2019, until she resigned Dec.
26, 2020. During that time, her con-
duct was investigated by the Oregon
Department of Justice and the Uma-
tilla County Sheriff’s Office, but they
did not file criminal charges. She was
also arrested for driving under the
influence of intoxicants and pleaded
guilty to enter a diversion program,
but she was not ordered not to carry
firearms.
The phone extraction
Smith claims in the lawsuit he
came to the conclusion Abigail Mob-
ley was using drugs in 2018, the same
year he separated from his spouse,
who is a close friend of Zach and Abi-
gail Mobley, and began a relationship
with Haley Olson.
A transcript of messages from
Olson’s phone show she and Smith
discussing his concerns about Mobley.
Idaho law enforcement extracted
the contents of Olson’s phone when
she was arrested in January 2019, but
the charges were dismissed. They also
notified Palmer they found Smith’s
business card in Olson’s vehicle.
Palmer asked Carpenter to request
a copy of the phone extraction, accord-
ing to a letter provided by Carpenter.
“The information, if applicable,
will be used only for internal pur-
poses, and will not be disseminated
to any other agencies or third parties,”
Carpenter wrote in a Jan. 30, 2019,
letter to the Jerome County, Idaho,
prosecutor, who provided him a copy
of the extraction.
In an April 10, 2019, letter to
Palmer, Carpenter said the extraction
contained images, videos and audio
files.
“I have reviewed the phone dump
to determine whether any actionable
evidence exists which could possibly
subject Deputy Tyler Smith to disci-
pline or sanction,” Carpenter said.
“While no formal review for crimi-
nal activity took place, evidence of
such is unlikely as the standard for
any criminal action would be higher
than the review undertaken. ... I have
concluded my review and recommend
that you take no action against Deputy
See Smith, Page A16