A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Outbreak
Arrests
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
not, by law, require staﬀ to get the vac-
cine as a condition of employment.
Additionally, he said patient privacy
laws do not allow the hospital district
to share the care center staﬀ ’s vaccina-
tion rate.
Daly said, like other health care
workers, care center employees were
oﬀ ered the vaccine in late December.
“They would have been some of the
ﬁ rst people to be oﬀ ered the vaccine in
Grant County,” Daly said.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
requires a month between the ﬁ rst and
second shots, and people are considered
fully vaccinated two weeks after the sec-
ond dose.
Daly said, while he cannot comment
on the hospital district’s vaccination rate,
the county’s vaccine rate remains among
the lowest in the state.
He told the Eagle the conversation
should be about the county’s collec-
tive mindset about the vaccine. With
like what they do or like what
they say, but you have to respect
their opinion.”
Until February 2020, Klein
was living in South America.
About 12 years prior, Klein’s
parents had moved the fam-
ily from Pendleton to Alu-
miné, Argentina, on a mission
sponsored by the Berean Bap-
tist Church, Willamette Week
reported on March 31.
Klein worked as a trans-
lator for his parents while in
Argentina and Chile. His par-
ents currently live in Baker City,
according to court records.
During Klein’s time at the
ranch, Flynn said they would
discuss things like the Portland
protests, adding that he tried to
“help (Klein) understand that
we’re all on this Earth together.
Whether you like how people
think or not, they’re entitled to
their opinion.”
Over the two months Klein
worked at the ranch, Flynn
taught him to train dogs and
guide hunts through the vast
rolling hills that encompass the
ranch, full of elk, deer and a
wide variety of birds. The ranch
is roughly the size of New Jer-
sey or Rhode Island, according
to its website.
Images on the website show
the ranch’s pure wilderness and
successful hunts, as well as its
luxury.
Customers are treated to ﬁ ne
dining made by an executive
chef. The lodge is decorated
with hickory furniture and cus-
tom Pendleton Wool bedding
that “tell the story of the Indians
and Pioneers of yesteryear,” as
described on the website.
The website also includes
advice on where customers can
land private aircraft nearby.
According to guideﬁ tter.
com, a website where hunting
outﬁ tters advertise trips, big
game hunts at Ruggs Ranch can
cost anywhere from $4,500 to
$9,500.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
From left, Blue Mountain Hospital District board secretary Linda Ladd, board chair
Amy Kreger and CEO Derek Daly at a recent board meeting.
roughly a third of Grant County’s pop-
ulation over 65 and among the lowest
in the state in vaccinations, the county
faces a “challenging factor.”
He said the hospital district and
health department could encourage peo-
ple to get the vaccine, but their inﬂ uence
can only go so far. The vaccine, Daly
said, is the key to getting through the ris-
ing number of infections in the county.
Daly said more hospital dis-
trict employees have been inoculated
recently. Initially, he said it was encour-
aging to see the number of people who
got the vaccine, and now, more people
are coming around to show interest in
getting the shot because of the outbreak,
but also because the one-shot Johnson
& Johnson vaccine is now available.
“Many people have been impacted
by this and in both direct and indirect
ways,” he said. “I think some of those
experiences have changed some peo-
ple’s perceptions and changed some
people’s interest in regards to the
vaccine.”
JDPD
Continued from Page A1
work goes beyond enforce-
ment of law.”
If the city were to pursue
the levy and look for a new
chief, Durr said he wants to
be a part of the process to
ensure the new chief would
be a good ﬁ t for the commu-
nity and would continue the
quality of service provided
by the JDPD.
A ﬁ ve-year local option
levy to fund the depart-
ment would cost between
10 and 15 cents per $1,000
of assessed value and would
need to be approved by vot-
ers in John Day.
Consolidating with the
county
If the city were to consol-
idate the police department
with the county, the level of
service currently provided in
John Day would decrease,
according to McKinley.
McKinley is currently in
the budget process with the
county and is unsure if they
can hire anybody else without
additional funding. He said
the sheriﬀ ’s oﬃ ce services
in John Day would resemble
what other cities receive.
“It would be essentially
what we’re doing for those
other cities, which are emer-
gent calls only,” McKin-
ley said. “There won’t be
anybody in the intersec-
tion changing the tire. There
won’t be a person showing up
on the doorstep when there’s
a call... Your service level is
going to drop signiﬁ cantly.”
McKinley said, if the city
wanted to transition their
police department staﬀ mem-
bers — two full-time oﬃ cers
and a full-time sergeant — to
be county employees, then he
would go to the court and dis-
cuss the transition and service
agreement. The county would
request the city pay for four
full-time oﬃ cers for the ﬁ rst
year.
“If we transition our
department to the county
sheriﬀ , for the ﬁ rst year we
are going to pay for the three
guys that will transition, and
that’s at least $250,000 that
would be going with them
along with whatever we work
out on the equipment we
have,” Green said. “We’re
not setting our sheriﬀ up for
failure or our employees, and
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
The John Day City Council listens to Grant County Sheriﬀ Todd McKinley and John Day Police
Department Chief Mike Durr during a meeting on March 31.
under statute we’re going to
pay for them for the ﬁ rst year
regardless.”
McKinley said in an email
to the Eagle that the county
could not absorb the costs
of the three full-time equiva-
lent employees at this time, or
even in a year.
“So unless the city con-
tinued to support the posi-
tions with funding, those
three FTEs would be either
absorbed into the county
through attrition, laid oﬀ ,
or the county ﬁ nds funding
to retain,” McKinley said.
“And yes, after the year, if
the positions are not funded,
the service to the city will
be diminished as to the ser-
vice provided by the county,
due to lack of staﬃ ng.”
McKinley warned the
council that, once the city
loses the police department,
it would be diﬃ cult to get it
back in the future. He said
that Sisters loathed los-
ing their police department
when it was consolidated
with Deschutes County.
“At some point, Sisters
said they would like to take
it back,” McKinley said.
“Deschutes County oﬀ ered
them vehicles at a cut rate...
but they couldn’t ﬁ scally do
it. Once it left, it was gone.
You may say we’ll get it back
in ﬁ ve years, but you won’t
be able to make it work.”
McKinley added that
he met with other sher-
iﬀ s to talk about this situa-
tion, and the consensus was
that a city with fewer than
20,000 people would not be
able to aﬀ ord a police depart-
ment because of rising insur-
ance rates and anticipated
legislation.
Regardless,
McKinley
said he thinks the city can
ﬁ nd a way to keep the police
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Sheriﬀ Todd McKinley partic-
ipates in a study session with
John Day March 31.
department, but it depends on
what they do.
“I feel like this council
and us in this room need to
come to a collective conclu-
sion that if we’re gonna keep
it, let’s do it right,” Green
said. “If we’re going to tran-
sition it, let’s do that right
too, so we’re not paying for
everybody else to have the
additional coverage.”
City council thoughts
Several John Day city
council members said, if
the city were to work with
the county on consolidat-
ing the JDPD, they would
have to construct something
that would be equitable and
fair to the sheriﬀ ’s oﬃ ce and
each city in the county.
“If we’re going to tran-
sition, we need to support
our sheriﬀ , and that means
we have to come up with an
equitable arrangement, and
it’s not John Day and the
county doing everything for
everybody because all that
does is undermine his staﬀ
and stretch his resources
thin,” Green said.
While every property
owner pays property taxes to
the county that fund the sher-
John Day Police Chief Mike Durr
participates in a study session
about the future of the John
Day Police Department.
iﬀ ’s oﬃ ce, there are several
cities that also have contracts
for service with the oﬃ ce.
Councilor Paul Smith
responded to a letter to
the editor from March 31
that questioned how the
city spent funds on capi-
tal improvement projects
but lacks money to fund the
police department.
Smith said the dollars for
capital improvement projects
have been funded by grants
to be spent speciﬁ cally on
the projects and nothing else.
“We can’t take those
monies and fund the police
department,” Smith said.
“The dollars for our police
department come from
our general fund, and we
can’t spend road money or
grant money to fund these
departments.”
Green said the city cur-
rently pays 150% of their
property tax base to keep the
police department running.
Green added that the invest-
ment in capital improvement
projects is the answer to pro-
viding the revenue needed
to fund items such as the
police department through
increased growth and the
property taxes it provides.
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The Capitol riot
Federal oﬃ cials, court doc-
uments and ensuing news arti-
cles have described in detail the
Klein brothers’ alleged connec-
tion to the U.S. Capitol riot.
Jonathanpeter
Klein’s
defense attorney, Michelle
Sweet, did not respond to
emailed requests for comment
prior to press time.
In late December 2020, the
brothers bought plane tickets
using cash and ﬂ ew from Port-
land to Pennsylvania two days
prior to the riot, according to
an indictment unsealed and
reported by news outlets last
week.
A photo taken on Jan. 5 in
Washington, D.C., shows Jona-
thanpeter Klein wearing a shirt
saying “Proud Boys PDX,”
according to the FBI.
Prosecutors say the brothers
were among the initial groups
to breach the Capitol around
2 p.m., as reported by The Ore-
gonian/OregonLive. Court doc-
uments describe how the broth-
ers also helped other rioters gain
access to the Capitol Building’s
Upper West Terrace.
Prosecutors allege the broth-
ers then entered and exited the
building before moving to the
north side, where they forced
open a door using a wrench. A
detention memo from Assistant
U.S. Attorney Paul T. Maloney
states law enforcement were
then “tasked with protecting the
Capitol and its inhabitants pre-
pared to fend oﬀ yet another
wave of attacks from the unruly
crowd.”
“The defendants’ actions
created a dangerous scenario
that directly interfered with law
enforcement’s eﬀ orts to secure
the building,” Maloney wrote
in the memo. “That they did
so as part of a second or third
wave of attacks — with knowl-
edge of the mayhem that had
already unfolded at the Capi-
tol — shows their reckless dis-
regard for others and the danger
posed by these two actors.”
Two days later, the two
brothers ﬂ ew back to Portland,
according to court records.
On March 19, a grand jury
in Washington, D.C., indicted
both brothers, accusing them
of conspiracy to defraud the
United States, aiding and abet-
ting in the obstruction of an
oﬃ cial proceeding, obstruction
of law enforcement during civil
disorder, destruction of govern-
ment property and entering and
remaining and disorderly con-
duct in a restricted building or
grounds.
Court documents ﬁ led by
federal prosecutors also show
the two brothers have been
involved previously in protests
with the Proud Boys in Salem
and Portland, for which Mat-
thew Klein has pending gun
possession charges in Mult-
nomah County.
In the indictment, pho-
tos show Jonathanpeter Klein
wearing body armor and wield-
ing a baseball bat and a paint-
ball gun during violent protests
at the Oregon Capitol on Sept.
7, 2020.
Prosecutors also say Jona-
thanpeter Klein shot at “uniden-
tiﬁ ed targets” with the paint-
ball gun amid a ﬁ ght with Black
Lives Matter protesters, as ﬁ rst
reported by Willamette Week.
Videos from news out-
lets that day also show Klein
appearing to chase a Black
Lives Matter protester, and
prosecutors allege that Matthew
Klein was also there at the pro-
test, according to Oregon Public
Broadcasting.
On Saturday, March 27,
a federal magistrate judge
ordered the Kleins be held in
custody pending trial. They are
currently being held at the Mult-
nomah County Detention Cen-
ter, where they are expected to
remain until their next sched-
uled hearing on Thursday, April
1, with a federal district judge in
Washington, D.C., which will
be conducted by video.
Back at the ranch
Jonathanpeter Klein’s attor-
ney had previously urged that
her client be released to work
at Ruggs Ranch back in Mor-
row County pending trial.
Flynn would serve as a third-
party guardian, the attorney
said, adding he had helped
Klein “kind of straighten his
mind out,” as reported by The
Oregonian/OregonLive.
“Kids think diﬀ erent at that
age,” Flynn said. “They’re not
totally mature. They have dif-
ferent thoughts and ideas about
life, and I just (wanted to) inﬂ u-
ence him with my opinion.”
Flynn said, had the judge
not denied the request for
Klein’s release, he would have
accepted the role as third-party
guardian. To Flynn, Klein was
just in need of some positive
inﬂ uence.
“From what’s transpired,
obviously the kid potentially
made some bad choices,” he
said.
While chatting with the FBI
on his property, Flynn said an
arresting oﬃ cer told him that
Klein seemed like a “very nice
kid, very polite kid,” and that he
would put in a good word with
the prosecuting attorney.
“I was sitting there when he
called the prosecuting attorney,”
Flynn said. “I watched him on
the phone, and he told him that
he was a very nice kid, very
polite, very genuine.”
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