GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
154th Year • No. 15 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
County
CONDUCT UNBECOMING
Newly released documents disclose discipline against
declares ex-Grant
County deputy for relationship with jail inmate
drought
emergency
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — The Grant County Court
declared a drought emergency Wednesday, April
6, and called on Gov. Kate Brown to declare a
state emergency, which would open the door to
state and federal aid.
The county also declared a drought emer-
gency in 2021. So far this year, Brown has issued
drought declarations in 10 counties. Under a
state declaration, Grant County could get state
and federal resources to deal with the water
shortage.
Serious drought conditions are expected to
worsen in Grant County and across the West, with
higher-than-average temperatures and a reduced
chance of rain, causing the
county to face economic hard-
ship and heightened wildfi re
risk, county offi cials said.
According to the National
Integrated Drought Information
System, a multi-agency drought
monitoring system, roughly
85% of Grant County is cur-
Eric Julsrud
rently under extreme drought
conditions.
Extreme drought is the second-worst category
in the national monitoring system. In regions fac-
ing extreme drought, pastures are brown and bar-
ren, hay yields are low, prices are increasing and
producers are selling cattle to avoid expensive
supplemental feed and pasture.
Eric Julsrud, Grant County’s watermaster,
asked the county for a drought declaration.
Julsrud said a drought declaration allows the
Oregon Water Resources Department to approve
temporary transfers of water rights, emergency
water use permits and the use of existing water
rights options available locally.
A drought permit allows users to replace water
outside the existing water right temporarily. The
most common drought permit allows someone
to use groundwater as a substitute for an existing
water right.
A temporary transfer of water rights allows a
user to modify the type of use, place or the area of
a water diversion under the existing water right.
Julsrud said county landowners he has spoken
to are concerned.
“I’m hearing it’s bad,” he said.
Local ranchers, according to Julsrud, are tell-
ing him they have never seen creeks, rivers, and
reservoirs so low.
What the ranchers have seen on the ground
indeed lines up with the U.S. Geological Sur-
vey. The agency reported that as of Friday, April
9, most of the streamfl ow levels in Grant County
are low compared to the historical daily stream-
fl ow for this time of year. Moreover, the USGS
reports more than half of Oregon’s stream levels
are below average.
For his part, Julsrud said that while he is not
a hydrologist, be believes conditions could be as
severe as — if not worse than — they were last
year.
He said that the county is seeing low stream
levels and lower precipitation overall.
“Those problems,” he said, “manifest them-
selves into bigger and bigger problems.”
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
The Grant County Jail in Canyon City.
MOST OF THE COMPLAINTS REVOLVED AROUND ABIGAIL MOBLEY AND
HER HUSBAND, UNDERSHERIFF ZACH MOBLEY, WHO REMAINS SECOND IN
COMMAND OF THE GRANT COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE.
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
bigail Mobley, the former Grant
County sheriff ’s deputy at the
heart of the “sex talk” scandal,
committed no fewer than eight
violations of the department’s
code of conduct ranging from abuse of her
position to conduct unbecoming an offi -
cer and neglect of duty, according to public
records recently unsealed by a judge after
the ex-deputy sued to keep them secret.
For those transgressions, Mobley was
given a 30-day unpaid suspension starting
on Nov. 26, 2020, the records reveal. On
Dec. 26, the day after the suspension ended,
Mobley resigned from the Grant County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
The disciplinary action was the culmina-
tion of a 21-month investigation into Mob-
ley’s inappropriate relationship with an
inmate at the Grant County Jail, where she
worked as a corrections deputy. During the
probe, Mobley was on paid administrative
leave from her job at a cost to Grant County
taxpayers of well over $100,000 in salary
and benefi ts.
The documents containing this informa-
tion were among a trove of public records
requested by the Blue Mountain Eagle in
October 2020 as part of a follow-up to a
story on the “sex talk” scandal published
the month before. After some delay, county
offi cials were preparing to release the infor-
mation, but on March 9, 2021, Mobley fi led
a motion in Grant County Circuit Court for
an injunction to block the release of the
records.
The case concluded on Feb. 3, 2022,
when Judge Thomas B. Powers issued a
Abigail Mobley, the former Grant County
deputy at the heart of the “sex talk” scandal.
judgment of dismissal in which he ruled that
most, but not all, of the requested records
should be released.
The documents that were released con-
tain additional revelations about allegations
of misconduct by Mobley and other Grant
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce employees during
the tenure of Sheriff Glenn Palmer. Palmer
left offi ce at the end of 2020 after losing the
election to current Sheriff Todd McKinley.
At the same time, however, some ques-
tions still remain unanswered.
Scope of the investigation
In early 2019, after a number of allega-
tions had been raised about possible mis-
conduct by members of his staff , Palmer,
following standard procedure for such situ-
ations, turned to an outside law enforcement
agency to investigate the claims.
In March 2019, investigators from the
Deschutes County Sheriff ’s Offi ce met with
Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpen-
ter, acting in the role of county counsel, in
Carpenter’s Canyon City offi ce.
In their report, which was among the
documents ordered released by the judge,
the investigators summarize the allegations
they were asked to look into.
Most of the complaints revolved around
Mobley and her husband, Undersheriff Zach
Mobley, who remains second in command
of the Grant County Sheriff ’s Offi ce. The
complaints included allegations that:
• Abigail Mobley had been having a rela-
tionship with Grant County Jail inmate Dar-
ren Mortimore, who was serving four con-
secutive six-month sentences after pleading
guilty to charges of strangulation, fourth-de-
gree assault and menacing.
• Abigail Mobley had sexually harassed
Deputy Brandon Hutchison by contacting
him via Facetime and making inappropriate
sexual comments.
• Zach Mobley, after being notifi ed by a
jail employee that Abigail Mobley had been
overheard having a recorded phone conver-
sation with Mortimore, retaliated against
the employee by ordering him to take two
days of vacation time. Furthermore, it was
alleged that Mortimore had been trans-
ferred from the Grant County Jail to a facil-
ity in California, where he was wanted for
a parole violation, before he had served his
full sentence in order to get him away from
Abigail Mobley.
• Zach Mobley, after being informed by
Hutchison that Abigail Mobley had sexually
harassed him, responded by asking “Did you
get a bang out of it?” and took no action on
the sexual harassment complaint.
See Conduct, Page A16
Local seniors back at the table
John Day, Prairie
City centers resume
in-person activities
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — As the pan-
demic ebbs and state mask
mandates fade in the rearview
mirror, Grant County’s senior
centers in John Day and Prai-
rie City were able to reunite
for in-person gatherings last
week after more than two
years.
The John Day Senior Cen-
ter opened its doors on Mon-
day, April 4, for lunch at
noon, while Prairie City fol-
lowed suit at the same time on
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Nadine Smith, left, of Mt. Vernon enjoys lunch with friends at
the John Day Senior Center on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Smith
said during the senior center’s closure she found other ways to
connect with others.
Wednesday, April 6.
While the senior cen-
ters had grab-and-go meals
and made deliveries during
the past two years, seniors
in Prairie City and John Day
were fi nally able to — if
they chose to — sit down for
lunch.
Rose Coombs, Prairie City
Senior Center’s treasurer,
secretary and correspondent,
said it was nice to sit down
with others without a mask
and without having to stay 6
feet apart.
One change, according to
Coombs, is that now instead
of eating family-style at the
table, the seniors are served
cafeteria-style.
Which, she added, is not a
bad tradeoff .
“That’s OK,” Coombs
said. “We’ll put up with that.”
Chris Labhart, president
of the John Day Senior Cen-
ter board, said it was nice to
get together with people he
had not seen in nearly two
years in a place where every-
one felt comfortable.
Labhart said the John Day
Senior Center typically serves
up to 30 congregate meals on
Mondays and around 40 on
Thursdays.
The senior center, Labhart
said, prepares roughly 40 to
60 meals for delivery and
grab-n-go on Mondays and
Thursdays.
Labhart said the seniors
enjoy
getting
together
for more than just in-per-
son meals. The center hosts
bingo, bridge and other social
activities.
See Seniors, Page A16