Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2011)
Ililiiliiililiilllimilliliiill Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 HEPPNER Morrow County man sentenced to 62+ years in prison for child sexual abuse Morrow County Jury had convicted Joseph Edward Pergande of rape, unlawful sexual penetration, sexual abuse, and coercion “ We all have a moral obligation to protect children,” said Attorney General Kroger. “1 want to thank the Morrow County District Attorney’s office for their excellent work on the case.” E d w ard Jo se p h Pergande, 33, was sen tenced Thursday, October 13 by Circuit Court Judge Eva J. Temple to 62.5 years in prison for the repeated sexual abuse of two minor children. Members of the victims’ family listened to the sentencing in real-time from the Circuit Court in Hermiston. The defendant was convicted by a unanimous Morrow County jury on September 2 o f 1 count each o f Rape in the First Degree and Unlawful Sexual Pen etration in the First Degree, and 2 counts each of Sexual Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Abuse in the First Degree and Coercion. The jury de liberated for approximately ninety minutes at the con clusion of the four day trial in Heppner. within the state. U nder J e s s ic a ’s The only other me law, the Defendant faced teorite found yet in eastern a mandatory 25 years in Oregon was also identified last year and was found at Lakeview. Both discover ies from eastern Oregon attracted the attention of scientists and media world The City of Board- wide. man is conducting inter Funding for mete views this week for their orite programs in eastern Chief of Police position. Oregon this year has been The city’s consult made to the PSU Cascade ing firm, Prothman, re Meteorite Laboratory from ceived 26 applications for NASA and are sponsored the position, which closed by Libraries of Eastern Or on September 11. Four ap egon (LEO) and its member plicants have been invited libraries. to interview with the city’s Program attendees interview panel, made up are encouraged to bring o f citizens o f Boardman, in rocks that they’d like to and others who work in the have identified. For further field o f law enforcement. information, contact Or The candidates are Ernesto egon Trail Library District D oram e, Louis Gomez, director Marsha Richmond Kevin Lynch and Richard at 541-481-3365 or LEO Stokoe. director Lyn Craig at 541- Ernesto Dorame 763-2355. was with the City of On To le a rn m o re tario, CA police department about the PSU laboratory for 25 years, retiring in and Pugh, who recently 2007 at the rank of lieuten won an international award ant. At the beginning of his for his efforts for meteorite law enforcem ent career, identification and educa he also served the City of tion, see www.meteorites. Fullerton, CA, PD and the pdx.edu. Santa Clara County, CA, On O cto b er 14, D istrict A ttorney Justin Nelson and Attorney Gen eral John Kroger announced a 62.5-year prison sen tence for a Morrow County man convicted o f sexually molesting two children. A 5<K ette VOL. 130 NO. 41 8 Pages Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Scientist to present Morrow County meteorite in Heppner On Tuesday, No vember 1, scientist Dick Pugh will present photos of the Morrow County me teorite at a public program at the Oregon Trail Library District’s branch library in Heppner. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m.; all ages are welcome. This fifth meteor ite ever to be discovered in Oregon was found in Morrow County in 1999 and identified and dated by scientists just months ago. The meteorite was found in a ditch along a rural road after traveling millions of miles and billions of years through space before fall ing to Earth and landing in Morrow County. Pugh will give a lively, updated program about searching for mete orites and the discovery of “Morrow County,” as the meteorite is named. He will also bring $ 10,000 worth of meteorites for attendees to pick up and handle. The Morrow Coun ty meteorite weighs more than 40 pounds and is about the size o f a beach ball. The cone-shaped rock was picked up by Donald Wes- son and his wife Debbie while driving past open wheat fields. “That wheat coun try in Morrow County is ideal for looking for me teorites such as this one,” Pugh said. “We think there could very well be several more out there, including m eteorites lying on the ground out there from the fireball that shot overhead across northeastern Oregon a few years ago.” “That one likely left a stream of meteorite debris as it exploded above the region,” he added. The program will help area residents know w hat to look for when searching for meteorites. The extraterrestrial rocks are often p itted , cone- shaped and have a burnt su rface from trav elin g through space. M e te o r ite s are quite valuable and belong to the person on whose property they are found. To date, only six meteorites have ever been found in Or egon, yet scientists believe there is at least one lying on every half square mile Boardman holds interviews for chief of police ZeaChem named in Cleantech 100 ZeaChem, a B oardm an-based d ev el oper of biorefineries for the conversion o f renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, was named in the 2011 Global Cleantech 100. The pres tigious list is produced by Cleantech Group, a leading research firm focused on global cleantech innova tion. The Global Cleantech 100 program is produced in collaboration with the UK’s Guardian News and Media. The Global Clean tech 100 list is unique in the sector because it highlights the promise of private clean technology companies from all around the world, focus ing on those com panies which are most likely to make the most significant market impact over the next 5-10 years. building a portfol io o f a j - vanced biofuels and bio- based chemicals derived from cellulosic biomass,” said Jim Imbler, CEO o f ZeaChem. “Our patented process offers the highest yield, the lowest cost, and the lowest fossil carbon footprint o f any known biorefining method. As our 250,000 gallon demonstra- continuedpage 8 Wenholz, Theisen to represent Irrigon on county charter revision committee Former Morrow Coun ty Commissioner John Wenholz and Irrrigon city council member Arnold “Joe” Theisen were ap pointed by the Irrigon city council Tuesday night to serve on the Mayors and City Managers’ Morrow County charter revision committee. The commit tee will come up with a re vised charter changing the number of county commis sioners from the present three to five, and present the charter to voters for ap proval. “This will repre sent a major change in the way we do business," Ir rigon mayor David Bums said after the council voted unanimously to make the appointments. Bums also said he had spoken to for mer county commissioner Warren McCoy who told Bums he supported the charter revision effort. “We currently have two people making all the decisions (on the court),” Bums said. “They are in charge of a $30 million budget. We feel it would be more rep resentative if we had five people making those deci sions,” Bums added. The mayors and city managers from all the cit ies in the county get to gether once per month to discuss common interests and problems. Last month the group issued a press release saying there would be two people each from prison on each of the Rape the District Attorney posi- and Unlawful Sexual Pen- tion became vacant. Upon etration counts. Under Bal- his appointment in July of lot Measure 11, the 2010, District At m andatory m in i torney Justin Nel mum sentence on son asked DOJ to each of the Sexual continue to pros A buse charges is ecute certain cases 75 months. Judge involving serious Tem ple im posed person crim es in consecutive sen Edward order to minimize tences, finding that Joseph disruption to crime the defendant had Pergande victim s and their committed multiple families. Senior As criminal sex acts against sistant Attorney General multiple victims. Dan Wendel and Deputy The facts at trial District Attorney Richard showed that the defendant Tovey prosecuted the case. repeatedly sexually as “Child sexual abuse saulted two minor children crimes are among the most during 2006 and 2007. The devastating crim es that defendant knew the child can occur in a community. victims through a personal Crimes like these inflict relationship. The child vic severe physical, emotional, tims were between four and and psychological trauma seven years old during the on their victims. As Morrow time of the abuse. County District Attorney, I The case was ini am proud of the successful tially investigated by the prosecution of this case and Morrow County Sheriff’s the teamwork between the Office with the assistance of Oregon Department of Jus the Guardian Care Center in tice and the Morrow County District Attorney’s Office Pendleton. The Oregon De that led to the conviction. partment of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General has been prosecuting the Dan Wendel and Morrow case in cooperation with the County Deputy D istrict Morrow County District At Attorney Richard Tovey did torney’s office since March an impressive job prosecut 2010. DOJ temporarily ran ing this case,” said District the office in 2010 when Attorney Nelson. Irrigon, Boardman and Heppner, and one each from lone and Lexington appointed to come up with a new charter, however at last week’s Heppner city council meeting the coun cil declined to participate in the process and refused to appoint anyone to the committee. The committee will be looking at changing to what is commonly called a “home rule” form of government, which many times also includes a paid administrator as well as doing away with many elected officials such as as sessor, clerk and treasurer in favor of those positions appointed by the commis sion. City o f Los A ngeles as an investigator conduct ing police and firefighter background investigations; he is currently working as an undercover robbery suppression security agent for Spyglass, LLC in Los Angeles. Mr. Dorame has an Associate of Arts degree in Police Science from Ful lerton College, Fullerton, CA. Louis Gomez has been the Police Chief for the city of Oakridge, OR, since 2001, and he also served the city as police sergeant prior to being pro moted to Police Chief. He began his law enforcement career in 1993 in Newport, OR, and since then has also served in the police depart ments of the Oregon cities o f Reedsport and Baker City. Mr. Gomez is cur rently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Sheriffs Department. Since Safety Emergency Manage retiring from the Ontario ment with Grand Canyon PD, he has worked for the University, Phoenix, AZ. Kevin Lynch has been the Police Chief for the city of Elgin, OR, since 2006. He began his career in law enforcement in the Hood River County Sher iffs Office in 1983 and was with the Hood River PD for over 20 years before going to the City of Elgin. Chief Lynch was also a special operations supervisor from 1999-2000 with the United Nations International Police Task Force in Kosovo. Richard Stokoe has more 21 years of law en forcement experience and is currently the Police Chief for the City of Nyssa, OR. He came to Nyssa in 2009 from the Caribou County, ID, Sheriffs Office, where he served as Undersheriff for three years and Deputy Sheriff for 12 years. Early in his career, Chief Stokoe was also with the Wendell, ID, Police Department, the Council, ID. Police Depart ment and the Adams Coun ty, ID, Sheriff s Office. OHSU student receives hands-on experience with local doctor Local physician opportunity to reinforce or alongside Dr. Anderson, a B etsy A n d erso n , MD, reftite their desire to go into family physician in Hepp shared her exper family m edicine, ner and a graduate of OHSU and o th ers took School o f Medicine. Dr. tise with a visiting medical student this advantage o f this Anderson, who works at the summer. experience to gain Pioneer Medical Clinic, has Last month, understanding and been a staple in the Heppner empathy for those community since her move the Oregon Acad physicians w ork here in 2007. emy of Family Phy- Betsy “The warm sicians/Foundation Anderson, ing in rural goodbyes at the end settings. granted 19 scholar- MD of each visit made ships to first-year Though me feel more like their inten OFISU me d i c a l I had been sitting students who lived and tions were varied, in the patient’s liv worked with various family the unm istakable ing room instead physicians throughout rural c o mmo n t hr ead Elyssa o f a sterile, clinic me nt i oned from Ackerman towns in Oregon. environment,” said- The students had these students after numerous reasons for par completing their experience Ackerman. “I thoroughly ticipating in the rural family was one of positivity and an enjoyed these personal in medicine experience. Some unabashed respect for their teractions and got a glimpse into the enormous impact of students wished to improve physician mentors. Dr. Anderson’s work in the One student, El- upon their clinical skills community.” w ithout feeling rushed, yssa Ackerman, worked others wanted to take the ( ; k I : I : n f i : e d & s l i d i n i i i p u n i k A L L N U R SE R Y STOCK 5 0 % OFF thru O ctober » -A L L TREES, SHRUBS A N D PLANTS MUST CO Veterinarians's #t choice Science 'Diet floq Toocl h SA£Z (54-99 *»<1 4 ?« Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. Lintton Way, Heppner « 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCOG main offlc.) 1 1 ,
