Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current, April 13, 2016, Page A9, Image 9

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    WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
LOCAL NEWS
Men’s league gets ready to tee off Students launch website to
The Thursday Night Men’s League
starts this week with a two-person scram-
ble at Big River Golf Course in Umatilla.
For those who haven’t signed up yet,
contact the pro shop as soon as possible.
The cost is $200 for league and $45 for to
join men’s club and establish a handicap.
Non-members also need to pay greens fees.
If you’re a single and don’t have a part-
ner or would like to be added to the substi-
tute list, contact Megan Olsen at 541-922-
3006 or megan@golfbigriver.com.
IN BRIEF
Father sentenced to
10 years in death of
infant daughter
HEPPNER — On Fri-
day, a judge sentenced
Travis Michael Martin, 22,
of Irrigon, to 10 years in
prison for the death of his
10-month-old daughter in
2015.
In Morrow County Cir-
cuit Court, Martin plead-
ed guilty to one count of
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one count of abuse in the
third degree and one count
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mistreatment.
On May 28, 2015, Mar-
tin reportedly threw his
10-month-old
daughter,
Savannah, onto the ground.
The girl was awake after the
incident but appeared sick
the next morning. When
she became unresponsive
while in the care of her
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she was taken to St. Antho-
ny Hospital. The child was
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Sacred Heart Medical Cen-
ter and Children’s Hospital
in Spokane, where she died.
Martin was arrested
June 1, 2015. Martin orig-
inally pleaded not guilty to
the charges but changed his
plea in the three counts ear-
lier this year.
Martin had no prior
criminal history.
Martin stared straight
ahead through most of the
court proceedings. He ad-
dressed Circuit Court Judge
Christopher Brauer when
given the opportunity to
speak.
“My family and friends
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Martin said. “They know
what happened. That’s all
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Brauer sentenced Mar-
tin to 120 months — 10
years — incarceration for
the manslaughter charge,
14 months for the assault
charge and 30 months for
the criminal mistreatment
charge, as well as three
years of post-prison super-
vision, anger management
and parenting classes. The
charges will be served
concurrently, and Martin
will receive credit for time
served.
Brauer called the inci-
dent ghastly and despica-
ble.
D.A. charges woman
for abusing cemetery
memorials
A Boardman woman
faces criminal charges in
connection with abusing
memorials to the dead in a
cemetery.
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson said
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with that particular Class A
misdemeanor.
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George Shimer responded
to a call Sunday at 8:24 a.m.
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at Riverview Cemetery, 301
Columbia Ave N.E., accord-
ing to Shimer’s probable
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he arrived, he found Heather
Marie Payne, 40, of Board-
man, in the south half of the
cemetery.
Payne told Shimer she
was being paid to clean up
her family’s grave sites, and
made a few piles of ceme-
tery mementos, including
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lights. He noted multiple
items were broken. Shim-
mer brought in the caretak-
er and the secretary of the
cemetery board to check
out the graves and the three
determined Payne removed
items from six graves.
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vit stated he told to Payne
people use the mementos
to show their grief. Payne,
though, told the cop, “the
stuff was garbage, and that
it should be illegal to put on
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Shimer then reported he
watched as Payne took a
can of Coke belonging to a
grave, opened it and drank
it.
Shimer arrested Payne
for second-degree theft and
six counts of abusing me-
morials to the dead.
Nelson said the state on
Monday arraigned Payne,
who pleaded not guilty. He
explained there are laws for
damaging headstones and
graves, but abusing memo-
rials to the dead has wider
applications. He also said
he argued to keep Payne in
the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton, because she has
skipped court appearances
in the past.
Local circuit judges
were at a conference, Nel-
son said, so Circuit Judge
Robert Morgan of Union
County presided over the
case, and he allowed Payne
free. Nelson said he doubt-
ed Payne would show up
for her April 28 hearing,
and missing the date could
lead to a felony.
Boardman police Lt. Lo-
ren Dieter said this was his
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rial abuse charge in almost
20 years on the job. Board-
man police have trespassed
Payne from businesses for
loitering and bothering cus-
tomers, he said, but she has
not acted out like this be-
fore. He also said the case
remains active and more
charges are possible if vic-
tims come forward.
Payne also could face
charges in Umatilla Coun-
ty. Nelson said she had 16
prescription allergy pills on
her when police brought
her to the jail, but she did
not report that to correc-
tions deputies. Each of those
pills could lead to a charge
of supplying contraband,
Nelson said, but he did not
know how likely that was
given these were not hard
street drugs.
Court records on Tuesday
showed the Umatilla Coun-
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has not charged Payne in
this case.
Woman a suspect in
three Hermiston cases
Hermiston Police arrest-
ed a woman who is a sus-
pect in three cases. Chief
Jason Edmiston said the in-
vestigations are ongoing.
Police responded to a
report of a car prowl at
Ridgeway Apartments, 725
W. Ridgeway Ave., and
found Jessica Denise Pan-
key, 32, of Pendleton, who
had a warrant for violating
probation. Pankey is serv-
ing 18 months probation,
according to court records,
after she pleaded guilty in
February to possession of
methamphetamine.
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Edmiston said, and connect-
ed Pankey to two burglaries,
a vehicle theft plus the car
prowl. He said car prowls
ticked up the last two weeks
in Hermiston, but police do
not know if Pankey is con-
nected to that trend.
Police
arrested
and
booked Pankey into the Uma-
tilla County Jail, Pendleton,
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gree burglary and one count
each of second-degree theft,
third-degree theft, second-de-
gree criminal mischief and
third-degree criminal mis-
chief, as well as on the proba-
tion violation warrant.
Edmiston said he is hope-
ful that warrant means she
will be in jail long enough
for police to gather more
evidence in the other cases.
Social campaign
shows women in
technology fields
By JENNIFER COLTON
Staff Writer
Students from Umatilla
are working to change the
face of engineering.
Umatilla students re-
cently launched the web-
site
www.facesofengi-
neering.com, a joint effort
between Umatilla’s FIRST
Robotics
Competition
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and FRC team 4980 “Ca-
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Falls, Wash. The website
is a spin-off of the #Ilook-
likeanengineer campaign
to show girls and young
women they can become
engineers.
The Canine Crusaders
has 27 members on the
team, including six female
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female students, almost
half its total enrollment.
“We have 46 percent
female representation on
our team. That’s pretty
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and UHS junior Cameron
Sipe said. “Most of the
(FRC) teams you see are
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That observation isn’t
only limited to robotics
competitions. When Sipe
tried to search Google Im-
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showed women.
“When you search en-
gineers, you should have
a variety of people, and
that’s what this campaign
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had already found the
hashtag campaign, had
a photo shoot and made
posters showing its team
as #Ilooklikeanengineer.
Naomi Edwards, a com-
puter science engineer and
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Falls team, said the initia-
tive shows what women
are capable of.
“So much of the media
tells our young girls that
they should be seen and
not heard or over-sexu-
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goal is to compete with
that, to put some imag-
es in front of our young
girls to promote the good
things these girls are do-
ing and are capable of.
My dream is to see this
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Umatilla students saw
the posters at a recent ro-
botics competition and
formed a partnership with
the Washington school.
The teams have set up
photo booths at events
to take photos to post on
Twitter and other social
media.
Sipe took the time to
draft the website during
spring break using the
Crusaders’ photos. The
website launched March
22 and has already brought
in contacts from as far as
Illinois and attention from
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Umatilla plans to host
their own photo shoot in
between upcoming com-
petitions.
“We’re just going to let
it grow and see where it
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hoping to bring this into
the engineering commu-
nity and not just the robot-
ics community. For now
we’re going to see where
it goes and do our best
to represent all the peo-
ple who are changing the
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UMATILLA-MORROW COUNTIES COMMUNITY HEALTH PARTNERSHIP
Presents:
The Umatilla-Morrow Counties Community
Health Assessment Report 2015-2016
• Presentation of results of health survey conducted across our
two counties.
• Learn about the health status of our community, as well as our
state and nation.
• Provide feedback in roundtable discussion on what should be
our health priorities.
• Help share the strategy to address our community’s unmet
needs.
It’s not like her.
Mom has always
been so patient,
but now when I
ask her questions
she gets angry.
We can help.
show engineering’s feminine side
Working Together for a
Healthier Tomorrow
Call us with questions
about aging
and Alzheimers.
Wednesday, April 13th
Milton-Freewater
Thursday, April 14th
Boardman
Friday, April 15th
Hermiston
9:00am-11:30am
OR Child Development Coalition • 403 Peabody Street
2:30pm-5:00pm
Port of Morrow • Riverside Room
8:00am-10:30am
Good Shepherd Medical Center
Conference Rooms 1 & 2
1-855-ORE-ADRC
HelpForAlz.org
1:00pm-3:30pm
Pendleton Convention Center • East Rooms 5, 6 & 7
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF
HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAM
Pendleton
Contact:
Pendleton
Rod Harwood
541-278-3239
rharwood@chiwest.com
Please let us know which event you will be attending.
Hermiston
Juli Gregory
541-667-3506
jgregory@gshealth.org
Boardman
Sheree Smith
541-256-0110
ssmith@co.morrow.or.us
Milton-Freewater
Rebecca Gardner
541-938-0282
Rebecca.Gardner@ocdc.net