March 18, 2016 Seaside Signal seasidesignal.com 5A
‘This woman is the devil’
Woman gets 30 years for
stealing $214,000 from
Diamond Heating
By Kyle Spurr
EO Media Group
A former employee at Dia-
mond Heating in Seaside was
sentenced Tuesday to 30 years
in prison for stealing more than
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en counts of aggravated identity
theft after a trial in Clatsop Coun-
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Judge Philip Nelson said the
amount she embezzled is close to
the most he has ever seen as the
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candy bar money from Little
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Seaside
Police
arrested
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charges date back to January
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Dan Nelson, owner of Dia-
mond Heat-
ing,
said
Freauff start-
ed scamming
his compa-
ny from day
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When she
was hired as
Deana Lynn
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Freauff
manager,
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conviction for embezzling more
than $300,000 from two title
companies in the Portland-metro
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have stopped her from being
hired, but she fraudulently wrote
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peared to be written by Dan Nel-
son claiming he wanted to hire
her even though she stole the
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Nelson never wrote the letter,
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would have followed up with him
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Freauff’s crimes were discov-
ered by an accountant who was
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passwords Freauff had to get into
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For more than three years,
Freauff used the company’s ATM
Freauff’s defense lawyer
James von Boeckmann described
his client as having a good up-
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Corps, and returned to take her
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What became her Achilles’ heel,
von Boeckmann said, was an
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“Gambling was the trigger
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Freauff spoke at the sentenc-
ing hearing about how she spent
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life and seeking treatment for her
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effect those choices have had on
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She is ordered to pay back
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Although not physical harm,
Peterson said, aggravated theft
cases cause harm to those in-
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mond Heating is still negotiating
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Nelson, whose company has
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said Freauff’s punishment is a
protection for the rest of the com-
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“The devil comes to steal, kill
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‘She is a predator. She is a
career criminal. And this is
the kind of case that does
deserve the maximum.’
Prosecutor Beau Peterson
card to take out thousands of dol-
lars for clothing, food, her cable
bill, her father’s car payments
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of the stolen money gambling at
Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand
Ronde and Palace Casino in La
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Prosecutor Beau Peterson
said the Confederated Tribes of
the Grand Ronde voluntarily as-
sisted in the case by providing
Freauff’s gambling records from
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no obligation to assist in crimi-
nal cases, Peterson said, but the
Grand Ronde’s help was instru-
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Before the judge sentenced
Freauff to 30 years, Peterson
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“Not everybody deserves a
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Velellas blow back on North Coast beaches
Juvenile hydrozoans wash up on the
shores of Seaside, Cannon Beach
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The creatures, which are slick when
stepped on, can sting to capture prey, but hu-
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By Lyra Fontaine
las give off an odor because they are decom-
EO Media Group
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“Once they hit the beach, there’s nothing
CANNON BEACH — Millions of blu- ZHFDQGRWRVDYHWKHP´%RRWKHVDLG
ish-purple jellies called Velella velellas have
However, she said there’s no danger that
been washing ashore again on North Coast WKH 9HOHOODV DUH G\LQJ RII ³,W¶V MXVW D VPDOO
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This year’s population has been slightly
Also called “by-the-wind sailors,” half of
different in that it consists mostly of juvenile the Velella colony catches the wind one way,
Velellas, while last year they were larger, said and the other half catches the wind the other
Melissa Keyser, the Haystack Rock Aware- ZD\%RRWKHVDLG
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Keyser said Velellas wash up most years
“We’re seeing little tiny ones, some of LQODUJHJURXSVEXWQRWHYHU\\HDU³,WLVQRW
them as small as a grain of sand,” Tiffany fully understood why they blow in some years
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we get them a little later, they’ve grown up
Each Velella is a colony of hydroid polyps
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7KH 6HDVLGH$TXDULXP ¿UVW VSRWWHG WKHP translucent, triangular “sail” on their backs
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TIFFANY BOOTHE/SEASIDE AQUARIUM
Velella velellas are washing up again along
the North Coast.
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Tucker the turtle makes dramatic comeback
Olive ridley sea turtle
stranded at Cannon
Beach almost ready to
return to the sea
By Lynda V. Mapes
Seattle Times
SEATTLE — Tucker the
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Tucker was far from his
warm home waters off the
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Perhaps he was swept off
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Or maybe domoic acid from
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bedeviled West Coast wa-
ters even into the fall last
year fouled his navigational
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he was carried on ocean
currents farther and farther
north — and growing colder
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came inert, unable to swim,
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“Basically he turned into
a piece of driftwood,” said
Tim Kuniholm, spokesman
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Finally ocean waves car-
ried him all the way to Can-
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spent to move, Tucker was
stranded, starving and help-
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Lucky for Tucker, a
beachcomber found the ol-
ive ridley sea turtle washed
ashore and unmoving, and
reported the turtle to lo-
cal authorities, who in turn
called the Seattle Aquarium,
the state’s only recognized
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The aquarium made space
for Tucker, taking him in
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er, Lesanna Lahner, the
aquarium’s full-time veter-
inarian, wasn’t sure he was
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the standard proof of life
test for a chronically cold
turtle: touching him around
the eyes, to see if he would
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pinched his tail — and he
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Tucker’s internal tem-
perature was in the mid-40s
when he arrived, about half
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“He was cold stunned,”
Lahner said of the turtle,
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“His organs were just in a
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are that cold, they are pretty
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particularly challenging case
because he was not breathing
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With no ventilator suit-
able for an animal that
breathes only twice a minute,
Lahner and aquarium staff
took turns pressing a bulb on
a tube in his mouth to puff air
into the turtle’s lungs around
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Lahner and her team also
slowly warmed the turtle,
raising his body temperature
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lowing him to acclimate in
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KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Chris Anderson, Kate Feddersen and Angie
Whitcomb volunteer March 5 for the monthly
Treasure the Beach cleanup, organized by
the Beach Drive Buccaneers, Seaside Down-
town Development Association and Seaside
Visitors Bureau and supported by SOLVE.
Beach cleanup
Beach from Page 1A
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with beach captains at the work sites the day of the
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Group takes lead
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Seaside’s beach, but an abundance of trash still
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traditionally sees Seaside’s beach getting trashed,
the Beach Drive Buccaneers formed as an infor-
mal group to address the problem and make a dif-
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Members of SDDA also “were concerned
about the trash on the beach,” and the organization
joined forces with the Beach Drive Buccaneers for
the monthly beach cleanups about three years ago,
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The original initiative of the Beach Drive Buc-
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she said, adding SDDA and other locals just
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“These wonderful citizens of Seaside are what
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the beach, the monthly program also helps build
awareness about the problem and the importance
of participation and being conscientious to clean
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During the March cleanup, Angie Whitcomb
of Corvallis was volunteering for the cleanup with
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we can have on things, whether positive or nega-
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Whitcomb and her family members had con-
vened in Seaside from out of town for the week-
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Asked what aspect of the community service
project is most motivating, Whitcomb responded,
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ing the beach clean and safe for us is just as im-
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BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
F LOORING
Randall Lee’s 0% FINANCING
AVAILABLE
ALAN BERNER/THE SEATTLE TIMES
Tucker, an olive ridley sea turtle, is being rehabilitated at the
Seattle Aquarium, eating restaurant-grade anchovies, squid
and shrimp. He was found in distress at chilly Cannon Beach.
His natural habitat is closer to the warm waters of the Paciic
off Mexico.
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