Friday, November 22, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Dawn McIntosh is new presiding judge
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Judge Dawn McIntosh
is the new presiding judge
at Clatsop County Circuit
Court.
McIntosh moved up to
Courtroom 300 this month,
which was previously held
by Paula Brownhill, who
retired at the end of Octo-
ber after 25 years on the
bench.
“It’s bittersweet com-
ing up here because I love
the courtroom, I love the
view, but I would have
stayed in the basement for-
ever if I could have kept
her around,” McIntosh
said. “But she earned it,
she worked so hard for 25
years.”
As presiding judge,
McIntosh will take on addi-
tional administrative duties,
including supervising the
new trial court administra-
tor, Julie Vredeveld.
Among her priorities
are to continue Brownhill’s
work in meeting the Ore-
gon Supreme Court stan-
dards for timely disposi-
tions of cases.
“People deserve to have
decisions and their cases
handled timely. And in a
manner that is respectful
and gets all sides of the dis-
pute heard,” McIntosh said.
‘PEOPLE DESERVE TO HAVE DECISIONS
AND THEIR CASES HANDLED TIMELY.
AND IN A MANNERMATTER THAT IS
RESPECTFUL AND GETS ALL SIDES OF
THE DISPUTE HEARD.’
Judge Dawn McIntosh
She will also lead the
court’s security committee.
“We face a number of
the same issues that other
rural communities face
with a lack of security in
the courthouse,” McIntosh
said. “We know what good
security looks like, but we
don’t have it here. And it is
something we’re going to
continue to work on.”
McIntosh was elected
in 2016 to a six-year term,
replacing Judge Philip Nel-
son, who retired.
She began her career
interning for the sex crimes
unit in Multnomah County
District Attorney’s offi ce
after dropping out of law
school.
“I was there a week and
said, ‘This is what I want to
do.’ So, I went back to law
school the next term and I
worked at the DA’s offi ce
throughout law school,
started trying cases when
I was a third-year and I
stayed there,” McIntosh
said.
She graduated from
Lewis & Clark Law School
in 1992 and was hired as an
assistant district attorney in
Multnomah County.
McIntosh moved to
Clatsop County in 1998 to
serve as chief deputy dis-
trict attorney. She super-
vised child abuse and major
sex crime cases until 2003.
She was named the Ore-
gon District Attorneys
Association’s Child Abuse
Prosecutor of the Year in
1999.
After spending about fi ve
years at the district attor-
ney’s offi ce, McIntosh left
to work as a defense attor-
ney and work on domestic
relations and juvenile cases
in Clatsop and Tillamook
courts.
She
thinks
having
worked as a prosecutor and
defense attorney has given
her a good perspective as
judge.
During her time as a law-
yer, McIntosh tried many
cases before Brownhill. She
said Brownhill was instru-
mental in her career before
she took the bench because
she gave her feedback after
every trial.
“You could count on her
for actual, real constructive
criticism, never just a ‘you
did a great job,’” McIntosh
said.
“It was very, very help-
ful as a fairly young lawyer
... every time I had a trial to
be able to get some feed-
back on what worked and
what didn’t work and what
I’d done better and what I’d
not done better.”
Brownhill also endorsed
McIntosh when she ran for
election in 2016.
“It felt really good
because I knew she
wouldn’t have done it if
she didn’t believe I could
do the job,” McIntosh said.
“The same way I know she
wouldn’t have retired when
she did if she didn’t know
I could do the job. It’s nice
to know she has that confi -
dence in me.”
Courtesy photo
Preparedness event to be
presented in Astoria, Seaside
Seaside Signal
Clatsop County Emer-
gency Management, in part-
nership with the cities of
Astoria and Seaside, pres-
ents the Tipping Point Resil-
ience Cascadia Preparedness
presentation.
The presentation will be
offered Friday at 6 p.m. at the
Liberty Theater, Astoria, and
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 10 a.m.
at the Seaside Convention
Center.
Tipping Point founder
Steve Eberlein’s experi-
ence during the Sri Lanka
tsunami in 2004 inspired a
career focused on promoting
preparedness in the Pacifi c
Northwest, developing over
a decade while working for
the Red Cross in Oregon.
In 2016 he published “Pre-
pare Out Loud,” a commu-
nity preparedness program
aimed at building resilience
in the Pacifi c Northwest for
a 9.0-magnitude Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake.
His debut was a presentation
of the TEDx Portland Talk
“Why We Do Not Prepare for
Earthquakes.”
Eberlein’s goal is to bring
“the Pacifi c Northwest to the
tipping point where earth-
quake preparedness becomes
normal, expected and cul-
tural.” His presentation high-
lights his unique approach
cultural preparedness and
how to make this theory a
reality.
State Supreme Court restricts ICE presence at courthouses
… and to use them and not
interfering with the federal
laws that are out there.”
Following Zamora-Ro-
driguez’s detention in July,
Sheriff Tom Bergin called
for more support of ICE’s
efforts to detain people who
are in the country illegally.
“If that’s what the judge
wants and that’s what the
judge orders than that’s what
we’ll do. We always stand
by the law,” Bergin said of
the rule change. “We work
within the confi nes of the
legal system and that’s how
we’re going to continue to
do it.”
Agents must have
a judicial warrant
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
‘Sensitive locations’
Some
in
Congress,
including U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merk-
ley and U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici of Oregon, want
to codify an ICE policy that
limits arrests at “sensitive
locations” like schools and
hospitals into federal law.
They also want to expand it
to include courthouses.
About 300 clergy lead-
ers with the Interfaith Move-
ment for Immigrant Jus-
tice signed a letter in August
asking Walters to issue an
emergency rule prohibit-
ing ICE arrests at or near
courthouses.
According to the Oregon
Judicial Department, Wal-
ters and the chief justice of
the Washington Supreme
Court met with ICE rep-
resentatives and the U.S.
attorneys for Oregon and
Washington state in Octo-
ber to discuss the reasons
for immigration detentions
in courthouses and potential
court rules.
Immigration agents took Fabian Alberto Zamora-Rodriguez
into custody at the Clatsop County Courthouse in July.
rally in August in Washing-
ton County calling for the
end of ICE enforcement at
courthouses.
“I think it recognizes that
there are times when it’s
appropriate to take someone
into custody in the court-
house and there are times
when it is not appropriate,”
said Judge Dawn McIntosh,
who became presiding judge
of the Clatsop County Cir-
cuit Court after Brownhill’s
retirement. “I think the chief
justice struck a good balance
on this one in terms of keep-
ing our courthouses safe
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‘Simply a fi gment’
Roman said in an email
that “Congress has estab-
lished no process, require-
ment, or expectation direct-
ing ICE to seek a judicial
warrant from already over-
burdened federal courts
before taking custody of an
alien on civil immigration
violations.
“This idea is simply a fi g-
ment created by those who
wish to undermine immigra-
tion enforcement and excuse
the ill-conceived practices
of sanctuary jurisdictions
that put politics before pub-
lic safety.”
Katherine
McDowell,
an attorney with the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union
of Oregon, said in a state-
ment that “legal observers
have repeatedly witnessed
ICE offi cers profi le, stalk
and violently arrest com-
munity members in Oregon
courthouses.
“The courthouse rule
stops these frightening prac-
tices and ensures that every-
one can seek justice in our
courts.”
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sider carefully whether to
refer those who obstruct our
lawful enforcement efforts
for criminal prosecution.”
S
A new rule in Oregon
prohibits U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
from detaining people at
state courthouses without a
judicial arrest warrant.
The rule also protects
people going to or from
court proceedings from
being stopped in nearby
entryways, sidewalks and
parking lots.
Oregon Supreme Court
Chief Justice Martha Wal-
ters enacted the rule Thurs-
day following concerns
about ICE agents detain-
ing people at courthouses
through administrative war-
rants. Oregon is the third
state, after New Jersey and
New York, to prohibit ICE
detentions in and around
courthouses without a judi-
cial warrant.
“Arrests in courthouses
have interfered with judicial
proceedings and removed
criminal defendants before
they have been sentenced or
completed their sentences,”
Walters said in a statement.
”We are adopting this rule to
maintain the integrity of our
courts and provide access to
justice — not to advance or
oppose any political or pol-
icy agenda.”
After Ruben Vera Perez
was detained by ICE agents
outside the Clatsop County
Courthouse last December,
Judge Paula Brownhill, the
presiding judge of the Cir-
cuit Court, said ICE enforce-
ment actions at courthouses
could deter criminal defen-
dants, crime victims and wit-
nesses from coming to court.
Fabian Alberto Zamo-
ra-Rodriguez was detained
inside the Clatsop County
Courthouse in July follow-
ing a hearing on felony
charges. ICE agents used
what appeared to be pepper
spray against Zamora-Ro-
driguez’s mother, partner
and immigrant rights advo-
cates while they tried to
escort him away.
The detention was one of
several in Oregon cited by
civil liberties advocates at a
ICE declined to add
courthouses to their list of
sensitive locations.
In a statement, Tanya
Roman, an ICE spokes-
woman, said, “ICE ERO
offi cers have been pro-
vided broad at-large arrest
authority by Congress and
may lawfully arrest remov-
able aliens in courthouses,
which is often necessitated
by local policies that prevent
law enforcement from coop-
erating with ICE efforts to
arrange for safe and orderly
transfer of custody in the
setting of a state or county
prison or jail and put polit-
ical rhetoric before public
safety.”
ICE has said that enforce-
ment actions inside court-
houses can reduce safety
risks to the public.
“It is ironic that elected
offi cials want to see poli-
cies in place to keep ICE out
of courthouses, while car-
ing little for laws enacted by
Congress to keep criminal
aliens out of our country,”
Roman said. “Despite any
attempts to prevent ICE offi -
cers from doing their jobs,
ICE will continue to carry
out its mission to uphold
public safety and enforce
immigration law, and con-