HIT-AND-RUN MURDER
Man arrested on murder charge in alleged hit-and-run
(Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com)
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Salem man has been arrested on charges of murder, hit-and-run and DUI in connection with an incident that left a 45-year-old construction worker dead Friday.
The Statesman Journal reports 22-year-old Dillon Van Diviner told police he hit Bradley Goad in Silverton because he feared the man posed a danger to others.
According to a probable cause statement filed in Marion County, Van Diviner did not give any reason for this fear, other than an “intense overwhelming feeling.”
The statement says Van Diviner was parked alongside a road, smoking marijuana, when he saw Goad carrying a gas can and walking toward a vehicle. Van Diviner told police he began driving toward Goad, sped up and struck him.
Authorities say Goad died at the scene.
Van Diviner was arrested after fleeing. He is being held without bail.
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STUDENT ROOFTOP ARREST
Police: Student with guns on rooftop arrested during dance
GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say a high school student who was on the rooftop of a school with weapons during a dance east of Portland was arrested.
Gresham Police said in a news release that students at Sam Barlow High School alerted staff about a person dressed in dark clothing standing on the roof near the student parking lot Saturday evening.
Police say the school’s resource officer, Jeff Culp, responded to the roof, confronted the person and determined he was student.
Police say the student had two unloaded handguns and handgun ammunition.
Police say he told the officer he was there in a security capacity to ensure the safety of students at the dance. Police say the boy was cooperative.
The student was arrested on weapons possession charges and taken to a county juvenile detention center.
Gresham is about 14 miles east of Portland.
PORTLAND CAR-BOMB PLOT
Appeals court affirms conviction in Portland car-bomb plot
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Mohamed Mohamud, the Somali American sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb downtown Portland during the annual lighting of a Christmas tree.
The truck bomb was a fake given to him in 2010 by undercover FBI agents posing as terrorists.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that a U.S. District Court judge properly rejected Mohamud’s claim of entrapment. The 50-page opinion states the government’s conduct was quite aggressive, but the sting fell short of a due process violation.
The court also rejected an assertion that the warrantless surveillance of his foreign communications violated his constitutional rights.
LANDSLIDE LAWSUIT
Florence couple, water district sued over fatal 2015 slide
(Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com)
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Two sons of an Oregon woman who died when a mudslide tore through her home last winter seek nearly $10 million in a lawsuit filed against a Florence couple and a utility district.
Stephen Miller and Keith Eldien allege the Heceta Water People’s Utility District failed to properly maintain a water line that runs beneath a road. They further assert that a couple who lived nearby failed to take steps to prevent landslide dangers.
Delores Miller was crushed to death Dec. 18 after part of a private road collapsed, causing debris to flood her home during a period of heavy rain along the Oregon Coast. She was 70 years old.
The Register-Guard reports the couple and the water district have yet to respond to the lawsuit.
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MALHEUR DA-GOLDTHORPE
Gov. Kate Brown appoints new Malheur district attorney
(Information from: The Daily Astorian, http://www.dailyastorian.com)
ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) — A Clatsop County deputy district attorney is moving across the state to become the district attorney in Malheur County.
Gov. Kate Brown appointed David Goldthorpe to the post Friday. He replaces Dan Norris, who resigned to become the state’s first elder abuse prosecutor.
The Daily Astorian reports that Goldthorpe has been a prosecutor on the North Coast for about seven years. He ran unsuccessfully for Circuit Court judge earlier this year.
Norris was the Malheur County DA for 16 years. He was perhaps best known for helping to investigate the fatal shooting by police of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a leader of the group that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter.
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SHELTER DONATION
Self-taught stock picker leaves big gift for shelter animals
(Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com)
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An animal shelter in west Eugene will be able to fix its fencing after receiving an unexpected gift from a 97-year-old woman who died earlier this year.
The Register-Guard reports the Lane County Parks & Animals Services Division was notified this summer that it had received more than $126,000 from the Harriet Ruby Smith Trust. The newspaper reports that Smith was self-taught investor in the stock market who became a quiet philanthropist.
A representative of her trust said Smith donated about $1 million in her will to charities in western Oregon.
Mike Russell manages the Parks & Animal Services Division. He says the division feels blessed to have been one of the charities to benefit. Roughly $5,500 of the donation is going toward the new fence at the First Avenue Shelter. Another $24,000 is going toward kennel doors.
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DISTRICT SUED
Teacher sues school district; says job lost due to pregnancy
(Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com)
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A kindergarten teacher seeks up to $750,000 in a federal lawsuit against the Redmond School District, alleging she was coerced to resign not long after disclosing she was pregnant.
The Bulletin newspaper of Bend reports that Jenalee Piercey filed the lawsuit last month in Eugene. In addition to the district, some claims are against the district’s human resources director and the principal of Sage Elementary School.
The lawsuit asserts Piercey was coerced to resign in 2015, a little more than a year after a performance review described her as a great asset to the school.
A school district spokesperson said it is district policy not to comment on pending litigation.
Piercey’s attorney, Charese Rohny, said her client left Central Oregon and found work in another school district.
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INMATE KILLED
Snake River inmate charged in fellow inmate’s death
(Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com)
ONTARIO, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon prison inmate has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of another inmate.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that 37-year-old Michael Lay is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 17 in Malheur County, where the Snake River Correctional Institution is based.
He’s accused of killing 22-year-old Michael Teves in February. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Lay was sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison in November 2008 for a gunpoint robbery at a Portland restaurant and later attacking a Multnomah County jail deputy.
Teves was convicted of second-degree assault in Lane County in 2014. His earliest release date was Dec. 9.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.