Teen admits starting Eagle Creek fire, sentenced to 5 years of probation
February 17, 2018 by admin
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UPDATE 10:23 a.m.: The teenager who started the Eagle Creek fire issued an apology Friday “to everyone in the gorge.” He admitted that he was guilty of 12 misdemeanors and received 1,920 hours of community service and five years of probation.
The boy, 15, who threw fireworks into Eagle Creek Canyon, also must write apology letters to people who suffered losses in the fire, including those forced to evacuate in cities lining the Columbia River Gorge.
He listened to about an hour of testimony from people affected by the fire that raged for weeks on the edge of metro Portland, including forest workers, volunteers, transportation officials and people who live in Cascade Locks.
He read this statement to in court:
“I want to express how sorry I am for what I did. I know a lot of people suffered because of a bad decision that I made. I’m sorry to the first responders who risked their lives to put out the fires, I am sorry to the hikers that were trapped, I am sorry to the people who worried about their safety and their homes that day, and for weeks afterwards. I am truly sorry about the loss of nature that occurred because of my careless action.
“Every day I think about this terrible decision and its awful consequences. Every time I hear people talk about the fire, I put myself down. I know I will have to live with my bad decision for the rest of my life, but I have learned from this experience and will work hard to help rebuild the community in any way that I can. I now realize how important it is to think before acting because my actions can have serious consequences. I, myself, love spending time in nature and now I realize how much work it takes to maintain the National Forest so people can enjoy it.
“I sincerely apologize to everyone who had to deal with this fire, I cannot imagine how scary it must have been for you. I know I have to earn your forgiveness and I will work hard to do so and one day, I hope I will. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak. This has been a big learning experience for me and I take it very seriously. I apologize with all my heart to everyone in the gorge.”
Judge John Olson told the teen that his community service is intended to help “develop the love and respect for nature that you lacked last September.”
A lawyer also read a statement from the boy’s parents: ‘We want everyone to know our son understands the seriousness of his actions. … He feels deep remorse.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the teenager didn’t intentionally set the fire and was with a group of friends who were solely “observers.”
The teen admitted guilt to eight counts of reckless burning of public and private property, two counts of depositing burning materials on forest land, one count of second-degree criminal mischief and one count of reckless endangerment of others.
As a condition of his probation, he must not possess fireworks.
A separate hearing will be held in May to determine restitution required in the case. Firefighting and other costs approach $40 million — and are expected to rise as authorities continue to assess the extent of the damage and needed restoration work.
The courthouse scene was relatively low-key, with no visible protests as some had expected and a courtroom with some empty rows. The spectator gallery was split about evenly between media and members of the public.
UPDATE 9:35 a.m.: The teenager has admitted guilt. His lawyer said he threw one firecracker in the air and it exploded. He threw a second one with a longer fuse that exploded on the ground and sparked the fire.
The judge said he isn’t naming the teen, referring to him only by initials. His parents are in the courtroom with two interpreters. They emigrated from the Odessa region of Ukraine in 2000 and live in Vancouver. They sat right behind their son.
“I think he felt remorse, you could hear it in his voice …” – Carrie Schenk, whose mother’s home was burned in the fire. pic.twitter.com/U0GWnpBYdR
– Beth Nakamura (@bethnakamura) February 16, 2018
***
HOOD RIVER — The Vancouver teenager accused of setting the Columbia River Gorge on fire last summer is expected Friday to admit guilt to reckless burning, reckless endangerment and other misdemeanors and face a sentence of five years on probation and nearly 2,000 hours of community service.
He’ll likely be ordered to complete the community service work for the U.S Forest Service, say sources familiar with the case.
The federal agency oversees the gorge national scenic area and is dedicated to restoring the 49,000-acre burn that began over the Labor Day holiday and forced evacuations of hundreds of people, changing the landscape of the spectacular expanse.
The teen, who hasn’t been identified by police, also is expected to be ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars in restitution when he appears at 9 a.m. before presiding Hood River County Circuit Judge John A. Olson at the county courthouse.
The boy, who was 15 when the fire started, is accused of up to a dozen counts, including depositing burning materials on forest lands, unlawful fireworks possession and criminal mischief.
Hood River District Attorney John T. Sewell is the prosecutor in the case. The teenager and his lawyer will have an opportunity to make a statement, as are any victims affected by the fire.
The fire began about 4 p.m. Sept. 2 after witnesses reporting seeing the teen throwing fireworks into the popular Eagle Creek Canyon. It trapped dozens of hikers on the trail and spread rapidly, fueled by gusting winds and tinder dry forest conditions.
“I saw this shorter kid lob this smoke bomb down into the canyon,” Liz FitzGerald, 48, of Portland told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I was probably 4 feet away from him. I said, ‘Do you realize how dangerous this is? There’s a raging forest fire up the trail. This place is so dry.’”
FitzGerald described his group of friends giggling and taking a cellphone video of it that afternoon.
The wildfire prompted an extended shutdown of Interstate 84 and sent clouds of smoke billowing into Portland. Firefighters scrambled to save Multnomah Falls and other major landmarks.
Legal experts say the judge is obligated to order restitution for the full amount of the damage. In similar cases, courts have worked out payment plans, typically a tiny fraction of what is owed.
Oregon law states that parents also can be held liable for up to $7,500 per claimant for any intentional or reckless act of their children that has harmed people or property.
Attorneys contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive said that could mean that any of the thousands of people affected by the Eagle Creek fire could seek $7,500 apiece from the teen’s parents.
Public outrage spread almost as fast as the wildfire, with an outcry on social media on a scale and animus that one state police official said he had never seen before. As a result, police and prosecutors have kept the boy’s name secret and released few details of their criminal investigation.
Check back for updates as the hearing gets underway.
– Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
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‘Catch and kill’: How a tabloid shields Trump from troublesome stories
February 17, 2018 by admin
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How many other stories has the National Enquirer covered up to help President Trump?
Ronan Farrow’s new reporting in The New Yorker forces the question to be asked. But it’s a very difficult one to answer because the tabloid is secretive about its practices.
Farrow’s report highlights a tactic called “catch and kill” — where a publication buys the rights to a story and then buries the story as a favor to someone.
The Enquirer allegedly did this to conceal an extramarital affair by Trump, according to Farrow’s report.
David Pecker, publisher of the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media and chief content officer Dylan Howard did not respond to requests for comment from CNN. In a statement, the company said, “The New Yorker and Ronan Farrow’s suggestion that AMI engages in any practice that would allow it to hold influence over the President of the United States is laughable.”
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, apparently memorialized the nine-month-long affair in a document that was shared with The New Yorker by one of her friends.
McDougal is legally forbidden from speaking out about it. She signed a $150,000 contract, called a “life-story rights agreement,” granting the Enquirer’s parent company American Media “exclusive ownership of her account of any romantic, personal, or physical relationship she has ever had with any ‘then-married man,’” Farrow reported.
The Enquirer never published her account. It was “caught,” and then it was “killed.”
The context: Trump and Pecker are longtime friends and associates.
“This boils down to friendship. Pecker is taking care of his friends,” former American Media spokesman Stu Zakim told CNN.
Zakim indicated that the Enquirer has buried other stories that might have hurt Trump.
“AMI has often paid for stories to take them off the market — i.e., no one else can print it — to protect David’s friends. Trump is one of his close friends, so take the leap,” he said.
Past media reports have described the Enquirer burying stories to help out other Pecker allies, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harvey Weinstein.
“Even though they’re just tabloids, just rags, it’s still a cause of concern,” former American Media staffer Maxine Page told Farrow. “In theory, you would think that Trump has all the power in that relationship, but in fact Pecker has the power — he has the power to run these stories. He knows where the bodies are buried.”
In the tabloid world, knowing “where the bodies are buried” can be a compliment. Other publications and gossip columns sometimes engage in similar behavior — scrapping an unflattering story about a celebrity in exchange for a cover photo shoot or other favors, for example. But the Enquirer’s tactics are legendary within the wider media world.
The Enquirer’s alleged “catch and kill” technique has been exposed by other news outlets in the past.
The Wall Street Journal first wrote about the Enquirer’s agreement with McDougal a few days before the election in 2016. At the time, the Enquirer claimed that “AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump.”
Back then, and again on Friday, Trump representatives denied that an affair happened.
But McDougal’s claims are pretty clear. The Journal, citing anonymous sources, depicted an intense disagreement between McDougal’s camp and the tabloid’s camp: “McDougal expected her story about Mr. Trump to be published, people familiar with the matter said. American Media didn’t intend to run it, said another person familiar with the matter.”
Farrow’s report on Friday added many new details, including McDougal’s hand-written account of the affair.
In the past, Trump has been open about his backscratching relationship with Pecker and the Enquirer.
At one of his campaign rallies, he wondered aloud, “Why didn’t the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer surprise for Edwards? And O.J. Simpson?”
Trump was referring to real scoops in the tabloid’s past. But the publication — known for its sensational headlines, designed to stick out in the supermarket checkout line — has a questionable reputation.
Analysts have noticed a more political bent to the Enquirer’s coverage in recent years, particularly when it comes to Trump and Trump’s opponents.
The publication is unapologetically pro-Trump in its coverage, which may be a reflection of the president’s relationship with Pecker.
Last June the MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski alleged that Trump and his aides used the possibility of a hit piece in the Enquirer to threaten them and change their news coverage. The two hosts essentially alleged a form of blackmail.
“We got a call that, ‘Hey, the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story against you guys…’ And they said, ‘If you call the president up, and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike this story,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough said the calls kept coming — from “three people at the very top of the administration” — telling him to call Trump and grovel, just to make the Enquirer story go away.
Trump called the claim “fake news.”
The Enquirer did, in fact, publish a negative story about the couple’s past marriages. Howard said the story was accurate, and “at no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story.”