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• May 5, 2010 50¢
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McDonald could return to 911 as dispatcher By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
The former director of Deschutes County’s 911 district who was fired a month ago could return to the agency as a dispatcher, the job in which she began her career 15 years ago. Becky McDonald appealed her firing to the county commission, but county commissioners did not vote on the issue Tuesday. Instead, the commissioners gave attorneys a week to work out a deal to re-hire McDonald and demote her
to a lower rank. Commissioners said they only want to place McDonald in an existing, unfilled county job, and this could mean a position in a county department outside 911. Officials at the 911 district placed McDonald on paid administrative leave in early December after a dispatcher, Theresa Joye, filed a worker’s compensation claim for psychological stress she claimed was caused by McDonald’s romantic relationship with her estranged hus-
band, Kyle Joye. Local police and fire chiefs on the 911 governing board voted to fire McDonald on April 6 for allegedly lying to them about her relationship with Kyle Joye, and because they said McDonald could no longer lead the district. But even if attorneys reach an agreement, McDonald could face another obstacle to returning to 911. The state agency that trains and licenses police, firefighters and dispatchers has already begun an investigation of McDonald’s firing and
could revoke her dispatcher’s license because the 911 district terminated her employment for dishonesty. Meanwhile, Theresa Joye has written a letter to the county saying she does not want Becky McDonald to be fired and now believes they can work together. Joye’s initial worker’s compensation claim was denied, but she has appealed it and has a hearing on Thursday, 911 attorney Bruce Bischof said Tuesday. See 911 / A4
Petals, pistils and paddles
‘Evers’ heading back to Oregon Former OLCC official appeared before a federal judge in Idaho By Erin Golden The Bulletin
BOISE — Dressed in an orange and white-striped jail jumpsuit, the man calling himself Jason Evers raised his right hand on Tuesday and swore to a federal judge that he would tell the truth. The former regional manager of the Oregon Liquor Control “On the affidavit Commission office in he states that he Bend appeared in U.S. District Court in Boise does not know for a short hearing, directly if he is or in a case filed under the name “John Doe.” is not employed Evers was arrested last by the state of week and charged with one count of providing Oregon. It is more false information on a probable that he passport application is not than that after authorities discovered that he may have he is.” stolen the identity of a 3-year-old boy mur- — Tom Arkoosh, Jason dered in Ohio nearly Evers’ Idaho attorney three decades ago. The man claiming to be Evers was once the regional manager of the Bend-based office of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and controversial among local licensees because of his enforcement practices.
Questionable credibility
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Seattle artist Troy Pillow (left) and the “lead install guy,” Chris Linker, install a kayak to be one of the flower petals in the roundabout art titled, “Yakaya,” next to the new Bend Parks & Recreation District Administrative Building. Nine kayaks are the petals and nine paddles are the pistils of three flowers. The flowers represent the parks and the kayaks represent activity.
Ancient meteorite heats up Martian life-form debate
TOP NEWS INSIDE BOMB PLOT: Suspect received bomb training in Pakistan, Page A3
His credibility has been questioned by an administrative law judge and the head of the OLCC in two investigations. In those cases, surveillance tapes from two local bars contradicted reports Evers prepared as well as his sworn testimony. Evers was arrested April 27 after federal investigators found information he listed on a passport application in 2002 matched the death records of a toddler killed in Cincinnati in 1982. See Evers / A5
Emergency workers training to deal with the wandering, lost, demented
By Marc Kaufman
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LEAGUE CITY, Texas — NASA’s Mars Meteorite Research Team reopened a 14-year-old controversy on extraterrestrial life last week, reaffirming and offering support for its widely challenged assertion that a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that landed thousands of years ago on Antarctica shows evidence of microscopic life on Mars. The scientists reported that additional Martian meteorites appear to house distinct and identifiable microbial fossils that point even more strongly to the existence of life. “We feel more confident than ever that Mars probably once was, and maybe still is, home to life,” team leader David McKay said at a NASAsponsored conference on astrobiology. See Mars / A4
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Correction In a story headlined, “Operation Death Match,” which ran Tuesday, May 4, on Page A1, Patrick Durkin’s last name was misspelled. The Bulletin regrets the error.
ASHBURN, Va. — For generations, the prototypical search-and-rescue case in America was Timmy in the well, with Lassie barking insistently to summon help. Lost children and adolescents — from the woods to the mall — generally outnumbered all others. But last year for the first time, another type of search crossed into first place here in Virginia, marking a profound demographic shift that public safety officials say will increasingly define the future as the nation ages: wandering, confused dementia patients like Freda Machett. “It started with five words — ‘I want to go home’ — even though this is her home,” said Machett’s husband, John, a retired engineer who now cares for his wife full time near Richmond. She has gone off dozens of times in the four years since receiving her diagnosis, three times requiring a police search. “It’s a cruel disease,” he said. See Dementia / A5
Evelyn Hockstein / The New York Times
Robert B. Schaefer, a retired F.B.I. agent, right, uses role play to train police officers how to handle a dementia sufferer in Ashburn, Va. Searchand-rescue officials are facing a growing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia who wander from home.