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‘Evers’ invited to the U.S. by a government official
CLINE BUTTES
BLM trail changes rile groups, residents
• Left Bulgaria about 20 years ago with a Reagan administration official
• No contact with his parents for years
• Educated back East, but left after two years — and no one knew where
By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
Residents along Newcomb Road, a boundary between the sagebrush and juniper Cline Buttes Recreation area and the agricultural land around Tumalo, are worried about the changes they see along the gravel road. A new wire fence has popped up along the Bureau of Land Management’s side of the road, designed to keep out off-highway vehicles. And traffic along the road has increased as mountain bikers discover the trails that stay relatively dry when other trail systems are covered in snow. “It all seems to be pointing (to the idea) that they’re trying to make this the winter Phil’s Trail,” said Steve Newell, a neighbor who rides horses, mountain bikes and motorcycles. The Maston area, which Newell and others are concerned about, is part of the larger Cline Buttes Recreation Area. The BLM has drafted a plan for a network of trails, often separating motorized vehicles, horses and mountain bikes to avoid conflicts between people out enjoying the area. And the agency is also taking into account damage to the soils, plants and wildlife that recreation can cause, said Bill Dean, assistant field manager with the Prineville BLM, and letting some areas recover. “We’re balancing uses and interest,” he said. See Cline Buttes / A7
Eagle Crest Resort
126
Cline Buttes
Clin e Fa lls H wy.
Thornburgh Resort
Newcomb Rd.
De sc hu tes Riv er
Maston area
97 126
Redmond
Cline Buttes Recreation Area
AREA OF DETAIL
20
Editor’s note: This story was based on reporting by Keith Chu in Washington, D.C., Cindy Powers in Denver, Erin Golden and Scott Hammers in Bend, and Nick Budnick.
By Keith Chu and Cindy Powers The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — The mysterious Doitchin Krasev is a Bulgarian immigrant who spent years changing identities and homes before settling in Bend as “Jason
Evers.” He did it all, said the man who brought Krasev to the U.S., to avoid being deported to his native country. Krasev came to the U.S. when he was 16 or 17 years old, said Michael Horowitz, a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney and human rights advocate who served in the Reagan administration. When he immigrated to the U.S., Doitchin spelled his name Krastev. As a student at Davidson College in North Carolina, and in federal court documents, he is named as
Doitchin Krasev. “Once he dropped out of college he was illegally in the U.S.,” Horowitz said. “There was no other way to stay. He was so smart, and he figured out a way.” Authorities believe Krasev — who faces one federal count of falsifying a passport and an Ohio state charge of identity fraud — assumed the identity of Jason Evers in 1996, while living in Colorado. As Evers, Krasev climbed the hierarchy of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, at one
point becoming a regional manager based in Bend. Horowitz was touring Eastern Europe in the early 1990s as an adviser to several Eastern European academies of science when he met Krasev’s parents, Dincho and Krassi Krastev. Both were accomplished academics. Dincho is now director of the Central Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, while Krassi is a prominent scholar of Carl Jung. See Evers / A6
Doitchin Krasev: From Bulgaria to Bend Late 1980s, early 1990s Milwaukie
The real Jason Evers 1979 The real Jason Evers is born in Ohio. 1982 At age 3, the boy is kidnapped and killed in Cincinnati. (Doitchin Krasev assumes the Jason in 1982 name years later.)
Nyssa
Bend Boise, Idaho
“Evers” in Oregon
Krasev leaves Bulgaria, in Eastern Europe, for the U.S. at age 16 or 17 to attend Georgetown Day School near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. Denver
Cincinnati
Early 1990s Krasev uses the name “Danny Kaiser” and tends bar at a Denver pizza place. 1996 A man using the name Jason Evers applies for and “Danny Kaiser” receives a Social in the early ’90s Security number in Colorado. 1997 “Jason Evers” begins working for a window-tinting company in Denver. 1999 “Evers” gets a GED from Arapahoe “Jason Evers” Community College in 1997 in Littleton, Colo.
Italy Greece
2002 “Evers” is hired by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to work as a liquor regulatory specialist in Milwaukie. 2004–2005 “Evers” issues sanctions to Bend liquor licensees “Jason Evers” whose video surveillance in 2000 tapes later contradict his written reports and sworn testimony. 2006 An independent investigator finds that his testimony does not match evidence from surveillance tapes. 2007 The OLCC gives “Evers” a special merit pay increase for “exceptional performance.” 2008 “Evers” is promoted to regional manager in the Bend OLCC office. January 2010 “Evers” requests a voluntary demotion to the OLCC’s office in Nyssa, on the Idaho border. April 2010 “Evers” is arrested in Idaho by the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and is charged with one count of providing false information on a passport application. May 2010 Federal investigators identify “John Doe” in this year’s “Jason Evers” as booking mug Doitchin Krasev. He remains in jail in Portland.
Bulgaria
Davidson, N.C.
1992 Krasev attends Davidson College in North Carolina. 1994 Krasev leaves Davidson College after his sophomore year, without telling his friends why — or where he’s going.
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Source: Bulletin staff reports David Wray and Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin
“We’d have these discussions and he’d say, ‘I’m not Bulgarian. He told me, in Bulgaria the rules are unfair so people take what they can. In America people defend the rules even if they’ve lost the game.” — Michael Horowitz, a former Reagan administration official who brought Doitchin Krasev to the United States 20 years ago
Finding clues to Krasev’s life from his chess years Associates of the man best known in Bend as Jason Evers often described him as a skilled and enthusiastic chess player who seldom discussed his past. His fondness for the game may help illuminate where — and as who — the man federal authorities now identify as Doitchin Krasev spent much of the past two decades. Records kept by the United States Chess Federation show a man who appears to be Krasev playing in close to 200 tournaments across the country under four different names, from the early 1990s until just before his arrest in Idaho in April. See Chess / A7
Source: Bureau of Land Management Eric Baker / The Bulletin
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TOP NEWS INSIDE
Cutting corners?
Veiled resentment in Europe? • These are uneasy times for the estimated 15 million Muslims of Western Europe — not only for fundamentalists but also for the vast majority who want to find their place as Muslims without confronting the Christian and secular traditions of the continent they have adopted as home. Responding to a wave of resentment unfurling across European societies, several governments have begun to legislate restrictions on the most readily visible of Islamic ways. Public sentiment, however, often has gone further. See story in Religion, Page A4.
How BP, under pressure to save time and money, may have contributed to the worst U.S. oil disaster By Tom Fowler Houston Chronicle
BP officials insist safety was a top priority on the Macondo drilling project more than 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana, but there A N A L Y S I S were plenty of reasons for the oil giant to want to cut corners to save time and money. The drilling rig cost BP about $530,000 per day to lease, not including the daily rates for the many contractors on board. And the project was delayed repeatedly, having started in October 2009 by a rig that was later damaged by Hurricane Ida.
Inside: More on the spill • Little progress on the leaking well — what’s Plan B? Page A3 • Obama promises more help, Page A3 • Bend firm feels spill’s effect, Page C3 Later, while drilling with the rig Deepwater Horizon, the project lost more than a week when equipment became stuck at around 13,000 feet, forcing the crew to pull back, cement over a section and drill a wide path around it. See Shortcuts / A3
The Associated Press
Crews clean up oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill off of Louisiana on Friday.
OBITUARY: Gary Coleman, child star of “Diff’rent Strokes” fame with a troubled adult life, Page C7