By Nicole Montesano • Staff Writer • 

Jail demotion unanimously upheld

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Comments

myopinion

Big difference in one losing their 'stripes' and another losing their life.

Joel2828

He belongs in jail.

Horse with no name

Negligence, death, lies and there's no crime; just use tax payer money to payoff the living, slap the hands of the responsible and la de da, problem solved. Who is responsible for justice and why are tax payers paying for criminal mistakes and not the criminal in this incident?

Denise

Horse with no name

Please provide evidence of lies.

Also, insurance likely paid for the vast majority of these lawsuits, not the taxpayer.

Horse with no name

Denise-
According to his account(deputy Woody Little), the technician who examined Myers “said he could have been on drugs or he could have been in a fight,” and “he was leaning toward him being on drugs.”
... He said he was simply following the technician’s advice.
But Svenson said jail records show the technician made no such recommendation. He left the transport decision to Little.
What’s more, the technician said “he never indicated it was a drug-related issue,” according to the sheriff.

These can't both be true, somebody's lying and the Sheriff appears to believe it was Little.

Insurance is not free or magical money, we pay for the policies and just like any insurance anyone has, when you have claims the cost go up.

Denise

Maybe. But you, I, and the sheriff wasn’t there during the incident. So who knows what really happened.

If he did in fact lie during an investigation, it would seem charges would have been brought against him, and they don’t appear to have done that.

And to be clear, I never said insurance money is free, or that a rate increase is unlikely to happen after these events. I said insurance money pays the vast majority of the lawsuits. And they do. That’s why they have insurance, no?

Horse with no name

Denise-
Maybe? Maybe this is all a dream and nothing is real OR maybe common sense and somewhat of a grip on reality would lead a reasonable person to believe either the medical technician or Little lied about the circumstances of a death in the jail.

Because no one takes criminal action doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed. My question is why wasn't criminal action taken in view of this one simple fact of obvious lying, as reported by the Sheriff's own statement countering what Little claimed.

Just to be clear, "insurance likely paid for the vast majority of these lawsuits, not the taxpayer" is what you said. It can be verified by raising your eyes up the page and reading it.

It can also be verified what the medical technician said and what Little said from the News Register report OR you could give Sheriff Tim a call and ask him if it's true. You might even ask him, if it's true, why isn't a crime being investigated?

Better yet, maybe the intrepid News Register reporter should follow up on an obvious question instead of just writing down what Sheriff Tim says without question. Maybe instead of saying the "county refused a News-Register request, made under Oregon public records law, for copies of the reports on which those arguments were based", the reporter should report who refused to provide the records and why.

Citizens of this county deserve a better explanation than what has been proffered so far.

RKOrbison

Appealing a demotion when you and everyone on duty that night(including your boss) should have been dismissed. LMFAO!!!

Denise

Horse with no name

Perfect. Get on those questions you raise and let us know what you find out.

Horse with no name

Denise-
Glad you came around and recognized the questions I raised as having some merit (I assume "perfect" indicates a level of merit).

Here's another factoid for ya, there are people in jobs whose responsibility is to get answers and provide them to the public. County government paid for by citizens of the county and the press who operate under the umbrella of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ideally acting as a watchdog on government.

Whether they are doing their job satisfactorily or not should be of main consideration when casting a vote for government employees or buying a local newspaper.

I repeat the citizens of Yamhill County deserve better when getting to the bottom of a death of anyone in government custody.

Mudstump

Demotion?...why wasn't he fired?

Denise

Horse with no name,

I assume it’s safe to assume you’ve done nothing yet to answer the questions you presented?

I mean other than to write lengthy diatribes on here.

Come on, we’re waiting...

Horse with no name

Denise -
Sorry you're still waiting. A couple of my old horse friends just reminded me; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make 'em drink. I can lead you back up to my answer but if you don't understand...

The County Commissioners down to the Sheriff and this newspaper are responsible for making sure our government's decisions are fair and just and that the reasons behind the decisions are made clear to the public, especially in the case of a death of the nature that occurred while a person was in custody.

It is also the duty of citizens to question and review the work of their government when it appears to be out of whack. It is the duty of citizens to participate, not just on voting day but every day to insure a healthy government and not one that just covers its behind and takes care of it's own when deadly mistakes are made. People naturally tend to think something is up when information regarding how decisions are made is withheld.

I say vote for people that have the guts and integrity to pursue justice in every case, friends and social status be dammed. I say support newspapers that pursue stories like this one with particular vigor as neglect of justice for the least of us, injures all of us.

If you don't get a good sip out of this, I's sorry I can't help you anymore.

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