agingrebel.com
Wheeler County, Oregon District Attorney
Gretchen M. Ladd continues to portray herself as a heroine of victims
rights. Ladd was the prosecutor who made a secret plea bargain with a
woman named Lisa Niehaus.
Last Memorial Day Weekend, Niehaus
“crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic…on Highway 19 at about
Milepost 60, a location just east of Fossil” and ran headlong into a
pack of about 40 Gypsy Jokers. Three men died.
A press release issued the morning after
the incident hints at the carnage, “There were two fatalities on scene
and numerous serious and traumatic injuries. This resulted in a medical
response requiring ambulances from Spray, Fossil, Condon, and Arlington.
Five different emergency air transports occurred from both on scene and
from the Asher Community Health Clinic. Volunteer medical crews and
fire departments responded, along with the Wheeler County Sheriff’s
Office, Gilliam County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oregon State Police.
Highway 19 was closed for almost nine hours as a local crane was called
in to assist in clearing the wreckage. A number of the victims remain in
critical care at regional area hospitals.”
Late last month, Niehaus negotiated a
plea and sentencing agreement. She pled guilty to three counts of
criminally negligent homicide, two counts of assault in the third degree
and two counts of assault in the fourth degree, Another 12 counts were
dismissed and she was sentenced 23 months in prison.
Victims
Victims of the horrific crash were never
informed of the progress of the case. They were never informed of the
sentencing until a month after the fact. Victims of the crash were never
allowed to offer an impact statement.
In a letter to survivors of the “Lisa
Niehaus Matter” earlier this week, Ladd told victims to “be aware that
the 23 month sentence is an accomplishment in a case that has left
members of the Department of Justice and the Oregon State Police divided
as to whether a crime even happened. The alternative would be a
careless driving ticket without any compensation for your losses. We
believed a crime happened and prosecuted it accordingly.”
She told them they had been kept in the
dark because: “Under most circumstances, the Oregon Constitution
provides specific rights to crime victims. However, the law allows
suspending some victim rights if a court finds that the incident
involves elements of organized crime. The court ruled this incident was
one of the exceptions to victim rights protections.” In other words,
what the prosecutor seemed to mean was that they had not been allowed to
speak at Niehaus’ sentencing because they were friends of the Gypsy
Jokers and an anonymous judge, ignoring due process, had unilaterally
decided the victims were too dangerous to be treated compassionately.
Screw Up
Wheeler County, with a population of
1,358 was clearly overwhelmed by the tragedy and the criminal
investigation suffered. The police, preoccupied with the carnage,
screwed up and the secrecy of Lisa Niehaus’ sentencing probably had more
to do with that than the alleged dangerousness of the Gypsy Jokers.
The pack was on its ways to the 40th
Annual Fossil Motorcycle Campout. Niehaus was returning from the same
rally. She may or may not have been drinking. We will never know. At the
time of the crash “she had a dog on her lap, a cellphone within reach
and marijuana in the car,”
In a joint written statement published in the East Oregonian
Ladd and Wheeler County Sheriff Chris Humphreys allege that “Lisa
Niehaus was trapped in the car. First responders tried to render aid for
victims. The responders expressed grave concern for the safety of Lisa
Niehaus. Several statements by some riders indicated Lisa Niehaus’s
safety was in question. First responders noted the scene was extremely
volatile.”
Niehaus, was never administered a
breathalyzer test. She told police on scene that she “did not know what
happened” and that she had been blinded by the motorcycle headlights and
did not realize that she was driving into the pack. Most of the
motorcyclists had their headlights on low beam.
Released
Niehaus was released from custody then
rearrested the next day. A judge authorized a blood draw and a urine
test after her arrest but the results of those have never been released.
In their written statement Ladd and
Humphreys say, “Niehaus was not in custody overnight, and without a drug
recognition expert to confirm she was impaired when she crashed, a
toxicology report alone is not sufficient to prove she was under the
influence at the time.”
“Humphreys and Ladd reported several
state agencies assisted in the case, and several considered the crash
‘merely an accident,’ the small paper reports. “Ladd’s office, then,
became the sole advocate for the victims in this horrific crash, though
others may not have done the same.’”
“The charging decision was a difficult
one,” Ladd and Humphreys say, “Even the Oregon State Police and
prosecutors at the Department of Justice are divided on whether this was
a traffic ticket for careless driving or criminally negligent homicide.
We believe now, as then, that this was a crime. Criminally negligent
homicide requires prosecutors to prove in court facts constituting
something more than careless. Case law is fact driven and a matter of
degrees of negligence is not easily identified even among the experts.”
Never once in her written statement does Ladd say she is sorry.
