10/30/20, 1:09 PM
BULL
Some of you may have seen a story published in the Bend Bulletin titled,
“Online newspaper rankles Crooked River Ranch board.”
The story was written by Bulletin reporter, Garrett Andrews and published initially online October 21, 2020 at about 6:00 PM. Andrews story was republished October 22, 2020 on the front page of the Bulletin’s print version.
BACKGROUND
On October 13, 2020, Portland attorney, Duane Bosworth from the law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, wrote Crooked River Ranch (CRR) President Carl Harbour on behalf of the nationally known, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (“RCFP”).
LETTER ATTACHED
Mr. Bosworth’s letter conveyed RCFP’s concerns about the “obstruction and harassment” related to Ranch Matters John Stevens and Dave Stangland’s journalism by the Ranch Board.
Bosworth stated, “I understand that the Board has many times said that my clients are in essence wanna be journalists. Please inform the entire Board and anyone who offers this disparagement that Mr. Stevens has been a recipient of the Edward R. Morrow Award for Investigative Reporting, a recipient of the Associated Press Award for Investigative Reporting and a member of an Emmy Winning Investigative News Team.”
Bosworth’s letter pointed out “two examples of wrongful obstruction and harassment, among others.” His first example dealt with the April 20, 2020, “…outrageous attempt to have Mr. Stevens and Mr. Stangland arrested for trespass” while covering a story on the Ranch golf course related to vandalism. “Mr. Stevens and Mr. Stangland were placed on a trespass list within the Sheriff’s office.”
Bosworth goes on, “Because your attempt to press trespass charges was baseless, the Board must make all efforts needed to remove my clients from the list.” Further, “Failure to assist in their being removed will give my clients an avenue to pursue all legal remedies available to them against the Board and/or individual employees of CRR.”
Bosworth’s second example covered “outrageous” complaints made to the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) against John Stevens’ private investigators license. Bosworth wrote, “The DPSST has expressly stated the investigation was prompted by CRR: As you may know, this investigation is related to your involvement with the CRR Association.”
Bosworth further wrote, “The State has advised that a complaint against John Stevens has already been dismissed, as required by Oregon Law. The Department dismissed the complaint due to “Mr. Stevens’ journalistic activities.”
Note: All of the DPSST COMPLAINTS against Stevens were dismissed as “FALSE and UNFOUNDED.”
On October 15, 2020, we stopped by the Bend Bulletin and spoke with a Ms. Lori Lamont about purchasing ad space to publish Bosworth’s letter. Ms. Lamont read the letter, asked some questions and referred the matter to Editor Gerry O’Brien.
Bulletin reporter Garrett Andrews called on October 20, 2020 and almost immediately asked, do you consider yourselves journalists? He seemed focused on the journalism angle and less on facts. He did ask Stevens for a resume apparently looking for some journalism background. The following morning Andrews was provided via email, an “old” resume along with a 1999 letter of reference from a KOIN 6 reporter.
“OLD” RESUME & KOIN 6 LETTER ATTACHED
When Andrews published his story the night of Oct 21 he was in possession of Bosworth’s 10/13 letter to Board President Carl Harbour, the above described resume and letter of reference.
He starts off by writing, “But to members of the ranchs’ nine-person board of directors, they’re a pair (Stevens and Stangland) of deeply conflicted and dishonest wannabes who traffic in negativity.”
Later, in the story, he quotes, “Carl Harbour, president of the Crooked River ranch board, said Stevens and Stangland have undermined the public comment process on the ranch through their biased and dishonest reporting.”
Andrews ends his story saying, “Stevens is not allowed to return to the golf course unless he wants to pay for a round of golf, Harbour said.” Andrews signs off saying, “The complaint against his (Stevens) private investigator license is ongoing.”
On 10/22 we emailed Andrews a copy of DPSST’s letter dated 10/12/20, pointing out all of the complaints had been closed/dismissed as “FALSE/UNFOUNDED.” Later that same day, we again emailed Andrews formally requesting a CORRECTION regarding his ending statement, “The complaint against his (Stevens) private investigator license is ongoing.”
ANDREWS RESPONSE
“We’ll get a correction on the DPSST complaint. Sorry about that, I must have relied on outdated information.”
“OUTDATED INFORMATION”? BULL!
To date we haven’t seen any correction, but the Bulletin did remove their last sentence from the online version regarding the “ongoing” complaint without any explanation.
On 10/23, we contacted Jefferson County Sheriff, Jim Adkins and requested a copy of the “TRESPASS LOG.”
Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins & Carl Harbour
Adkins initially called dispatch and confirmed that Stangland and Stevens were on the log, in their system “permanently.” While talking to Adkins, he commented that he received a call from Bend Bulletin reporter, Garrett Andrews.
TRESPASS LOG ATTACHED
