Care-taking statute in line of fire
Family says deputies ‘acted improperly’
From our weekly issue dated March 11, 2009
A strange series of events near Cave Junction one night has led to a pending criminal case, a civil lawsuit against Josephine County and a local woman questioning the state’s “community caretaker” statute.
It began on the evening of April 27, 2008. Josephine County 911 dispatchers received a report that a man with a knife was heading toward a party. Meanwhile, Robert White Jr. was atop a tractor, farming his 58-acre ranch near Caves Hwy.
Back then, White was working in Southern California doing construction. But he was home for a few days, much to the delight of his mother, Pamela White.
According to his mom, her son saw a coyote after the dark of night started settling in. She said he went inside the house, grabbed a gun out of a safe and shot toward where he thought the coyote was, just to scare it away.
She said that after that, Robert put the gun back and returned to his tractor.
Meanwhile, Josephine County Sheriff’s Office deputies were in the vicinity, responding to the call about the person carrying a knife. After hearing the gunshot, the deputies headed toward White’s ranch.
Although Sheriff Gil Gilbertson can’t comment on the specifics of this case, he said that the deputies involved were acting under rights granted to them by Oregon Revised Statute 133.033.
That statute authorizes “any peace officer of this state” the right to “enter or remain upon the premises of another” in order to locate missing people, render aid to the injured and prevent serious harm to any persons or property.
“The information provided to us at the beginning of the situation indicated that someone had a knife and was going back to a location where he had been insulted, so when they heard the gunshot fired, they believed they were obligated to comply with the law and make sure nobody was injured or killed,” Gilbertson said.
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Pamela White said that the deputies arrived at the residence and stated that they had heard a gunshot. She said that Robert turned the tractor around and came up to the house after noting the presence of officers.
When Robert came to the house, Pamela White said, a scuffle ensued between him and the deputies. She said that by the end of it, Robert had received repeated jolts from a Taser and was charged with resisting arrest.
This, she said, despite the fact that neither Robert nor anyone in his family had anything to do with the reported knife-wielding incident that originally brought the deputies to the area.
A trial was scheduled for Feb. 24, but the White family’s attorney, Foster Glass from Bend, requested a continuance.
In response to the original incident, the White family has filed a civil suit against Josephine County.
Pamela White said she believes that the deputies involved acted improperly.
“I believe they’re taking community care-taking to an extreme level,” she said.
This isn’t the first time that the White family has taken civil action against the county. In June 2007, the family settled a lawsuit against the county that stemmed from an incident at the Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass on Aug. 21, 2004.
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