driver's license

Forest Grove fatal crash: Jury chosen to hear Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros hit-and-run case

Nearly everyone seated on the jury had already heard about the case – the one with the driver and the pile of leaves.

They remembered some of the news reports about the Oct. 20 crash in Forest Grove: Two stepsisters, 6 and 11, were killed....

Upon questions from the prosecutor, most everyone professed to strongly believe in personal accountability....

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Forest Grove fatal crash: Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros hit-and-run case goes to trial

Attorneys took up pre-trial issues Tuesday morning in the case of Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, the 19-year-old driver charged in an October crash that killed two young girls in Forest Grove...

...Garcia-Cisneros faces two counts of felony hit and run. Authorities say she was driving her boyfriend’s mother’s SUV Oct. 20, when she she plowed through a pile of leaves on Main Street – the same spot where stepsisters Anna Dieter-Eckerdt and Abigail Robinson were playing....

...Mario Echeverria, Garcia-Cisneros’ boyfriend, has already pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution. In court last month, he admitted to trying to cover up evidence of the crash by taking the vehicle to a car wash the next day. He took a plea deal and a 13-month prison sentence...

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DMV: Most Fail Test For Driver Authorization Card

Will this same problem be coming to Oregon?  It will be very likely, if we don't overturn SB 833.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles officials have advice for (illegal) immigrants seeking a driver authorization card: study.

They estimate 75 percent of applicants have failed the written test needed for the card under a new law...

...Thousands more Nevada (illegal) immigrants jammed DMV offices on Saturday to obtain the cards...

Read the full article about driver cards for illegal aliens.

 

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Legislators predict the year's top stories in politics

What will be the biggest political story in Oregon in 2014? Lawmakers and political candidates share their predictions.

Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem: Marijuana legalization is Berger’s prediction for the biggest political story in 2014. Supporters of legalizing recreational usage of the drug have been gathering signatures to put the idea to voters in November, and Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, announced plans to pass a referral on legalization during the 2014 Legislative session.

“I think it’s coming at us like a freight train,” Berger said. “I don’t think that the Legislature is adequately preparing for that.”

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem: Oregon has managed to avoid “polarizing fights that plague other states,” but Courtney thinks that will come to an end in 2014. The Salem Democrat worried that a series of ballot initiatives on divisive social issues such as same-sex marriage, right to work and driver ID cards for undocumented immigrants would bring in a tidal wave of out-of-state donors and caustic rhetoric.

“You will have a battle of ballot measures like you have never had before, and it will tear the state up,” Courtney said. “It will bring a political war the likes of which we have never seen before in Oregon.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River: Oregon’s timber counties have struggled to pay their bills for two decades since federal protections curtailed 90 percent of logging on federal forest lands, but Walden thinks 2014 could be the year the government eases those restrictions.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to increase logging on about 2 million acres of federal forests in Western Oregon in September, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has proposed a similar bill in the Senate.

“Our plan would provide the certainty that Oregon’s forested communities are demanding by creating jobs in the woods, improving forest health and providing revenue for essential local services like schools and law enforcement,” Walden said. “I predict that final passage of a historic forestry plan will be the biggest story of 2014 because we must help Oregonians who live in rural communities.”

Environmental opponents argue increased logging would hurt fish and wildlife while damaging the state’s growing outdoor recreation industry.

Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point: The Republican gubernatorial candidate predicted that he and his political party hopefuls would beat the Democrats in enough races to take back control of the Oregon Legislature and the governor’s mansion.

“It’s going to change the political course of Oregon back towards the middle,” Richardson said.

Democrats currently hold 16 of the state’s 30 Senate seats and 34 of the 60 House seats.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield: “In a matter of months, the Highway Trust Fund will essentially run dry, meaning there will be no new spending to fix our nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” DeFazio said. “Without a fix, the state of Oregon alone will lose half a billion dollars in 2015, resulting in thousands of lost jobs. This issue affects anyone who uses a road to drive, ride, bike or walk but it’s going to be tough to get Republicans to agree to funding.”

House of Representatives candidate Bill Post: The Republican talk show host who is running for Rep. Kim Thatcher’s seat this year thinks the Affordable Care Act and Cover Oregon will continue as the biggest stories of 2014.

“Both will continue to be plagued by technical glitches and the price tag that those who do sign on will be shocked by,” Post said. “This story will be the one that continues from the primary in May through the General in November. It will hurt anyone attached to it.”

House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte: The ranking House Republican predicted his party would make gains in the 2014 elections, and Cover Oregon would continue to be plagued by delays.

McLane added one more prediction for Rep. Carolyn Tomei, D-Milwaukie, who made headlines in 2013 when she substituted the word “love” for God in the Pledge of Allegiance. “Rep. Tomei won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance with an open mic,” McLane said. Read more about Legislators predict the year's top stories in politics

We live - but will we ever learn?

The old saying says, "live and learn".  Hopefully, as we move forward we also look back at those who have gone before us and try to learn from mistakes made along the way.

However, we seem to be destined to repeat the same mistakes of those who have traveled this road before us.

I paid a visit to our local DMV office to inquire about driver testing and the language barrier.  I was told that the DMV provides driver manuals only in English and Spanish.  But, the written exams are given in six languages.  More often than not, actual driving tests are given by English speaking DMV employees who claim they often resort to hand signals and gestures to give instructions during the test.

The United Kingdom has been in the same situation.  Read about the problems they have faced giving driver licenses to none English speaking drivers.


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Oregon laws on driving, teen tanning, medical marijuana, others take effect Jan. 1

Hundreds of new laws passed by the Oregon Legislature on driving, teen tanning, animals and other issues go into effect Jan. 1, 2014....

...one new law that is not going into effect as scheduled Jan. 1:

Driver cards: The new law would have allowed Oregonians who can’t prove their legal presence to obtain four-year driving privileges. Opponents gathered enough signatures to refer the issue to voters on the November 2014 ballot. DMV subsequently suspended implementation of the program.
 

 


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Forest Grove fatal crash: Mother of girls killed takes guilty plea from driver's boyfriend as apology

...18-year-old Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros.... had driven through a leaf pile minutes earlier, she’d struck some children....driving her boyfriend’s mother's Nissan Pathfinder that evening. Her boyfriend, Mario Echeverria, 18, and Garcia-Cisneros' younger brother were also in the vehicle.

After they examined the vehicle with a flashlight, they drove it to Echeverria’s mother’s home in Cornelius. Then the three went out for ice cream.

The next day, Echeverria took the SUV to a Hillsboro car wash, where he paid for the deluxe wash that included undercarriage cleaning....

...Garcia-Cisneros faces charges of felony hit and run. Her case is scheduled for trial next month.
 

Read more about this hit and run tragedy.

 


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Car crashes into telephone pole after missing corner on SW Scholls Ferry Road, driver arrested for DUII

...At about 4:42 a.m. Dec. 14, Raymundo Jimenez-Saucedo was heading west towards Hillsboro after drinking at a bar in Portland, according to authorities. Sgt. Vance Stimler said the Sheriff's Office used the name Jimenez-Saucedo had registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Jimenez-Saucedo missed a corner on SW Scholls Ferry Road near Military Lane in his car and took out a sign warning of the sharp corner. After sliding 219 feet in the mud on the shoulder of the road, the car hit a telephone pole, tearing off the rear axle of the car, the release states. The car slid another 139 feet before coming to a stop....

JIMINEZ-SAUCEDO, RAMONDO - ICE HOLD

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Raid nabs nearly 6 pounds of meth

A Friday morning police raid on a southwest Medford home netted almost 6 pounds of methamphetamine in the single largest seizure from a drug house in MADGE's four-year history, authorities said.

Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement team investigators also arrested a 35-year-old suspected illegal alien who police believe was selling methamphetamine locally for at least the past two months.

"This was the largest that MADGE has ever done," said Lt. Kevin Walruff, MADGE's commander. "And this wasn't drugs traveling through. They were destined to be sold here in the Rogue Valley."

Manuel Gastelum-Ferro was arraigned Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court on charges of unlawful possession, manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. He remained Monday in the Jackson County Jail without bail while his immigration status was reviewed, jail records show.

His case was scheduled to be presented today to a Jackson County grand jury, Walruff said.

MADGE investigators two months ago developed information that Gastelum-Ferro was selling methamphetamine, Walruff said. Investigators believe Castelum-Ferro, who has ties to Southern California, moved to Medford recently and had been renting a house in the 1300 block of Andrew Drive, Walruff said.

MADGE officers got a search warrant and, along with immigration agents, raided the house Friday morning and hit the mother lode — 5.91 pounds of methamphetamine stashed in the residence and vehicles.

"We knew he had a fair amount, but we initially didn't think it would be that large," Walruff said.

Since its inception in 2010, MADGE agents in the past have intercepted as much as 65 pounds of methamphetamine heading up Interstate 5, but no single seizure as large as Friday's from someone based here, Walruff said.

Investigators believe the methamphetamine originated in Southern California, but "we're still trying to determine who the source of that supply was," he said.

Also seized from the residence were scales and packaging material, police said.

No other local arrests were expected, Walruff said.

Manuel Gastelum-Ferro - ICE HOLD
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Deportation issue clouds hit-and-run case

Deportation has become one of the main issues in the case of the 18-year-old driver of the car that allegedly struck and killed two Forest Grove sisters playing in a leaf pile.

Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, 18, has been charged with two counts of “Failure to perform the duties of a driver,” more commonly known as hit-and-run. The Class C felony is punishable by up to five years in prison.

At a pre-trial conference last week, District Attorney Bracken McKey offered a plea deal to Garcia (who does not use the Cisneros part of her name) that would limit her prison term to 16 months if she would plead guilty to one charge instead of taking the case to trial.

“Cinthya declined this offer because she is not guilty of the crimes with which she is accused,” said Garcia’s attorney, Ethan Levi. “Although she has no desire to aggravate the grief of the families, she is not willing to be deported or go to prison when she did not commit a crime.

“A deportation stemming from a criminal conviction in this case would require her to make her home in a country she hadn’t lived in since she was a toddler, without the only family with whom she is close,” he said. “The death of these children was a tragic accident. While Cinthya’s actions after the accident were not perfect, they also were not criminal.”

McKey declined to comment on the deportation issue or anything else about the case.

Garcia was brought to the U.S. illegally at the age of 4, but is now here legally under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by President Barack Obama. According to Garcia’s immigration attorney, Courtney Carter, Garcia has been placed on a hold from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and if she is convicted of the felonies, her DACA status will be revoked and she will be sent to the ICE facility in Tacoma.

“The deportation proceedings would be swift and there’s nothing I can do,” Carter said.

That scenario is “probably pretty likely,” said Teresa Statler, a Portland immigration attorney who has no connection to Garcia’s case.

Cautioning that she does not know the details of the case, Statler said that not only would the government likely revoke Garcia’s legal standing under DACA, but under one part of Section 237 of the federal Immigration Act, residents without legal standing “shall, upon order of the Attorney General, be removed” if they are convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude ... for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed.”

A hit-and-run is classified as a crime involving “moral turpitude,” defined in legal dictionaries as “conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty, or good morals.”

Carter said she might be able to prevent deportation if the charges are downgraded and Garcia is convicted of something less.

But if the hit-and-run felony stands, Carter said, Garcia would not only be deported, it’s likely she would never be able to return to the U.S., even if she married her boyfriend and legal resident, Mario Echeverria, who was with her in the car at the time of the Oct. 20 accident.

“Certain criminal convictions do make you ineligible to return,” said Ellen Weintraut, another Portland immigration attorney unconnected with the case. People may have the impression that marriage to an American citizen is a quick ticket back to the U.S., she said, but “unfortunately for our clients, it’s not the case.”

Statler said there are complicated, remote routes by which Garcia might be able to return, especially if she married an American citizen. “The reality is, she may have to leave, go to Mexico, file for a green card and then apply to come back with a pardon from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials,” she said.

Such pardons are discretionary, Statler said, and an official may decline to issue one. In deciding, a USCIS official might consider everything from the legal details of the court case to whether the victims (or their families) had any strong feelings about a pardon, Statler said.

At her pre-trial conference last week, Garcia, who appeared in chains and an orange jail jumpsuit before a packed courtroom, waived her right to a speedy trial. This allowed Washington County Circuit Court Judge Donald Letourneau to set the trial date for Jan. 7, 2014.

A trial judge will be assigned to the case Jan. 3. Read more about Deportation issue clouds hit-and-run case

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