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Sawyer indicted, state reports
MOUNT BACHELOR ACADEMY
9 ex-pupils sue school, alleging abuse
Former real estate broker charged with theft, criminal mistreatment Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
A felony indictment for Tami Sawyer was issued Tuesday.
According to the Oregon Judicial Information Network, former real estate broker Tami Sawyer has been indicted by the state for first-degree criminal mistreatment and firstdegree aggravated theft. OJIN, a state-run database that lists
all court cases pending and closed in Oregon, states the felony indictment was issued Tuesday. The indictment was not available for viewing Wednesday because the file was with a Deschutes County Circuit Court judge. Sawyer and her husband, former Bend Police Capt. Kevin Sawyer, are also under federal indictment on charg-
es of money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The federal indictment alleges that over a five-year period the Sawyers used investor money to pay for personal property, causing an investor loss of $4.4 million. They are scheduled to go to trial in December
in federal court in Eugene. Sawyer has twice been given permission by a federal judge to travel to Mexico, once on May 20 and again on June 14, to take care of property she owns there. The state’s criminal mistreatment charge stems from an incident on July 20, 2008, and the state’s aggravated theft charge from an incident on Oct. 10, 2008. See Sawyer / A4
By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
Nine former students have sued Mount Bachelor Academy and its parent companies, alleging they were subjected to systematic physical and psychological abuse while under the school’s care. The complaint, filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court and asking for $14.25 million, was filed by former students who in the 1990s attended the school for troubled teens. Mount Bachelor Academy, located 26 miles east of Prineville, shut down in 2009 after a state investigation found evidence of emotional abuse and sexual role-playing “There’s a in the school’s difference curriculum. Kelly Clark, between who represents the nine fortough mer students, love and said they have come to realize abuse.” as they’ve aged — Kelly that what happened to them Clark, who wasn’t therapy. represents “Especia lly the nine for kids who ex-students went through this kind of a program, I think it takes a long time to figure out what’s normal for them,” he said. “This was really crazy-making. It wasn’t just neglectful and abusive. It’s like, ‘What’s normal? Am I crazy?’ ” Clark said several of the plaintiffs are part of a movement to get rid of “tough love” schools like Mount Bachelor Academy. “There’s a difference between tough love and abuse,” he said. The lawsuit targets not only Mount Bachelor Educational Center but also Aspen Education Group, a defunct company that once owned the academy, and CRC Health Oregon and CRC Health Group, two companies that were owners or “controlling entities” of Aspen and Mount Bachelor Academy and continue to operate schools around the country. The lawsuit alleges some of the counselors had only high school educations and weren’t trained in psychology, psychiatry or child development. In an attempt to fix the teens’ behavior problems, the lawsuit alleges, counselors subjected them to various abuses, including physical punishments like extreme cold, sound torture, forced marches and physical attacks. See Academy / A4
At St. Charles, chimes mark births, deaths
COOL TIME IN THE HOT TOWN
By Megan Kehoe The Bulletin
A seven-second chime has begun ringing throughout the hallways of the St. Charles-Bend and Redmond hospitals. It’s either a stork’s cry or a funeral bell. A birth announcement or a death notice. A joyful moment or a tragic one. In Health Because at St. Charles, the • Top 5 things sound of life and death is one and a national the same. group says On Friday, the St. Charles your doctor hospitals in Bend and Redmond shouldn’t do, began recognizing births and Page F1 deaths with an electronic chime that sounds like the soft ringing of a metal bowl. The sound and length is the same for both births and deaths and is meant to honor both aspects of the life cycle. “We’re a society that doesn’t always like to acknowledge death,” said Pam Steinke, St. Charles’ chief nursing officer. “But it’s just as important to recognize.” The continuous chime sounds in the public areas of the hospital, but cannot be heard in patient rooms. It’s a quiet, unobtrusive sound that can just as easily be ignored as it can be reflected upon. The chime rings and average of five times a day. See Chimes / A4
Confronting decades of pain, Spain investigates hundreds of lost babies By Raphael Minder New York Times News Service
Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
Four-year-old Meriyah Arce, left, leads her siblings, Martin, 7, and Elicia, 8, through a row of fountains while cooling off from the afternoon heat Wednesday at Centennial Park in Redmond. Temperatures hit 93 degrees at the Redmond Airport and 90 degrees at the Bend Airport on Wednesday, making it the hottest day of the year so far for both cities. Today is forecast to be partly cloudy and slightly cooler, with a high near 86 degrees in Bend. For the full weather report, see Page C6.
As plastic reigns, Treasury slows its printing presses By Binyamin Appelbaum New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — The number of dollar bills rolling off the great government presses here and in Fort Worth, Texas, fell to a modern low last year. Production of $5 bills dropped to the lowest level in 30 years. And for the first time in that
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period, the Treasury Department did not print any $10 bills. The meaning seems clear. The future is here. Cash is in decline. You can’t use it for online purchases, nor on many airplanes to buy snacks or duty-free goods. Last year, 36 percent of taxi fares in New York were paid with plastic.
There is no definitive data on this. Cash transactions are notoriously hard to track. But a simple ratio is illuminating. In 1970, at the dawn of plastic payment, the value of U.S. currency in domestic circulation equaled about 5 percent of the nation’s economic activity. Last year, the value of currency in domestic circulation equaled about
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Vol. 108, No. 188, 42 pages, 7 sections
2.5 percent of economic activity. It is easy to look down the slope of this trend and predict the end of paper currency. Easy, but probably wrong. Most Americans prefer to use cash at least some of the time, and even those who do not concede that they cannot live without it. See Cash / A6
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E4-5
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Dolores Diaz Cerpa holds a photo of her daughter, Eva Maria Garcia, in Seville, Spain. Laura Leon International Herald Tribune
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SEVILLE, Spain — Prodded by grieving parents, Spanish judges are investigating hundreds of cases of infants abducted and sold for adoption over a 40year period. What may have begun as political retaliation for leftist families during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco appears to have mutated into a trafficking business in which doctors, nurses and even nuns colluded with criminal networks. The cases, which could eventually run into the thousands, are jolting a country still shaken by the spoken and unspoken terrors of Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War and Franco’s rule. Last week, 78-yearold Concepcion Rodrigo Romero joined the rapidly growing ranks of Spanish parents who are turning to the courts to uncover the fates of their babies. See Babies / A4
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DEBT TALKS: Obama offers more cuts, Page A3 PHONE HACKING: More accusations, Page A3