Morrow County’s seasoned district attorney can call on an Oregon Department of Justice lawyer to prosecute a Boardman man for second-degree murder.
Caleb Marion Beehler, 41, is set for a bench trial in Heppner, having waived his right to a jury trial. Beehler faces the charge in the March 9, 2022, shooting death of Richard Broadbent in Boardman.
Beehler initially fled the scene but turned himself in to Hermiston Police Department the next day.
Prosecuting the case is Oregon Department of Justice attorney Dan Wendel.
“I remember the case, I was out there on the scene,” Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson said.
Nelson said his office contacted the justice department for support in presenting the case before a judge, and the county drew Wendel.
“That worked out as a benefit because Mr. Wendel does have connections in this area,” Nelson said.
Nelson at the start of his career worked for the Umatilla County District Attorney’s office in Pendleton, where Wendel was chief deputy district attorney.
“Right before I became the district attorney here in Morrow County, he took a job with the Department of Justice in Salem,” Nelson said. “He worked in the criminal justice division handling cases and assisting district attorneys in criminal cases on a statewide level.”
Nelson said he felt lucky that Wendel got the Beehler case.
“I asked for assistance from Oregon Department of Justice when I was informed that my deputy attorney would be leaving the office,” Nelson said.
The Morrow County District Attorney’s Office has two prosecutors — the district attorney and and assistant district attorney.
“When the staff dwindles like that, a homicide case like this is a top priority,” Nelson said. The difficultly of preparing for trial like this is interviews, and nothing else easily gets done.
Nelson referred to matters of the clock and calendar, which make work difficult for a prosecutor’s office.
“Once you have other cases, the timelines for those don’t stop,” he said. “Even for a defendant who has a 60-day trial right, even for a felony at a lower level, they’ll get released, but the case still has to go to trial and be prepared. The grand jury still has to happen within five days or the defendant gets released. The case has to get charged and reviewed by 36 hours or defendants get released back on the streets.”
Nelson said even when his office dwindles down to just the district attorney preparing cases, “it doesn’t mean that the criminals stop committing crimes. It doesn’t mean we’re not having robbery or theft cases, or sex abuse cases, things like that coming in.”
Nelson said the state of Oregon will cover the cost of Wendel being in Heppner to prosecute the Beehler case.
“The same tax dollars that pay my salary also are paying for the state attorneys that are assisting us,” he said. “So that’s a benefit we have in Oregon. The only thing we have to pay for is expert witnesses.”
Nelson said when the Beehler case receives a verdict, Wendel “will move on from case to case and from county to county, wherever he’s needed.”
Nelson said it’s sometimes a chore attracting attorneys to work in Morrow County.
“I love it here, but a lot of folks maybe don’t want to come to the rural side of Oregon,” Nelson said. “Some think Oregon is just like Portland with tons of trees and green. But Morrow County has 12,000 people. From Heppner, where I am now, the nearest Walmart is 45 minutes away. Our law schools in Oregon are in Eugene, Portland, Salem and some in the valley. So people go to law schools up there but they want to stay in areas where the population is, and we have a hard time filling positions.”
Nelson said he just filled a vacant attorney position by a kind of fluke.
“I talked to an applicant and that person was interested, but said her husband was also an attorney,” Nelson said, “so we got lucky. The last time I had to fill a position it took over a year.”
Nelson said he would like to add an additional attorney position because of the growth in the county.
“We have more law enforcement, more cases, and more crimes get caught,” he said. “An example is drunk driving cases, because you have more officers on patrol seeing the bad driving.”
