The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office has arrested county commissioner candidate Alan Murl Heel. And the county has filed a court action seeking to declare his home a nuisance and to close it for at least a year.
According to the jail’s online inmate roster, the sheriff’s office on Friday, May 3, arrested Heel at his home at 80247 Banks Lane, Hermiston, and booked him into the county jail in Pendleton for second-degree criminal trespass and third-degree theft, both misdemeanors.
State court records show the arrest came one day after the county filed a complaint against Heel in Umatilla County Circuit Court seeking a judge to declare Heel’s property a nuisance, allow an injunction to prevent him from using the property and an order to close the place.
Heel is running against incumbent Dan Dorran for Position 3 on the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners.
The county in its complaint argues Heel’s property is a nuisance because there were more than three incidents at the site during a 90-day period that involve “repeated criminal activity or nuisance activity” in violation of the county code.
The complaint recounts six times since October 2023 the sheriff’s office responded to Heel’s home for disturbances with neighbors, starting with his arrest Oct. 3, 2023, for disorderly conduct, offensive littering and harassment. During that incident, Heel yelled obscenities at his neighbor, threw a garbage can onto his neighbor’s pump house, threatened the neighbor and called the “neighbor’s wife awful names,” according to the complaint.
The sheriff’s office on Nov. 21, 2023, again responded to Heel’s home and arrested him for third-degree criminal mischief after he threw eggs at his neighbor’s travel trailer, the complaint states. He also faces a charge of resisting arrest from that incident.
Heel’s most recent fracas occurred March 24, according to the complaint, when neighbors witnessed Heel outside his house yelling for medical attention. Neighbors called for paramedics, but when they arrived, Heel cursed at them and law enforcement officers. He also called his neighbors liars and denied medical treatment, according to the complaint.
This incident resulted in the referral of a police report to the district attorney’s office for consideration of a charge of second-degree disorderly conduct.
The complaint states the county on Feb. 20 served Heel with a notice of the facts of the nuisance declaration.
In addition to seeking the declaration and a permanent injunction preventing Heel from using his home “to serve as crime property,” the county wants an “order of abatement to direct the closing of the premises, buildings and use of the property for any purpose and keeping it closed for a period of one year.” And the county seeks a civil penalty against Heel in the amount of $1,000.
Heel, a self-employed owner-operator of a heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration business, joined the race in January. He has certifications in welding, electronics and stationary engineering, according to his campaign paperwork.
The county has cited Heel numerous times for code violations on his property, and in June 2023 he filed a lawsuit against the county for $10,750, claiming the county owes him the money because the public health department is not able to conduct a correct inspection of his home. The county is seeking a judgment to dismiss the case.
