Man pepper-sprayed by Portland mayor is heir to dairy

PORTLAND — Police on Tuesday, Jan. 26, identified a man who Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler pepper-sprayed as a partner at a law firm who also tried to obtain surveillance footage of the mayor in a restaurant and get a copy of his meal receipt.

An additional police report identified Cary Cadonau as the man whom Wheeler pepper-sprayed after he confronted the mayor leaving a restaurant Sunday evening and accused him of not wearing a mask. No charges have been filed in the incident. Cadonau didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.

Wheeler and Sam Adams, who served one term as Portland mayor from 2009-13, had been dining in a tented area and were walking to their cars when Cadonau approached, unmasked, and got close to the mayor’s face while filming with his phone, according to police reports.

According to a statement the mayor gave to police, Wheeler told the man of current COVID-19 regulations, which allows people to take their mask off to eat or drink.

“He then accused me of other things to which I indicated he did not understand the rules and should probably have a better understanding if he was going to confront people about them,” Wheeler said in his statement.

Wheeler said the man stood within one or two feet of him and Wheeler became concerned for his safety and contracting COVID-19. Wheeler told the man to “back off” and he was carrying pepper spray, which he would use if necessary. When the man did not listen, the mayor said he sprayed him in the eyes.

Adams, whose statement to police was consistent with the mayor’s, suggested to Wheeler he should leave for his safety. Before doing so, Wheeler said he threw a bottle of water toward the man so he could wash his eyes, he told police.

Cadonau told police when contacted Monday he didn’t want to discuss the matter because he was an attorney. He said the mayor should be held “accountable” but declined to elaborate, according to the police report.

Stories from 2019 in The Oregonian/OregonLive identify an attorney named Cary Cadonau arguing in court over the sale of his family’s business, Alpenrose Dairy, to a Seattle-based company.

Wheeler, who was re-elected in November, has been targeted by left-wing demonstrators, including some who smashed windows and set a small fire inside his condo building.

Leader in oxycodone fraud sentenced to 4 years in prison

PORTLAND — A man who fraudulently obtained and sold 2,400 oxycodone pills by having others pass fake prescriptions at Portland-area pharmacies was sentenced Tuesday to four years in federal prison.

Chase Adam Conway, 36, sent women into pharmacies to fill the bogus prescriptions, obtaining 90 to 180 pills at a time, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration tracked Conway’s car in 2018, and found he had been using doctors’ DEA registration numbers without their knowledge, according to Kemp Strickland, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Conway also obtained medical prescription paper, used his printer to fraudulently place the doctors’ names and their DEA registration numbers on the prescriptions, and provided his “runners,” with bogus IDs to obtain the pills.

Conway’s lawyer Robert Hamilton, an assistant federal public defender, said his client’s crime was driven by addiction to opiates and methamphetamine.

His arrest in this case has “probably saved his life and others too and he recognizes that,” Hamilton said.

Resort damaged by fire hopes to soon reopen

ROSEBURG — The owners of a resort on the Umpqua River that was damaged by last year’s Oregon wildfires are hoping to open for guests by mid-March.

The News-Review reportsthat thanks to favorable weather and fundraising to help pay for the $200,000 in damages from the fire, Travis and Melinda Woodward said repairs to the Steamboat Inn are ahead of schedule.

Melinda Woodward has already sent out notices that the Inn is hiring for the upcoming season.

Septic and water systems serving the main Inn and restaurant, the Steamboat Creek cottages and guest and employee housing on the south side of the North Umpqua River had all sustained significant damage during the Archie Creek fire.

Melinda Woodward said that each repair has been done “one piece at a time,” and praised a stretch of fair weather which helped them get ahead of the repairs.

“We got lucky,” Melinda Woodward said. “Some of the equipment we were told was going to take six to eight weeks to arrive showed up in two. Everything kind of lined up in our favor.”

— Associated Press