The lawyer representing Nicholas McGuffin, Shaun McCrea, canceled a hearing to request a reduction in the $2M bail. Charged with the murder of Leah Freeman in 2000, McGuffin was expected to request to be released on his own recognizance.

His lawyer cited she wasn’t ready for the hearing. So far, it doesn’t appear a new date has been set and I can’t help but wonder if there is some underlying reason for not making the request at this time. Considering the cost of the defense in a murder trial could easily exceed the 10% of the bail or $200,000 the family realized they would have a hard time posting bail and paying legal fees. If the costs are an issue, they may have weighed the odds of the judge accepting the request with the cost of the lawyer preparing it and decided to save the money for the bigger battle.

At any rate, this trial will be on everyone’s minds for the next year or so.

Berri Leslie of the State Building and Codes in Salem confirmed that ORC received a $6,000 fine for starting work without approved plans, third party inspections, etc… A permit is expected to be issued early this week.

No answer yet whether an on site inspection of the work done to date will occur before issuance of any permit. Structural steel requires extra caution, welding inspections, ultrasound tests, etc… reportedly, an incident regarding the steel bent some bolts when two pieces didn’t line up correctly.

Obviously, this is a safety issue and not to be taken lightly but in the scheme of things $6,000 is probably nothing compared to missing milestones that might be required for further funding from the parent company.

On July 2 an incident occurred at the Bunker Hill construction site of a new processing facility for Oregon Resources Corp. Three contractors were involved, West Coast Contractors, CCC Electrical out of San Antonio and a concrete pumping firm from Bandon (sorry don’t have name) that caused serious electrical shock to a worker. OSHA is conducting an investigation and will release no further details until complete.

As of Monday, ORC has been building the ten story steel structure without the benefit of a permit or third party inspections. Leslie Berri of State Buildings and Codes in Salem responded to the matter in this email.

Thanks for your call – To-date, the project has approved permits for concrete and piling…….project managers have applied for and are awaiting their building permit. BCD and project staff are still negotiating about some of the plan details.

Last weekend, one of the project subcontractors began erecting steel without permission from the project superintendent. The superintendent immediately stopped the work and to our knowledge no unpermitted activity has occurred since. They are currently pouring concrete for which they have a permit.

Building Codes staff is in discussions with the project managers about assessing a fine related to the unpermitted steel work but no decisions have been made.

This image and several others taken yesterday morning were forwarded to BCD this morning.

Naturally, the big question for residents near the proposed mining sites is if ORC is willing to ignore Oregon laws regarding construction, will they comply with all the conditions of their various mining, storm water and land use permits? Dan Smith, Joseph Drew and Todd Lessard were all involved in another strip mining operation in Georgia in 2003 called Iluka Resources. Like ORC, Iluka was owned by an Australian company. If the best management practices and behavior of Iluka are any indication of what we can expect in Coos County, the answer is NO!

Residing on my and several other local computers are gigabytes of photos, lawsuits and press clippings all related to the environmental and economic mess Iluka left behind when it filed bankruptcy after three years eliminating the handful of local jobs it provided and tried to slink out of Brantley County, Georgia.

Over the next few weeks several of us will be wading through these documents and presenting pertinent information here and offering it to other local media.

The World has two good pieces up, the first reveals more specifics about the process of bringing charges against Nicholas McGuffin and moving forward.

Although McGuffin hopes to be released while he awaits trial, Frasier said he can’t recall a single case in his 26 years in prosecution in which a judge released a homicide suspect on his own recognizance.

He also said a motion for a change of venue from the defense would be expected in such a case. However, he has withheld information – including Leah’s cause of death – to improve prospects of gathering an impartial and fair jury.

“The more I talk about the facts – the more people learn – it becomes harder to pick a fair and impartial jury,” Frasier said.

The second article also takes note of the exchange between McGuffin’s mother and Cory Courtright, mother of the victim.

On Tuesday prior to McGuffin’s arraignment, Courtright was waiting outside Judge Michael Gillespie’s courtroom when she saw corrections officers lead McGuffin to the defendant’s table. She began to shake and cry.

From behind her, Kathleen McGuffin – the defendant’s mother – said, “Cry all you want, Cory, he’s innocent,” in front of family members and some reporters.

“Don’t talk to me ever,” Courtright recalled responding.

Thank goodness I am not the only person writing about or recording the arraignment to witness it. This makes three different references to the exchange besides this blog so clearly I am not alone in questioning the conduct of Kathleen McGuffin.

Coquille is spinning with the news of the arrest, ten years later, of Nicholas McGuffin for the murder of fifteen year old Leah Freeman. Emotions ran high today as McGuffin plead not guilty and requested a hearing to reduce the $2M bail and possibly be let out on his own recognizance.

Cory Courtright, having kept her daughter’s long cold murder case alive by sheer will these last ten years alternated back and forth between tears and relief and tears again.

Nicholas McGuffin, the former boyfriend charged with Leah’s murder, shook uncontrollably and his eyes were red with crying and he sniffled throughout the hearing.

Some members of both families cried during the proceeding.

All of these emotions displayed were natural and to be expected but the one display of emotion I can’t get my head around is that of McGuffin’s mother. Before entering the courtroom she spoke to Cory’s back saying, “Cry all you want, Cory. Nick is innocent”.

Honestly, what was that? Cory didn’t indict or charge her son with murder. Why confront the grieving mother of a long dead child? Why make it personal, like it was between the two of them? What was that?

Does McGuffin blame Cory for not letting the case go cold? Does she believe Cory influenced the grand jury?

Hours later I am still chilled by that act. As pitiful as Nicholas McGuffin appeared today in court, after witnessing his mother’s behavior I could almost imagine her spawn being capable of disregarding another human life enough to take it.

Having said all that I, of course, can only speculate upon how I might behave in the same situation and hope it wouldn’t be the same.

The Freeman family and the McGuffin family took up residence outside the courtroom in separate sections of the hallway in advance of the 1PM arraignment. The arrangement was in place before I got there so I had no way of knowing one group of persons were members of the McGuffin family so when I started to shoot a picture of the group I was sternly rebuffed. (Later, I sat with the press in the jury box and got a couple shots off)

McGuffin was visibly shaking and in tears when I passed by him, already seated, to the press area. His lawyer and DA Paul Frasier arrived minutes later to begin the proceeding. A hearing is set for next month to hear a plea for reduction of bail. McGuffin is not considered a high flight risk and may be let out on his own recognizance, although Frasier states he will try to keep him in jail. McGuffin thanked the judge for considering his requests stating he was a family man and hard working.

As the families were entering the Judge Gillespie’s courtroom, Cory Courtright, Leah Freeman’s mother, was in tears at the entrance and McGuffin’s mother standing a few feet behind her said, “Cry all you want, Cory. Nick is innocent”. Much to Cory’s credit she responded only that Mrs McGuffin should not speak to her, ever.

Clearly, the McGuffin family is under terrible stress but they did not behave especially well, in my opinion. Mrs McGuffin’s complete lack of empathy for Cory’s loss was just plain ugly.

Long suspected in the murder of Leah Freeman, Coquille PD Sgt Pat Smith and Officer Ray McNeely arrested Nicholas McGuffin today at his home in Green Acres. The grand jury voted to indict McGuffin after hearing evidence and testimony from more than 100 witnesses. Bail has been set at $2M.

McGuffin, according to DA Paul Fraser, has never married but is the father of little girl and works as a chef at The Mill Casino. Trial will probably be late next year or early 2012.

The room was packed with well wishers and media. Not present were former Coquille PD Chief, Mike Reaves nor City Manager, Terence O’Connor (that I could see anyway).

Kudos again to Coquille PD for resurrecting this long dormant case, having the vision to work with other law enforcement agencies and hopefully bringing some peace to the Freeman family.

UPDATE: From KCBY