A hastily homemade coffin, lined with white muslin, encased the body of the first Morek schoolteacher, Margaret Sutherland Murray. It was an autumn evening, Tuesday, October 3, 1905, when four men, including Morek school trustee Joe Lewis, at whose home Miss Murray had lived over the past four years, gripped the sides of a litter to carry the coffin down a narrow path, one-and-a-half steep miles to the Klamath River. Following behind the coffin were Joe Lewis’s wife Ida and twenty-year-old Brenda Harmon, a schoolteacher at nearby Mettah and a friend of Miss Murray’s, who had helped prepare her body for its final journey.

There are conflicting stories about the circumstances of Miss Murray’s surprising death by rattlesnake bite. Reports claim that she made irrational decisions, that her medical care was imperfect, that she was “under a spell,” the result of failing to heed Yurok customs surrounding the ceremonial construction of a fish dam at Kepel Creek. What ties these reports together is the belief that Miss Murray need not have died. Even her brother would come to accept that it was his older sister’s “own acts” that brought about her death.

That the fifty-nine-year-old schoolteacher had been living away from her family, at such a distance from the Eureka homes of her brothers John Sutherland Murray and George Deuchar Murray, was only the first oddity in the tale of her life on the Klamath and her death there.

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Born in New Zealand in 1846, Margaret came to San Francisco with her parents, John Sutherland Murray and Jane Deuchar Murray and her brother John Jr. in 1849. In 1851, drawn by tales of treasure at Gold Bluffs, the Murrays moved from San Francisco to Union (Arcata) and John Sr. began work as Humboldt County’s first Surveyor. In 1855 and 1857, George and Lucy were born. Soon after, the Murrays bought land in Eureka. In 1859, their new home, a one-and-a-half-story gabled structure of pine lumber, went up. At the time, the house was in the woods, on a road that stretched from the waterfront to a nearby logging camp, but during their occupancy, the land became Block 61, on a diagonal to the courthouse at 5th and J Streets, and their family life was embraced by Eureka civic life.

The children attended local schools, with at least George and Margaret traveling south for further education: he to the University at Berkeley and to Hastings Law School, she to Miss Lynch’s Seminary in Benicia. In 1865, when nineteen-year-old Margaret began teaching, she was one of only three grammar school teachers in Eureka. There she would stay, for at least 25 years, continuously employed in Eureka schools.

Then, in the early 1890s, Miss Murray suddenly lost her position. According to her brother George: “They said she was old, was rich, and should retire to give the young girls a chance who were looking for positions as teachers.” Margaret Murray was now told that instead of teaching her fourth grade class at the 11th and G Street school, a short walk from home along Eureka’s wooden sidewalks, she would have to remove herself to schools far afield — that is, if she wanted to teach at all. She did want to teach. As George later commented, “she saw no reason for sitting down and rusting out,” so she took what was available to her, first “a small mountain school 40 miles from Eureka” for two years, then the one-room Blaine School at Stone Lagoon for two years. In each case, she was again asked to leave and was replaced by much younger women, new to teaching.

Finally, at age fifty-five, Margaret went about as far from Eureka as a teacher could go and still be in Humboldt County, to open a new school two days’ hard travel from Blue Lake, at the ancient Yurok site of Morek, near Kepel Creek, thirty miles from the mouth of the Klamath at Requa and twelve miles downriver from Weitchpec.

Why was Margaret Murray chosen to open the new school at Morek, instead of one of the younger women? In a letter written after Margaret’s death, George takes pains to explain to his sister Lucy why Margaret went to that “truly isolated place”:

Four years ago the Morek School District was organized. As usual, one young girl after another was engaged… But none of them ever reached Morek. As they neared the place they were informed of the situation by exaggerated stories, and they simply turned around and came back to Eureka…

Then it was that Mr. Lewis wrote to Mr. [J. B.] Brown that there was no use in sending young girls up to the Morek District and asked him to send some woman who was not a young inexperienced girl, one who understood how things were situated there and would adapt herself to circumstances.

Then it was that J. B. offered the school to Miss Murray, and she went up there… .She did what all the teachers on the Klamath do, she persuaded the Indian children to attend school. In this way she became the friend of both the Indians and the whites… Life up there in that community where they made her feel that she was more than welcome, was more inviting to her than life in Eureka where they had made her feel that there was no place for her, and so she stayed up there and was contented, and was interested in her work, and was doing good…

With Miss Murray’s encouragement, twenty-three children attended classes at Morek in 1905; daily attendance ranged from nine to nineteen students. California-prescribed texts were used in the little one-room school, but Miss Murray had also gathered over 200 library books for the children on the river.11 From the start, she stayed with Joe Lewis and his wife, Ida Rector Lewis. Both, like many in their community, were of mixed European and American Indian descent. “The Lewises own a ranch,” George Murray wrote, “on which they raise sheep and cattle, and their house is as comfortable as the residence of any white man on the Klamath River. They live better than the average white rancher in that section of the country.”

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In letters written to George in June of 1904, Miss Murray describes the hardships endured by the Lewis family, hardships shared with the entire community, including illness and death. Two of the Lewis children, Georgia and Thomas, died that summer: she describes her affection for Thomas: “He was a bright attractive little fellow… I shall miss him so much as he accompanied me in my tramps to see my Indian friends, and although only five he thought nothing of walking a mile and back over rough trails.” It was for Thomas and his brothers that Miss Murray had insisted her brother George send her the Eureka Daily Standard and the San Francisco Call, because they had the best funny pages, which the boys enjoyed so much.

There had been a string of rough winters along the Klamath. In the last decade of the 19th century, after years of over-fishing and commercial cannery operation, the Klamath fish runs had ceased to bring their former bounty to the Yurok people.15 The results were obvious: the most vulnerable people, the youngest and oldest, were dying of disease and malnutrition. To remedy the situation, Yurok elders concluded that it was time they return to their traditional practice of building a fish dam, or weir, at a site ancient for that purpose, the mouth of Kepel Creek.

The winter of 1904 brought the worst conditions yet to the Klamath. By the autumn of 1905, the people desperately hoped that the renewal of the fish dam ritual would return milder weather and improved fish runs to the region.

During ten days in the early autumn of 1905, while their sisters attended school with Miss Murray, Indian boys were learning from their elders about the construction of the fish dam, something that had not been done at this place for decades. Every day young men hiked up the hill above Kepel, felled pines and rolled down to the river as many as were needed for that day’s building. On the ninth day, they gathered the fallen boughs of trees. At the same time, preparations were being made for the world renewal dances that would take place when the dam was finished.

Extreme care was taken that everything having to do with the building of the dam be done precisely, in accordance with the old ways. Because of the width of the river near Kepel Creek, the people traditionally built a V-shaped dam, with its point upriver. Besides the form of the dam, the details of its construction and the behavior of both its builders and local residents were also prescribed.

The elder who served as chief engineer of the dam’s construction “was allowed to look at no woman. If any female approached, he covered his head.” Also, “travelers up and down the river were required to travel along the opposite, south bank. Moreover, they were required to shade their eyes with their hands so as not to see the partly finished structure. Looking at it would ‘spoil’ it.”

The dam took only ten days to build, but it would be in place for over a month. The school at Morek, like other mountain schools, was in session from early April to sometime in November, then dismissed for the winter months. School administrators would not have wanted to suspend classes from the low-river time of late August to early October to accommodate the Yurok and their fish dam. Most likely, Margaret Murray herself did not want to sacrifice over a month of work with the children. But the Yurok of Morek, with what was arguably the longer view, felt that, since the only reasonable route from Joe Lewis’s home to the Morek schoolhouse took the schoolmistress past the fish dam, on the forbidden northside trail, the only possible response was that she stop taking that walk.

Mettah schoolteacher Brenda Harmon claimed, sixty years later, that Miss Murray’s marches to and from school were met with curses shouted in their own language by the young builders of the dam, and that they threatened a rattlesnake would bite her. No doubt the Yurok laborers were frustrated. Try as they might to adhere to the formula for a successful fish dam, the lady teacher refused to recognize its requirements. But we do not know that they threatened or cursed her. No contemporary correspondent mentions curses or threats.

However, it is clear that the schoolteacher was not her usual steady self. What Brenda Harmon, then boarding with the Charles McCoveys, wrote at the time of the event confirms that Margaret Murray was not thinking clearly on the weekend that she died:

On Thursday last I got a note from Miss Murray saying that she was coming down the river to visit me and to see Mrs. Griggs about some Indian caps on Sunday but she added if you have an engagement for Sat and Sun do not stay at home for I will see Mrs. Griggs and go right back. Well, I had promised to go over to Hoopa on Sat… .I could not very well stay home so Friday evening when I went up the river, I stopped at Lewis’ and told Miss Murray that I would not be there and also that Mrs. Griggs was out in the mountains picking pine nuts and if she would only wait until next Sunday we would all stay home and be there when she came. ‘No’ she said that she would go anyway.

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Miss Murray had told her brother that she customarily carried a thick stick with her when she walked, specifically for the purpose of fending off rattlesnakes, and that snakebite was common and treatments well-known. All the children ran barefoot and even the youngest schoolchild didn’t flinch to kill a rattler with a stick. To friends and family in Eureka, Margaret had described common snakebite remedies on the River, including details about improvised tourniquets and the administration of whiskey (“the white man’s remedy”) as well as the immediate application of salt plasters, practiced by the native people.

Given all this, one has to wonder if Miss Murray was entirely lucid when, early on Sunday, October 1, she started off down the hill, crossed the river to the south side of the Klamath, and walked toward the Isaac Griggs place to meet with Laura Griggs to talk about a cap despite the fact that she’d been forewarned that the basketmaker was “up on the mountain collecting pine nuts.” When Miss Murray was within a mile of her goal, having traveled at least four up-and-down miles from the Lewis home, she stepped on and was bitten by a rattlesnake. (She would talk about that fatal step to more than one person before she lost consciousness for the final time.) She may or may not have carried a stick with her that day; we do know that she ignored her own advice about seeking prompt remedies.

It was estimated that Margaret encountered the snake only one-quarter of a mile from the Charles McCovey home. Yet, despite her familiarity with her surroundings, despite knowing the McCoveys as the hosts of her friend Brenda Harmon, Miss Murray did not head in that direction for help. Instead, she retraced her steps, crossed the river, and started uphill, back home to the Lewises. Accounts differ about what occurred along those difficult miles, although we do know that she stopped at the home of an Indian couple two miles short of her destination. There she took a short rest, said she was in a hurry to reach her own lodgings, and insisted on leaving soon after she arrived. Although she agreed that the man of the house could accompany her, she refused to ride his horse. The only gesture toward help that the failing schoolteacher allowed herself was to put her hand up against the animal’s side for support as she walked.

It was around noon when she stumbled into the Lewis home, soaked in sweat, the tips of her fingers tingling, and burst out: “Rattler!”

Ida immediately put her to bed and applied home remedies. Joe hurried out to find his nephew, Walter McKinnon, and sent him off to the Redemeyers’ place, five miles distant, for what the Lewises hoped would be a reviving supply of whiskey. An hour later, when McKinnon reached his destination, he found Brenda Harmon sitting in the garden eating grapes. She was in the company of Oliver Nason, another schoolteacher on the River, who boarded with the Redemeyers. At the news, all three young people rode back as quickly as possible to the Lewis home, McKinnon bearing the hoped-for bottle of whiskey.

But the “white man’s remedy” did not work. Margaret could not keep the whiskey down, so Lewis arranged for Eugene Young to go to Hoopa to fetch Dr. Lindley, the reservation’s physician. Young left late Sunday afternoon, rode hard, and arrived at the doctor’s place around midnight. Ida Lewis, Brenda Harmon, and Oliver Nason sat up through that night with Miss Murray.

Dr. Lindley set off from Hoopa sometime Monday morning and arrived at the Lewis home to attend Miss Murray late in the afternoon. Despite the fact that the doctor had successfully treated over a dozen cases of rattlesnake bite, he couldn’t save Miss Murray. “It was the walk that ended her life,” he told George, “the one thing necessary to distribute that poison through her system was that exertion.” Furthermore, “her stomach revolted,” he said, and she could not keep down his medicines. After he used a hypodermic needle to inject her with a stimulant for her heart, she rallied, but “sank” soon after. She died around four o’clock Tuesday morning.

The fact that Brenda Harmon had not stayed at Miss Murray’s bedside, but chose instead to leave to open Mettah school on Monday morning, thinking that Murray would recover, caused the young teacher much grief later on. At the time, she wrote: “The folks where she boards did everything for her they could and so did the Dr. from Hoopa… ” But she also added: “When I am dying I want some one to tell me that I am dying.” In 1965 Harmon would take a bitter tone toward Dr. Lindley, claiming that he refused to reveal to Miss Murray the seriousness of her condition.

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George Murray appreciated the fact that, as soon as Margaret died, Joe Lewis intuited the wishes of the Murrays when he set in motion the return of the white schoolteacher’s body to her family: “I can understand,” he wrote, “that many people situated as he was would have simply had the funeral and buried Miss Murray away up there in the mountains, excusing themselves on the ground that it was impossible to do otherwise. But Joseph Lewis knew, and his wife knew, that we preferred to have her buried here, and they knew too that that would have been Miss Murray’s wish had she been able to express it. And, accordingly, they planned to that end.”

Joe Lewis arranged for Dr. Lindley to stop at Redemeyers on his way back to Hoopa to ask Oliver Nason to compose a message and ride to Bair’s Ranch (thirty miles distant). There, Nason was to use Blake’s telephone line to make a call to the telegrapher in Blue Lake. Nason agreed to the mission. His message read:

Your sister, Margaret S. Murray, died at 4 o’clock this morning from a rattlesnake bite. Joseph Lewis will take her body down the Klamath River to Requa, and expects to reach Requa tomorrow noon. Meet him there with an undertaker and casket.

After Lewis and Joe Pitt built “the rude coffin” and the litter they would use to carry it, Lewis struggled to find two men to accompany him on his gloomy errand in the canoe. Mrs. Redemeyer and Brenda Harmon washed Margaret Murray’s body. One of them, or Ida Lewis, lined the casket with fresh muslin and tucked a pillow under the dead woman’s head.

George Murray, Humboldt County Judge and brother of Margaret Murray.

Describing the event in a letter, George Murray takes care to let his reader know that it wasn’t only white custom that was honored on the journey of that muslin-lined casket, but also, and finally, the custom of the Klamath:

The coffin was put in to the canoe and the men folks started down the river, but they soon stopped and camped over night on the river bar, the men building a fire and sitting up with the coffin all night. In the morning they again put the coffin in the canoe and proceeded down the river. They had gone but a short distance when they came to this fish dam… The Indians are very superstitious people, and one of their rules is that no dead person shall pass through a fish dam while the dance is going on… Joe Lewis respected their superstitions and I’m glad he did. He and his party ran the canoe ashore and took the coffin out, and making [a] litter, carried the coffin on the land around the fish dam. The Indians permitted the empty canoe to go through the fish dam, and below the dam, the coffin was again placed in the canoe, and then the party proceeded down the river again.

To the very last stretch of the river and beyond, it was the task of Indian people to help pass the body along. Because George Murray and undertaker Mel Engles had not yet arrived at Requa, Joe Lewis hired an Indian man to carry the casket in his buggy down toward Trinidad, expecting to meet the north-traveling Murray conveyance at any time.

Indeed, it wasn’t long. It was only because the road for four or five miles past Trinidad was narrow, with logs sticking out into it, that the Eureka men were not already waiting at Requa for the arrival of the canoe and its burden. They had set out from Eureka within an hour of the receipt of that shocking telegram that had reached the Murray home at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. By 8 p.m., Engles had gathered a casket and embalming material, while Murray had arranged the transportation. They arrived in Trinidad shortly after midnight, leaving again at 4 a.m., close enough to dawn so that visibility would be good and their buggy would not “be shipwrecked” along the way.

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Once Miss Murray’s casket began its journey south down the coast, in the care of her brother, the story of her passing was free to begin a journey of its own. It would be told, and elaborated upon. Among the tributes of her life would emerge reflection on the strangeness of her death. “Her sad end caused a thrill of horror among friends and fellow teachers,” remarked a speaker at the 1906 annual Eureka Teachers Institute.

In letters between George and Lucy, George emphasizes the reasons why their older sister was in Morek, apparently in response to Lucy’s agonized wonderings over why Margaret had to be living anywhere near a rattlesnake in an oak grove. “The Lewises made her feel that not only was she welcome in that community,” writes George, “but that her presence there was actually necessary for their well being.”

Of course, when George reassures Lucy that Margaret’s life on the River had been a meaningful and fulfilling one, he was also reassuring himself. In the end, he suggests that she was not just met by death, but that she cooperated in its arrival: “The more I ponder over the subject, the more it seems to me that it was ordained that Miss Murray should die that day. Her own acts — the things she did, and those she neglected to do — all contributed to that end, and even Nature lent its assistance.”

In saying this, George’s viewpoint is not so far from that of the Indians’ on the Klamath: “They attribute the death of Miss Murray to the fact that daily she had been going by the fish dam on her way to school and back home again, which was in violation of the Indian law, and because of this violation of their law she died; and they argue: ‘If she had not been under a spell, could not she have gone on to McCovey’s house and got medicines and got cured?’”

We know that Margaret Murray was a woman of great will power. Her refusal to retire when she was no longer wanted in Eureka schools demonstrates this, as does her ability to survive and even thrive on the Klamath when teachers half her age would not even attempt it. And it was her strength of will that enabled her to walk all the way back to the Lewises’ that day virtually unaided, instead of seeking help. Why did she make this deadly choice? We will never know for certain.

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George Murray lived twenty-one years with this uncertainty following the death of his older sister. By the time of his own death, it was said that “he knew most of the old Indians by name and they trusted and honored him.” Before Margaret’s time on the Klamath River, he had advised and assisted the Indians of Humboldt. After her death, he continued to be involved with their legal and judicial needs, representing them, for example, in land disputes. But Margaret Murray’s entwinement with the Yurok families at Morek, and her tragic death there, seem to have deepened her brother’s connection to their lives as well. In his obituary we learn of an event that George recreated annually for himself, perhaps in appreciation of the beauty of the Klamath and its people, perhaps to honor the final stage of his sister’s earthly progress: “For many years, his vacation consisted of a trip down the Klamath river in a canoe from Orleans or Weitchpec to Requa, with Indians as guides…”

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The story above was originally printed in the Spring 2008 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

Tim was born on June 4, 1942 in Schenectady, New York and passed away on February 19, 2024 at his home in McKinleyville. In his childhood he moved around a few times. He came to McKinleyville in 1973 to attend Humboldt State University. He met Marvene soon after and they were married on September 20, 1974. They had 2 children, Patrick and Mikey McGowan to add to Marvene’s two sons, Tim and Terry McCutchan, who he took on as his own.

Tim loved the airline industry, in which he worked for years. It brought him from McKinleyville to Los Angeles, to Yakima, back to McKinleyville, to Minneapolis, back to Los Angeles, then after an injury back to McKinleyville where he resided for the rest of his remaining years. He followed the airline industry and flight patterns for years on his iPad in which he called his “Flat Top.” His Flat Top gave many “great” picks in fantasy football.

Tim also loved sports and was an avid baseball and football lover. He loved the Oakland A’s and as of late Patrick Mahomes. He said you cannot bet against that guy. He was a founding member of the McKinleyville Glass Fantasy Football League established in 1989. He read his Sporting News from cover to cover every week.

Pops also loved John Wayne and every movie he was in, old MASH reruns, and watched MSNBC every day for hours.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years Marvene McGowan, sisters Mary Jaramillo and husband Diego, sister Chrissy Ryan and her husband Bill. Also survived by his sons Tim McCutchan and wife Kristen, Terry McCutchan and wife Inga, Patrick McGowan, Mikey McGowan and wife Jenny, brother-in-law Dennis Busenius and wife Kathy. He had 7 Grandchildren, Kayleigh, Carter, Tanner, Shellbee, Michael, Valarie and Maddie. He also had 4 great grandchildren, Paige, Emery, Jude and Wren and also many nieces and nephews. Special friends Danny, Addie and Hannah Jacobs, Kim Montgomery, Doug Dean and Rusty Dees. As well as many others.

Tim was preceded in death by his parents Frank and Mary McGowan, his sister Patty Dix, niece Jo Anna and his mother-in-law Wynona “grandma.”

Pops has requested a celebration of life to take place this June. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Hospice of Humboldt in which his family owes the greatest of gratitude.

We are saddened to announce the passing of our mom, Helen Joyce Miranda, who left this world on February 9, 2024. She was 93 years old and lived a long and happy life.

Born on April 29, 1930, Mom was the daughter of Christopher Olson and Mary Erickson. She grew up in Fortuna and was an only child.

Following graduation from high school, Mom married John Joseph Miranda on January 3, 1948 and together they were blessed with 10 children. Mom always said she wished she had a brother or sister, never wanting to be an only child.

Mom was known for her love of flowers and her green thumb, boasting one of the most beautiful begonia gardens in Ferndale. She spent countless hours in the garden nurturing those gorgeous blossoms. In her younger years, she spent countless hours preparing flowers (many which came from her own garden) for local events and weddings and participating in local craft fairs. In her later years, she spent her time playing cards with friends and crocheting countless blankets and Afghans for friends and family members.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John Miranda; daughter Maryanne Feierabend; and sons-in-law Emil Feierabend and Jeffrey Farley. She is survived by her children Johnny (Patsy), Mike (Lisa), Kathy (Jerry), Tom, Joanne, Robert (Janice), Diana (Danny), Tim (Dorice), Shari (Ron) and 30 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren. Mom never missed an opportunity to let everyone know how many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren she had.

While we mourn Mom’s passing, we take solace in knowing that she has been reunited with dad, her daughter Maryanne and numerous departed friends and loved ones.

Private family services will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to a charity of your choice in Joyce Miranda’s memory.

We will carry mom’s memory in our hearts. Rest in peace Mom, we will miss you but know you are happy now that you and dad have been reunited.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Joyce Miranda’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Wayne Alan Johnson passed away December 3, 2023. He was born April 2, 1964 in Arcata to Ron and Ilene Johnson.

Wayne grew up with his three brothers in Blue Lake and attended Arcata High School graduating in 1982. He began his career as a truck driver working for Joe Costa Trucking. He later worked for Trumble Backhoe before landing his position at Morris Logging, where he worked the last 14 years.

He is survived by Kelle Tomlinson, Kalie(Jeff) Isaacs, Colten(Nicole) Pelzel, and Kelsey Vaughn. Grandchildren Chloe and Cooper Isaacs, Carter and Crew Trimm. He was preceded in death by his mother Ilene Johnson and survived by his father Ron Johnson and brothers David Johnson, Jeff(Leanne) Johnson, and Greg (Kristie) Johnson, Nephew Dane (Mary) and Niece Casey (Christian) as well as Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. A special thank you to the Morris family and the many friends he made as a lifelong resident of Humboldt County for all their prayers and support.

A celebration of life will be held March 9, 2024 at the Moose Lodge in Eureka starting at 12 p.m.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Presiding Judge Gregory Kreis Facing Formal Inquiry Into 19 Counts of Alleged Misconduct, Including Drug and Alcohol Use, Sexually Inappropriate Behavior and Antisemitic Remarks
• Judge Kreis Granted An Extra Week to Respond to Formal Misconduct Investigation

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Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Gregory Kreis, who is facing 19 counts of alleged misconduct as he seeks re-election to the bench, says he did nothing wrong. 

Earlier today, Kreis’s attorney, James Murphy, submitted an 18-page reply to the California Commission on Judicial Performance, an independent state agency that has launched an investigation into the charges against Kreis, which include antisemitic remarks, drug and alcohol use, inappropriate sexual behavior, prejudicial administration of justice and making false or misleading declarations in court proceedings.

Kreis denies all of those accusations and describes a number of them as false charges leveled by people with grudges, including his ex-wife and her friends and an angry former colleague who he refused to promote while he was serving as Public Defender.

The response from Kreis’s attorney addresses each of the 19 allegations in turn, starting with the events at an attorney-filled Memorial Day celebration on Shasta Lake in 2019. The related allegations mirror claims in a 2020 lawsuit brought by former Deputy Public Defender Rory Kalin, who accused Kreis of belittling him, calling him “Jew boy” and throwing him headlong into the lake, among other things. 

That case – and a related one against the county and employees of the Public Defender’s Office – has since been settled. In response to the current investigation, Kreis acknowledges consuming alcohol but denies being intoxicated, denies vaping cannabis and denies ridiculing Kalin or using the term “Jew boy.”

He also denies giving a lap dance to the wife of friend and current Humboldt County Public Defender Luke Brownfield, though he says he may have sat on her lap as they’ve been good friends for 20 years. 

Kreis admits to pushing Kalin into Shasta Lake but says there’s a tradition of such behavior, and he says Kalin initially laughed about it. Kreis’s reply says he later apologized to Kalin after finding out that Kalin was upset that his cell phone had been in his pocket when he went underwater.

As for the rest, Kreis’s response says, “It is believed that Mr. Kalin made up these allegations after he was fired from the public defender’s office in order to enhance his lawsuits against Humboldt County and Judge Kreis.” 

Elsewhere, Kreis suggests that Kalin himself was inebriated: “Perhaps this is an imagined statement since the witnesses all confirm that Mr. Kalin was into the heavy use of cannabis products during the event, and over-using prescribed medications.”

Later, Kreis admits to having a romantic relationship with a family law facilitator, beginning in July or August of 2021, but he denies allegations that the relationship began earlier and that he tried to cover it up by maneuvering to get a courtroom clerk fired for spreading false rumors about the affair.

Kreis, in his response, says the rumors were indeed false at the time they were spread, because the relationship hadn’t yet begun, and that those false allegations created a “hostile work environment.” And he says the courtroom clerk was justifiably fired for “many of her past actions.”

As for the allegation that Kreis slapped a woman’s butt after she specifically told him not to, Kreis describes the incident as a misunderstanding. Here’s that portion of his reply:

On November 9, 2018, Judge Kreis and his now ex-wife, while walking past the home of David and Meghan Nims, stopped to say hello. David and Meaghan Nims, along with Katelyn Woods and Ryan Woods, were present, had obviously been drinking and were drinking when the Kreises arrived. The Judge recalls staying at Mr. Nims’ house for maybe 5-10 minutes.

Upon leaving, David Nims gave Judge Kreis a “man hug” and lightly slapped his bottom, similar to a football player giving another player a “good game” tap, and said goodbye. Judge Kreis returned the slap. That then became a joke and Ryan Woods did the same as well as Meghan Nims. When it became Katelyn Woods’ turn, she had been laughing but said something like, “Not me” but was laughing so hard Judge Kreis thought she was joking. He then gave her a hug and the similar light slap.

When he turned to leave, the Judge saw that Ms. Woods’ face was now somewhat serious. He immediately apologized and told her that he thought she was kidding. Upon arrival at home, Judge Kreis texted the Nimes [sic] and told them that he was sorry for possibly offending Ms. Woods. The response was that Katelyn Woods was overreacting and that the Kreises should not worry about it. Obviously, Judge Kreis misread the situation and apologized for that.

Kreis also denies an allegation that, at another social gathering, he went into the bedroom of a woman while she was sleeping, pulled down his pants and held his penis near her face as he tried to wake her up. His response says this allegation is “offensive, false and therefore denied.”

Many of the other charges pertain to cases presided over by Judge Kreis, with allegations that he failed to make necessary disclosures about personal and professional relationships and failed to recuse himself when he should have. Kreis says he followed the law and that some allegedly close personal friends are really just professional acquaintances.

Kreis also stands accused of being impatient and undignified, losing his temper in the courtroom during child custody cases and other contentious hearings. His response says he was simply firm when necessary and never acted improperly.

“Judges need to be stern with parties who intentionally refuse to follow proper court orders,” the document reads. “When it is impossible to reason with a party, for whatever reason, direct, stern language is appropriate.”

As noted above, Kreis chalks up some of the allegations to baseless claims from his ex-wife or her friends. This includes the assertion that he drank alcohol while driving friends on a tour of historic homes in Eureka. Kreis says he believes he in fact made himself an iced tea and carried a thermos of coffee into the car.

Kreis also denies frequently using cocaine before being appointed to a judgeship in 2017. He also denies asking a former colleague to buy cocaine for him and denies pressuring another colleague to use some. These allegations, he says, were made by a former deputy public defender who was so mad about not being promoted by Kreis that she ended their friendship and “has been his antagonist ever since.”

You can read the full response document via the link below.

Now that Kreis has responded to the allegations against him, the Commission on Judicial Performance will schedule a hearing at which both parties can introduce evidence and examine and cross-examine witnesses.

Any charges that aren’t proven during the hearing will be dismissed, but if the commission decides that the charges have been proven by “clear and convincing evidence,” it can publicly admonish Kreis, privately discipline him or even remove him from the bench. 

Meanwhile, Kreis is facing an election challenge from two contenders – Conflict Counsel contract attorney April Van Dyke and Deputy District Attorney Jessica Watson, who is running as a write-in candidate. Election Day is March 5.

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DOCUMENT: Respondent’s Verified Answer to Notice of Formal Proceedings

We’ve posted about it before, but here’s a friendly reminder: From 8 p.m. tonight to about mid-day Sunday,  Fernbridge is going to be closed for repairs. Here’s Caltrans’ announcement:

This means that if you absolutely have to get to/fro the other side of the river, you’re probably going to want to get acquainted with Rio Dell’s Blue Slide Road. Here, for example, is an alternative route into Ferndale when coming from Eureka:

As you can see, this is probably going to cost you a little more time and effort than it normally would. But you do get to see some pretty country!

And the folks at Ferndale Rep feel your pain. There are still a few seats left for the final weekend of A Gentleman’s Guide to Murder, and if you use code DETOUR at checkout you’ll get $3 off your ticket purchase. Buy here. Act now! (UPDATE: Tonight’s performance, at least has been canceled! Apparently for non-bridge-closure reasons. See here. Thanks to the reader who called this in.) 

Arcata Fire District release:

On Thursday, February 22 at 2:45PM, the Arcata Fire District was dispatched to a residential structure fire on Charles Ave in Arcata.

Mutual reports came in that smoke was seen coming from the eaves of the home. Three engines and a Chief Officer from Arcata Fire District as well as one engine from Humboldt Bay Fire, Samoa Peninsula Fire District and Blue Lake Fire District each responded.

The first engine from Arcata Fire arrived on scene to find a two-story home with a small fire in the upstairs bedroom. Crews were able to quickly douse the small fire with an extinguisher and began removing smoke and burnt material from the home.

The fire was contained to personal items in the bedroom and was deemed accidental in nature.

Location of Charles Avenue

We would like to thank our mutual aid partners for their assistance. During the incident Samoa Peninsula Fire District was covering the response area for Arcata Fire.

The Arcata Fire District would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to have functioning smoke alarms on each level of the home and in each bedroom at a minimum.