It may come as no surprise that ever since Jean Ivey, editor of The Sentinel, made a failed attempt to sabotage the Coquille School District LP-FM radio license application earlier this year, she and I haven’t gotten along. Actually the rift started much earlier but for the most part I try to ignore her and The Sentinel. While I know why I am not a fan of Ivey, I am not clear what her issue is with me except that I decided against helping her group apply for a radio station. Tonight, however, at an election party advertised in her paper as open to all, Ivey revealed yet another unpalatable aspect of her character but first a little story.

Last February, my oldest daughter had her 19th birthday and we decided to throw a little party at Figaro’s Pizza. As my daughter and walked down 1st Street in Coquille about a block from the restaurant an associate of Ivey’s, Don Delyria, began taking photographs of us and continued taking pictures all the way down the block.

My daughter was already getting edgy and it did seem a little creepy and as we approached him I turned to ask him what he was doing when he suddenly held the camera within about two feet of my face and snapped a picture. By this time, my daughter was so unnerved she was hanging back several feet so I motioned to the other side of me and we hurried across the street to the pizza parlor. Prior to this I have had virtually no contact with Delyria and still know very little about him and have no idea why he would find me or my daughters worthy of photographing. I do know that Delyria filed an application for an LP_FM station on behalf of an organization Ivey is associated with and that the application was dismissed outright due to engineering errors.

While we were in the restaurant with my other daughter and some friends Delyria walked by and peered in through the windows until we made eye contact and his strange behavior dominated the conversation. My other daughter left the restaurant briefly to get matches for birthday candles and when she returned she told us the “weird guy” was hanging around outside. We deliberately left through a side entrance hoping to avoid him but my youngest daughter called out and I turned and sure enough, Delyria was taking pictures of my daughters and me again. A friend of mine had told me that Delyria had done the same thing to her the day before and had even called her many foul names in front of several people when she asked him what he was doing.

At this point I decided to confront him and ask him what he thought he was doing and while he wouldn’t look me in the eye he claimed he was taking “human interest photos for a newspaper”. When I told him he did not have permission to photograph me or my daughters he told me to call the police so after getting the girls a short distance away, I did just that. Coquille Police Office Pat Smith took the call and I informed him that while I understand Delyria may not have technically broken any laws, my daughters and I felt violated and his behavior was creepy and intimidating I didn’t want him taking or using unauthorized photos of our family.

This evening I stopped by The Sentinel election party to congratulate Don Gurney for surviving the primary. Gurney was sitting at a table just a few feet from the entrance and I was standing next to him when Ivey, with Delyria standing next to her informed me it was a private party and I should leave. Since I had no intentions of staying anyway that wasn’t a point of argument but I took the opportunity to tell Delyria who had mumbled something at me to stay away from my daughters. He called me a “c__t”, a term he had used toward the friend I mentioned earlier and which caused more than a few gasps around the room. Ivey simply retreated to the back of the office as did Delyria and I went on my way.

So I am telling this story for two reasons. One, Jean Ivey apparently condones Delyria’s conduct, at least she did tonight and presumably doesn’t care that he uses her camera and the newspaper to justify taking pictures of people who don’t want them taken. Neither my friend nor I are aware of any reason Delyria would dislike us but Ivey doesn’t like my friend either. Consequently, I can only guess his animosity toward me is fueled solely by Ivey’s enmity and whatever she has told him to cause his behavior. Second, I am telling this story because, in my opinion, Delyria is pretty creepy and very probably unstable< (who talks like that in a public place??), and I just want it on record that I want him to leave my girls and me alone.