JUDGE CALLS FOR ACTION ON METH

Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure sentenced Robert Allen Cameron, 37,
to 45 years in prison for a violent two-day rampage in Cottage Grove and
Eugene. In passing down the judgment on Monday, Velure made the following
statement:

"You know, over the last few years, I've sat on this bench, sat in this
courtroom, and people come in here and talk about methamphetamine. I don't
know when this community is going to hear the wake-up call. Methamphetamine.

"You know, this community is awash in meth. I had to sentence Jessie
Compton to death because of killing a 3-year-old girl, torturing her,
because of methamphetamine. Sitting here.

"I've seen people killed. Maimed. Raped. Sodomized. Kidnapped. And the
excuse is methamphetamine.

"You know, this community prides itself on being this great community that
is sensitive to people's concerns and sensitive to others, and I think
that's the strength of Eugene and Lane County.

"But this community better start getting off its fanny and doing something
about methamphetamine. Otherwise you're going to lose an entire generation
of young people.

"You should sit here where I sit every day and see it. See the destruction
that it brings. It's no excuse. What you've done, sir, is terrible.
Absolutely outrageous. Absolutely terrible.

"You pick on women. That's been your history going back to 1990, '91, when
you first started doing this. Picking on young women, or women. Picking on
people who are weaker than you are.

"Sir, you're going to spend 45 years of your life in jail. In prison. And
you're going to serve every day of it."