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Judge sentences third of rowdy trio By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ A guilty plea by a third Rogue River young man involved in several assaults should close a chapter on the trio's spree of intimidation, says Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Debbie Minder. Jason Slager, 18, pleaded guilty to a single count of menacing on Monday and was sentenced by Jackson County Judge Pat Crain to two years on probation, 80 hours of community service and mandatory counseling. Slager also is barred from possessing weapons, and must pay a fine of $500, half that amount suspended. Crain also imposed a 10-day suspended sentence and several no-contact orders. She told Slager that he would serve jail time and pay the full fine if he violated the orders or any other conditions of his probation. Slager and John Duval, 20, of Grants Pass, were arrested in July on attempted assault charges. Duval and Clayborne, 19, of Rogue River, were arrested on assault and menacing charges in February. Although the trio have variously portrayed these and other encounters as provocations or mutual combat, Minder said the strand running through these incidents were that the trio were together and, apparently lacking anything better to do, went looking for trouble, sometimes telling people that they had a gun or knife. In one case, the group confronted a young man at a car wash, and while Duval held the victim by the throat, Clayborne beat him. In another case, Minder said Clayborne and his friends, who had been drinking, were refusing to leave the property of a Rogue River woman. When the woman drove up and asked them again to leave, Clayborne punched her in the mouth while she was still in the car, knocking out four of her teeth. Clayborne later pleaded guilty to a felony third-degree assault in the second incident. "Duval, Clayborne and Slager are all under mutual no-contact orders," Minder said. "I'm hopeful that this is going to stop now." Crain told Slager that he and others involved in the threats and assaults needed to "get a life" or face serious jail sentences. "You're presenting yourself very meek today in court," Crain said. "But I'm sure that wasn't how you were presenting yourself on the street ... Pretending you have a gun isn't very smart. What if you'd run into someone who really did have a knife or gun?" Crain clearly was more impressed by Slager's father, who told the court that despite his own daytime job, he now was driving his son to and from a 12-hour-a-day graveyard shift job to keep him busy. Minder said the root of Rogue River's problems appeared to be young men without enough to keep them productively engaged. "That's why I wish RCC would open a campus there and we could get some of these guys into classes," Minder said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA