City/Region Digest.

Byline: The Register-Guard

LOCAL

Couple who stole identities sentenced

A Eugene couple who stole $200,000 in an identity theft and check counterfeiting scheme over a 2 1/2 -year period in three states received federal prison terms this week.

Julie Kristina Birkholz, 41, was sentenced to five years and 10 months after pleading guilty in May to conspiring to commit identity theft, money laundering and check counterfeiting.

Her husband, Jon Lee Birkholz, 37, received a 2 1/2 -year sentence after pleading guilty in July to conspiring to commit identity theft. The crime occurred in Oregon, California and Texas.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced the pair in federal court in Eugene on Tuesday. In addition to prison, the two were ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution and to forfeit an array of computer equipment used to make fake documents, including Social Security cards and California driver's licenses.

Cottage Grove police initially arrested Julie Birkholz in February 2001 after a high-speed chase that ended in a car crash, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Cardani said. While in custody on drug distribution charges, she escaped in July 2001 from Shutter Creek Correctional Facility near North Bend. She was recaptured a month later in North Carolina and faces additional charges for the escape, Cardani said.

REGION

Woman dies while being flown to shore

NEWPORT - A woman died Thursday aboard a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter during an airlift from a cruise ship 50 miles offshore.

Coast Guard officials said the patient had severe internal bleeding and had a history of bleeding ulcers. She was flown off the Cruise Ship Amsterdam, operated by Holland America Cruise Lines.

The patient was hoisted aboard the helicopter along with a ship's nurse. Her name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Woman pleads guilty to drug, sex charges

ROSEBURG - An Elkton woman pleaded guilty to drug possession and encouraging sex abuse.

Jessica Rae Kisling, 19, was sentenced this week to 20 days in jail and was fined $500 by Douglas County Judge William Lasswell.

Kisling, her boyfriend and a 17-year-old girl were preparing to inject methamphetamine while sitting in a car when they were discovered by police in March, the authorities said.

The 17-year-old girl later killed herself.

When searching the car, officers found lewd photographs of Kisling and the girl.

That led to charges of use of a child in the display of sexual conduct against Kisling and her boyfriend, Robert Dean Cox, 31.

The sex charge against Cox was later dropped. Testimony revealed Cox, who pleaded no contest to a drug possession charge, took some of the photos but only at the behest of Kisling and the girl.