Just four months after she illegally married an Ethiopian immigrant in exchange for cash, Cylvia Hayes, the fiancee of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, was involved with a property she admits was intended to be an illegal marijuana grow operation.
Ms. Hayes admitted publicly last week that she met 18-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Abraham Abraham and married him in exchange for $5,000 in July 1997. She was 29 at the time and said Mr. Kitzhaber has been unaware of the previous marriage until now.
Public records have revealed that in November of the same year she was married, Ms. Hayes and another man bought a $245,000 piece of property in northern Washington state, with a $15,000 down payment, a local CBS affiliate reported.
Patrick Siemion, who sold the property to Ms. Hayes and the man, told the station: “There was somewhat of a leader/follower there, and she was leading and the gentleman was following.”
Mr. Siemion said the couple stopped making payments and public records show Ms. Hayes gave up her interest in the property in April 1998, the station reported.
Ms. Hayes admitted in a statement Monday her involvement with the property and what it was intended for, but denied that she had any financial stake in the land or that a grow operation ever materialized there.
“I am not proud of that brief period of time. I was involved in an abusive relationship with a dangerous man,” she said. “We lived together for several months on the property in Okanogan that was intended to be the site of a marijuana grow operation that never materialized. I was never financially involved with it. I did not pay any part of the down payment or mortgage payments. I had no money. The money I had received in July 1997 for entering a fraudulent marriage was used as I have previously stated — to purchase a lap top and pay school expenses.”
“In the spring of 1998 I began to make plans to get away,” she continued. “In July 1998 I moved to Central Oregon and began building a life and career that I am very proud of.”
Mr. Siemion told the CBS affiliate that once he got the property back in 1998, it became “obvious why they had chosen that property.”
“They had been growing marijuana,” he told the station. “There was a very large pool table in the log house and it was covered with what people call a shake, when they trim plants, it was covered with that. And then I went out into the outbuilding and there was a full smorgasbord apparatus for drip irrigation, and marijuana specific fertilizers etc. etc.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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