Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s Supreme Court is considering whether to take on a dispute between Lane County’s Commissioners and one of the County’s own judges.  

As April Baer reports, a  public safety funding crunch  means cases are slipping through the cracks – sometimes with disastrous results.

Ron Spencer was called up for jury duty back in May. Spencer lives in Springfield, and this summer, he served on the jury that convicted Paul John Reid Dawson of a brutal rape.

Ron Spencer   “They met in a bar, they proceeded to go to the parking garage. He started punching her and hitting her, knocked her out for a brief moment. When she came to he started hitting her again, she told him you can rape me, do whatever you want, just quit hitting me please.”

On the cold night in January when all this happened. Dawson was supposed to have been in jail for a year on theft and assault charges. But because of overcrowding, Spencer later learned that Dawson had been released from jail the first day into his sentence.

Ron Spencer: “We had no idea he was just released. I remember thinking that’s just ridiculous they let a guy out because they don’t have enough beds.”

Since Dawson's second trial, county commissioners have been able to re-open more than eighty jail beds, relieving some overcrowding. But the problem hasn't gone away.

And in late June, Judge Gregory Foote -- the same judge who sentenced Dawson the second time -- called on a rarely-used section of Oregon law. 

Foote ordered  a man convicted of domestic violence jailed -- if not in Lane County, then in one of the adjacent jurisdictions, at the County’s expense.

Judge Foote  did not return calls for comment about his decision, but Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson had plenty to say.

Pete Sorenson  “The practical effect of this is if we keep this inmate in our jail, convicted of a misdemeanor, we would perhaps have to release a more violent person convicted of a felony, in order to comply with the judge‘s requirements.”

That’s why the Commissioners voted four-to-one to file a legal challenge with the Oregon Supreme Court. Sorenson estimates the cost of holding the defendant outside the county at about $16,000. He says the cost is a problem, but so is the precedent.

Sorenson has  seen more than a dozen levies related to public safety go down in defeat over the years. He says while some voters are up in arms over the Dawson rape case, others still question the need for increased public safety funding, 

Pete Sorenson “Right now two of our five commissioner have announced they’re not seeking re-election. I figure people elected me to try to balance this budget, but there are days when a job like this is pretty hard to do.”

For the time being, Sorenson says the commissioners are concentrating on balancing the budget keeping the budget balanced, and letting the Sheriff’s department handle public safety.

Sheriff Russ Burger is also collaborating with District Attorney Alex Gardner. They’re forming a task force to study long-term solutions – and they haven’t ruled out proposing a tax levy. Burger projects  that even with the addition of the 84 jail beds, about 221violent offenders could be released within the next year if nothing changes.

In the meantime, many law enforcement officers are left to devise their own creative solutions. Cottage Grove Police Chief Mike Grover says he knows he can't rely on the county.

Mike Grover: “We’ve tried to avoid them as much as we can!”

Grover says Lane County’s public safety crunch has meant the county can't prosecute meth possession cases, and some minor assaults. The county can’t even take all the inmates he arrests. So he’s keeping them just downstairs from his office.

Cottage Grove’s Grover’s Mayor and City Council voted recently to convert its city lockup to state jail standards. Some inmates  now serve their sentences at the city jail. Grover says a long-term solution is overdue.

Mike Grover: “They’ve got to figure out a way of how to finance public safety. If you lose that feeling of safety, you don’t have much of anything else.”

The Oregon Supreme Court could  make a decision as early as next week about whether to intervene in the dispute between the Commissioners and Judge Foote.

In the meantime, the man Foote sentenced is being held at the Community Corrections Center. Jail officials say they have no reason to believe crowding will be a problem at that facility.