From The Oregonian of Thursday, May 17, 2007 Police shoot, kill armed man Officers say a man with a rifle threatened Hillsboro paramedics answering a medical call and fired a gun at police By Holly Danks and Melissa Navas HILLSBORO — Investigators are trying to sort out why a 53-year-old man shot at paramedics and then police before Washington County officers fatally wounded him Wednesday afternoon in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Authorities declined to release the name of the dead man, but neighbors on Hillsboro’s Southeast Wrenfield Street and Oregon records identified him as Songseumsack Tanovan, owner of Song’s Auto Service Inc., an Aloha repair shop. “He was a pretty nice guy,” said Michael Zervas, 36, a neighbor who videotaped Tanovan shooting at police and police returning fire. “We never had any problems with him.” Lt. Michael Rouches, Hillsboro Police Department spokesman, said the man was fatally shot when he came to his doorway with a rifle and a pistol and fired as officers from the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team were taking up positions. “Unless they were faced with a deadly threat, they would not have fired,” Rouches said. The man died Wednesday evening at Emanuel Hospital & Health Center in Portland, where he was taken by Life Flight. Investigators from the county’s Major Crimes Team are trying to determine how many shots were fired and by which officers. The Washington County district attorney’s office will decide if the shooting was justified. Rouches said the incident began at 2 p.m. when Hillsboro firefighters were dispatched to a 9-1-1 call from the son of a man who was complaining of arm pain. When four paramedics arrived at the home in the 6600 block of Southeast Wrenfield Street, the man was alone and disoriented. As they spoke to the man to assess his situation, he grabbed a rifle. The firefighters ran and called police. Zervas said he heard several gunshots and then a firefighter banged on a neighbor’s door, yelling, “He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun. Let me in.” Zervas said he and a neighbor went to check out the commotion and saw Tanovan with a pistol and rifle. “He fired up into the air and that’s when we took off running,” Zervas said. “He was yelling, ‘Leave me alone, leave me alone.’ ” Rouches said the man opened fire when a Hillsboro police officer arrived and parked about a half-block away. Shots struck the driver’s side mirror of a neighbor’s car parked in the street before ricocheting into the police car. Bullets pierced the patrol car’s left-front tire, hood and windshield as the officer crouched behind the door. Hillsboro police and Washington County sheriff’s deputies evacuated two nearby houses and requested people in a four-block area to remain in their homes. Hillsboro School District leaders locked the doors at Imlay Elementary School near the scene. Farther away, administrators at R.A. Brown Middle School, Ladd Acres Elementary School and Century High School also went into lockdown. About 3 p.m., the man came to his doorway and shot into the air before shooting at special weapons team members who were setting up inside and on top of an armored van, Zervas said. Police returned a hail of bullets. “I knew they had hit him,” Zervas said. Thovane Solivan, who lived a few houses away, said Tanovan liked hunting and was friendly. “I’m surprised,” Solivan said. “I never thought this would happen in this area. It’s a good area.” Police had been called to Tanovan’s home as recently as Saturday when his son reported that his father was upset and “acting strangely.” Rouches said the man was angry at his wife, wanted to go to California and left home. The son reported him missing, though he later returned without incident. Lacey Wilkinson, who lives a block from the shooting, was at home Wednesday with her two children when gunfire erupted. “My heart was pounding,” Wilkinson, 24, said. “My thoughts were all over the place of trying to protect the children, making sure everything was locked, trying to make sure we were in a safe area and also wondering what was happening.”From The Oregonian of Saturday, May 19, 2007 Shooting inquiry considers illness The man killed by police may have suffered a stroke or other problem By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — A man who fired more than 20 shots at police and across his neighborhood may have had a medical problem that ultimately led to his death this week, investigators said Friday. Police fatally shot Songseumsack Tanovan, 53, Wednesday afternoon as he stood at the door of his Southeast Wrenfield Street home and fired at them. Results of an autopsy performed Friday were not available, but police said they hoped it would shed some light on why Tanovan, described by neighbors as a friendly nonviolent man, acted so out of character. “There is some speculation as to whether or not this guy had some episode that lent to his bizarre behavior and compulsive behavior,” said Cmdr. Chris Skinner, Hillsboro Police Department spokesman. Investigators are continuing to talk to witnesses and officers who fired at Tanovan. The names of the officers who shot him were not released. There were a couple of dozen officers from various agencies, including the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team, on the scene when Tanovan was shot about 3 p.m. Wednesday. They swarmed the area after Tanovan shot at firefighters responding to his son’s 9-1-1 call and a few minutes later peppered a police car with bullets. Joe Tanovan, 24, called for help at 2:02 p.m. Wednesday because he thought his father may have had a stroke. He told the emergency dispatcher that his father couldn’t talk, had been walking strangely for days and was lying on the floor and experiencing numbness in his arm. The son said Tanovan drank every bottle of alcohol in the house that day but “there really was no sense of urgency in his voice,” Skinner said of the son’s tenor. “He couldn’t articulate what’s different about him, but he knew something was strange.” During the six-minute call, Tanovan locked his son out of the house. He opened the door when paramedics from the Hillsboro Fire Department arrived and shot at them with a rifle. When a police car arrived as backup, he shot into the hood, windshield and left-front tire. During the next hour, Tanovan fired randomly into the air from his front porch and backyard, forcing neighbors to take cover. Hostage negotiators were setting up to contact Tanovan when he came out and fired at officers. “We may never know exactly what it was that pushed him to this point,” Hillsboro police Lt. Michael Rouches said.

What is May Day?
This is Joseph Rose, enterprise reporter for The Oregonian. I have covered May Day rallies and marches in Portland since 2002. Still, every year, I’m amazed to find the wide range of answers that people give when I ask…

Previous stories about Terry and Michael Maez
From The Oregonian of Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 Parents are sought on accusations of captivity, beating of daughter, 15 ALOHA — Washington County sheriff’s detectives are looking for a couple who allegedly beat the man’s 15-year-old daughter with a sledgehammer, belts and ax handle while keeping her locked in a storage trailer. Sgt. John Black, sheriff’s spokesman, said Michael Anthony Maez, 37, and Terry Lynn Maez, 34, may be traveling with an 8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. “Detectives are very concerned for the welfare of their two additional children,” Black said Thursday, after the 15-year-old girl told police her father and stepmother assaulted her. Black said the frightened girl burst into the Subway restaurant at 1775 S.W. Tualatin Valley Highway on Sept. 6 and said she had been beaten. She was treated at an area hospital for bruises and cuts. Black said the girl told detectives she and her family had been living in a camper parked near the Subway. She said she was beaten, kept in a storage trailer alongside the camper, and her parents screwed the door shut so she couldn’t get out. She is in custody of the state Department of Human Services, Black said. Black said the parents dyed and cut their hair and their children’s hair. They may be traveling in a late-1970s to early 1980s brown pickup with a white camper.From The Oregonian of Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006 Police arrest couple accused of locking daughter in trailer A year after a bleeding 15-year-old seeks help in Aloha, her father and stepmother surface By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — An Aloha man and woman sought for nearly a year on accusations that they locked their 15-year-old daughter in a storage trailer and beat her are awaiting extradition to Oregon after their arrests last week in Arkansas. Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that Michael Anthony Maez and Terry Lynn Maez were found in Waldron, Ark. Their two younger children, ages 9 and 14, were placed in protective custody, Thompson said. The case began Sept. 6, 2005 when a 15-year-old girl –frightened, bruised and bleeding — ran to a Subway restaurant in the 17700 block of Southwest Tualatin Valley Highway. She said she was homeless and did not know where her parents were. After weeks of investigation, Washington County sheriff’s detectives said they learned that Michael and Terry Maez, the girl’s father and stepmother, kept the girl locked in a storage trailer. The couple lived in a camper next to the trailer just blocks from the Subway. The girl reluctantly told detectives that the adults beat her with belts and an ax handle and screwed shut the door of the trailer so she couldn’t escape. When Michael Maez came at her with a sledgehammer, she escaped, detectives said.By the time detectives went to arrest them, the Maezes had packed their camper and left the area with the two younger children.Thompson said Detective Kelly Jones worked on the case the past year. “He hadn’t given up yet,” Thompson said, “but after quite a long time without leads or tips it becomes difficult.”Ron Cox, a spokesman for the Scott County, Ark., Jail, said Michael Maez, 38, was arrested Wednesday on an unrelated theft charge using the name Michael Baumgartner.KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Ark., reported that Terry Maez, 35, was caught when Scott County deputies stopped a suspected drunken driver Friday. Cox said Terry Maez was a passenger in the car and was carrying false identification.”These people were good at flying under the radar,” Thompson said. “They were living in trailers, camping in the woods.”According to news reports, Terry Maez told police that she, her husband and children had false IDs and were fugitives.Waldron, population 3,500, is about 143 miles west of Little Rock, on the Poteau River in the Ouachita Mountains. Thompson said Terry Maez told authorities her husband had an acquaintance in the area.From The Oregonian of Friday, Feb. 23, 2007 Stepmother convicted in teen daughter’s abuse The girl describes a brutal beating by her parents, who held her in a shed By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Claiming to be a battered woman herself was no defense for Terry Lynn Maez as she took the stand to explain why she did nothing when her husband beat their 15-year-old daughter and locked the girl in a storage shed. Washington County Circuit Judge Timothy P. Alexander convicted Maez of all charges Thursday after a two-day trial without a jury. She is facing between six and 16 years in prison on one count each of second- and third-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping and first-degree criminal mistreatment and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. The last charges were for smoking marijuana with her 13-year-old daughter, 8-year-old son and a neighbor girl. Her husband, Michael Anthony Maez, 38, is scheduled for trial in May. Terry Maez, 36, testified that she shook and slapped their eldest daughter three or four times in September 2005, then watched numbly as her husband took over. Alexander said the battered wife syndrome didn’t apply. “There was ample opportunity for the defendant to do something to help the child,” the judge said. The older daughter testified that her stepmother and father took turns hitting her in the truck camper the family lived in in Aloha. With her stepmother yelling, “Hit her, hit her,” the girl said, her father smacked her on the forehead with an ax handle, punched her in the face and whipped her with a belt and belt buckle across the legs and back. Her father sprayed Windex into the gaping wound on her forehead, “to give me pneumonia, to make me sick,” the victim said. At one point, the girl said, her parents held her down on the floor and her father put an electric drill to her head and threatened to use it. On the third day of confinement in the shed, her father came at her with a sledgehammer. After smashing her legs and arms, her father left without shutting the door. “I just jumped the fence,” the girl said.From The Oregonian of Tuesday, March 6, 2007 Woman gets almost 10 years for attacks Terry Lynn Maez was convicted of hitting and locking up her stepdaughter, 15 By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — A former Aloha woman who helped her husband beat his 15-year-old daughter and lock the girl in a storage shed will have nearly 10 years in prison to think about the hurt she caused. Washington County Circuit Judge Timothy P. Alexander sentenced Terry Lynn Maez, 36, to nine years and 10 months in prison and ordered that she not have contact with the victim, who was her stepdaughter, or her two younger children. All three are in foster homes. Alexander earlier found Maez guilty of second- and third-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping and first-degree criminal mistreatment involving her stepdaughter. He also convicted Maez of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, for smoking marijuana with her 13-year-old daughter, 8-year-old son and a neighbor girl. During her trial, Maez downplayed her role in the beatings and blamed her husband, Michael, who goes on trial May 1. She testified she didn’t stop him because she was afraid he would beat her, too, as he had throughout their 11-year marriage. But at her sentencing Friday, Maez read a letter of apology and said she was just beginning to realize the hurt she had caused. Alexander likened Maez to a dog owner who did nothing to stop –and even encouraged –a vicious dog attack on a child. Michael Maez “hit a 15-year-old child on the head with an ax handle and you sat there mute?” Megan Johnson, deputy district attorney, asked Terry Maez during her trial. “Yes,” Maez answered without emotion. The victim testified last week that her father and stepmother took turns beating her in the camper where they lived behind two homes on Southwest Alexander Street in Aloha. She said her stepmother ordered her into the storage shed, which her father locked by drilling screws through the door. On her third day of captivity, her father opened the shed to hit her with a sledgehammer and forgot to shut the door when he left, the girl said. She ran to a nearby Subway sandwich shop, but at first didn’t tell police what had happened because she said she didn’t want to get her parents in trouble. Her parents fled in the camper with the two younger children. They were living under assumed names and were not found until a year later, when Arkansas police stopped a car for suspected drunken driving and discovered Terry Maez was the passenger.

Previous stories about a Hillsboro teacher and a missing coat
From The Oregonian of Thursday, May 3, 2007Teacher accused of stealing coat from 3rd-grader The Jackson Elementary teacher allegedly tried to sell the jacket online By Holly Danks and Melissa Navas HILLSBORO — “I told her, ‘Be sure not to lose this coat,’” the third-grader’s mother remembers reminding the girl. “It’s expensive, and I usually didn’t let her wear it to school. But it was cold.” The 8-year-old promised. But on Jan. 10 she came home in tears. She had become warm during recess on the Jackson Elementary School playground and took off her gloves and the $114 navy blue Columbia Sportswear Tectonite coat. When she returned without the coat, her teacher immediately sent the girl to look for it. The gloves were where she had left them, but not the ski jacket her grandmother had given her. “A staff member found her crying by the lost-and-found,” the mother said. The jacket would turn up, but only after the girl’s mother tracked it to an eBay auction and took her suspicions to police. On Friday, Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, a Jackson Elementary teacher, will be in court. She faces charges of stealing the coat and trying to sell it. Two days after the coat disappeared, the girl and her mother blanketed the school with fliers showing a photo of her wearing it. For days, they searched classrooms, checked the school’s lost-and-found boxes, asked teachers and staff whether anyone had seen the jacket. “Things don’t disappear into thin air,” the mother said. “I just wanted an explanation. I just wanted the coat back.” An avid online shopper, the mother decided to check out eBay to find a replacement. “I was scanning them on the off-chance that it was there,” the mother said. “It was just a gut feeling.” What she found Jan. 18 she described as a punch to the gut. The photo of the jacket that had been auctioned for $46 first caught the mother’s eye. When she opened the site, she realized that the 7/8 size, colors and model perfectly matched her daughter’s missing coat. Digging further, she saw the seller was from Hillsboro and the jacket was posted for sale the day after her daughter’s disappeared. The seller’s eBay ID matched a name on the Jackson School Web site. The mother made an appointment with the principal on Jan. 22, when she presented “all the coincidental information.” Mysteriously, the jacket reappeared at the school that morning, ripped to pieces. The Oregonian is not identifying the girl or her family because of her parents’ concerns about their children who still attend the school. Police were called and took up the case. Investigators connected the eBay account to Logan, a Jackson Elementary first-grade teacher. Logan, 41, will be arraigned Friday in Washington County Circuit Court on a secret grand jury indictment. The teacher was arrested Feb. 6 and cited for theft by receiving and criminal misuse of a computer. In a prepared statement, Krista Shipsey, Logan’s private attorney, said: “Ms. Logan deeply regrets the impact that this allegation has had on her community, especially the children at Jackson Elementary. She has been a devoted and caring teacher for 20 years and truly misses working with her first-graders. Ms. Logan has been devastated by this allegation.” Lt. Michael Rouches, Hillsboro police spokesman, said Logan told investigators she found the jacket in the school’s lost-and-found bin and was auctioning it on eBay until her dog tore it up. Rouches said Logan has made more than 1,000 eBay transactions. She was still selling Wednesday under the screen name logan6921, with a 99.9 percent positive feedback rating. Logan told police she routinely buys bulk clothing at Goodwill for $1.39 a pound, goes through the pile for hidden treasures and sells what she can on eBay. Hillsboro School District officials said Logan was placed on paid leave Feb. 7, the day after her arrest. Nicole Kaufman, district spokeswoman, said administrators are conducting their own internal investigation. Logan began teaching in the Hillsboro School District in 1987 as a student teacher at Mooberry Elementary School. In 1998, she went to Jackson Elementary, where she was earning nearly $69,000 a year when she went on leave. Jackson School principal Janis Hill said she made a “measured decision” to call or meet with only the parents in Logan’s 25-student class to tell them the teacher was on paid leave during the investigation. Other parents at the 600-student school were not notified, even though the alleged crime victim was not in Logan’s class. Leana Garrison, whose 7-year-old son, Nate, is in Logan’s class, said parents were left in the dark about the reason for Logan’s leave. She learned about the alleged theft through school rumors. Since Logan’s departure, Garrison said her son is not as excited about school. It has been a jolting experience, she said. “He’s constantly writing to her,” Garrison said. “He just misses her and really liked her as a teacher.” Hill said school counselors have been available to students to help cope with emotional stress since Logan left. “First-grade teachers are kind of like the princes, the queen, mom rolled together,” Hill said.From The Oregonian of Friday, May 4, 2007 Handling of teacher’s case faulted Parents say officials kept them in the dark when a class lost its educator By Melissa NavasHILLSBORO — A group of parents at Jackson Elementary School expressed anger at school leaders Thursday, saying they mishandled information involving the case of a teacher accused of stealing a student’s coat and trying to sell it online. Several parents said they were kept in the dark about why their children’s teacher, Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, went missing from the first-grade classroom, as well as about counseling opportunities for children troubled by Logan’s sudden departure. Parents were also upset they weren’t informed initially about which substitutes took over the class. However, school and Hillsboro School District leaders defend how they handled the situation. They say they will not divulge much more information to parents because it is a personnel matter in an investigation. The parents call for better communication from school leaders and more stringent lost-and-found policies in light of police and district investigations into Logan’s actions. She was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 7, the day after her arrest. The district has kept Logan on the payroll because it has not finished its internal investigation, said Nicole Kaufman, district spokeswoman. Logan, 41, will be arraigned in Washington County Circuit Court today on a secret grand jury indictment. She faces charges of stealing an 8-year-old girl’s $114 Columbia Sportswear Tectonite coat and trying to sell it on eBay in January for $46. Hillsboro police say Logan told investigators she found the coat in the school’s lost-and-found bin. Police became involved when the girl’s mother spotted the jacket on eBay. Principal Janis Hill said that within a day and a half of Logan’s departure, school staff had contacted at least one of the parents of each of Logan’s 25 students. Hill said she didn’t tell parents why Logan was on leave, saying only that students were not physically harmed and that counseling would be available. At least one parent said Thursday that her household did not immediately get that message. Linda Wedlake said she has learned about classroom developments from her 7-year-old son. Though Wedlake says she wasn’t told of counseling, her son told her he took part Wednesday in a mock trial of Logan’s case with other students and the school’s counselor. Wedlake was not told of the session, she said. District leaders said they were not obligated to notify parents in that case. Some students were sent to the session on a substitute teacher’s recommendation, Kaufman said. Since students heard Logan was going to court, they participated in the role-play activity, she said. “As part of working out their feelings, they wanted to understand what it was like to be in court,” Kaufman said. Wedlake sent a petition to the district in March and has contacted the teachers union to see if it was involved in representing Logan. The petition, signed by about 20 other parents, stated, “We agree that the action taken by Mrs. Logan was questionable, however we do not support any decision to relieve her of her teaching duties.” Representatives from the Hillsboro Education Association union did not return calls for comment Thursday. Some parents also want a more defined lost-and-found policy. The district has no set policy on what can be done with those items; most schools create their own procedures. At Jackson, a custodian displays lost-and-found items about once a month. Items are donated to charities or other organizations twice a year. Parents such as Michelle Besuyen, whose 7-year-old son is in Logan’s class, say it’s time to focus on students’ healing. “What is shocking to me is that we haven’t really been able to bond together as a school or a community to help the kids,” she said.

Search for schools’ earthquake risk
Nearly half of the public school buildings in Oregon are at high risk of collapse during an earthquake, say state geologists. A two-year assessment of public buildings in Oregon rated 46 percent of about 2,200 K-12 school buildings as either…

Voices from the May Day rally
People streamed into downtown Portland Tuesday and filled a city block on the South Park Blocks for a May Day immigration and worker rights rally. Andonia Papaioannou was there with her husband and two children. She wore a United States…

Previous stories about a Beaverton photo-radar ticket
From The Oregonian of Wednesday, March 21, 2007 City to cop: Sorry, you were doing 10 over A police officer takes Beaverton to court for a $125 speeding ticket that she says is unfair By David R. Anderson BEAVERTON — A Beaverton police officer cited by photo radar for speeding while on patrol is fighting her ticket. What most would find an ironic turn — a police officer sworn to uphold the law battling to avoid paying a $125 fine — is turning into an expensive legal standoff almost a year old. Both sides claim the high ground in the dispute, the latest in a string of controversies over Beaverton’s use of photo radar. City officials — who will spend as much as $5,000 to hire a special prosecutor — say they are taking a principled stand after investigating the case and finding that Officer Jessica Hull had no reason to be driving 10 mph over the limit. “Just because you’re a police officer, you don’t get special treatment,” City Attorney Alan Rappleyea said. “We don’t want the public to think we don’t prosecute our own people.” Lawyers representing Hull say city officials are retaliating against her. City officials routinely dismiss photo-radar citations in other cases involving on-duty officers, said Mark Makler, a lawyer who represents the Beaverton Police Association. The city is prosecuting Hull because she is female and her union has consistently opposed the city’s photo-radar program, Makler said. “There’s a whole host of issues that come out of this,” Makler said. “We have big issues with photo radar in Beaverton.” Hull, 29, is accused of driving 40 mph in a 30-mph zone in the 12400 block of Southwest Allen Boulevard on April 16, 2006. The citation lists a fine of $125. In 11 years, the city has issued 15 photo-radar citations to police officers on duty, Rappleyea said. In two cases, the officers were convicted, with the other tickets dismissed after police investigators found the officers were responding to calls. Critics say Beaverton has a history of pushing the high-tech policing law beyond its intent. In 2004, the legislative counsel’s office said Beaverton was violating state law by requiring a vehicle’s registered owner to provide the name, address and driver’s license number of the person driving at the time of a citation if it wasn’t the owner. Legislators pressured city leaders until they changed the policy. The city also has placed warning signs too close to vans, ticketed drivers in a school zone at the wrong time and ticketed drivers outside the city. City officials defended those problems as honest mistakes. Police union leaders oppose the photo-radar program because drivers are ticketed without contact from an officer, Makler said. That eliminates the discretion an officer has to issue a warning, he said. In addition, radar vans are staffed by retired officers, not sworn police. Hiring retired officers saves the city at least $2 an hour plus benefits, said Linda Adlard, the city’s chief of staff. But she said current duty officers weren’t interested in sitting in the photo-radar vans, and she hasn’t heard complaints from officers for six or seven years. The lawyer representing Hull in Beaverton Municipal Court, James McIntyre, agreed with Makler that Hull is being prosecuted because she is a woman. Like Makler, he would not elaborate on that accusation. McIntyre also refused to discuss the defense he planned to use. “My position is that they are singling out a female police officer,” said McIntyre, a former Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney. “What we’re doing is challenging everything. We’re saying this ticket is not valid.” Hull declined to comment, McIntyre said. The case has not affected her job as a patrol officer, Makler said. Officers often exceed the speed limit without lights and sirens to catch up to suspicious vehicles, he said. But Hull’s speeding was not justified, Rappleyea said. Decisions about whether to prosecute officers for speeding on duty are made by police department command staff, he said. Hull is the first officer to request a trial over a photo-radar ticket, Rappleyea said. As a result, the city hired an outside lawyer to prosecute the case to avoid a conflict of interest. On Monday night, City Council members approved spending as much as $5,000 for local lawyer Benjamin Grandy. In 2006, the city issued 6,820 photo-radar citations, with a conviction rate of 74 percent. The city collected $886,500 in total revenue from photo radar. After paying the vendor, state and county assessments and programs costs, including officers’ salaries, the city collected profit of $83,330. In addition, the city issued 2,938 citations for photo red-light violations. Jerry F. Boone column of Monday, March 26, 2007 Cop’s ticket sets stage for real challenge It is difficult to tell exactly what is at stake in the legal case of Beaverton vs. Jessica Hull. But you can bet that if Beaverton is willing to invest $5,000 to prosecute the case, it’s a lot more than a $125 traffic fine. Hull is the Beaverton cop fighting a photo-radar speeding ticket she was issued while on duty in a patrol car. Last week, the City Council authorized spending as much as $5,000 to hire a special prosecutor to handle the case. City Attorney Alan Rappleyea said Beaverton should spend the money to avoid a conflict of interest in Beaverton Municipal Court. Critics say it’s far too late for the city to be concerned about a conflict of interest. Already, the judge is on the city payroll. He is hired by the City Council at the recommendation of Mayor Rob Drake and Linda Adlard, his chief of staff, who have a history of terminating judges and court administrators who don’t toe the line. That became obvious three years ago, when I tried to talk to then-Judge Peter Ackerman. He declined to talk, saying he first had to receive permission from Adlard. And it is Adlard who oversees the photo-radar program. Beaverton runs the system, issues the tickets, owns the court and collects the fines. No one has said Beaverton’s system isn’t legal. And for the city, it is very profitable. Last year, Beaverton netted more than $83,000 from photo-radar speeding tickets. It got even more from its red light cameras. Although the photo-radar van says “Beaverton Police” on its side, active-duty officers have nothing to do with the tickets. They are issued by non-union retired cops who sit in the van to be sure the equipment is working and the “photo radar ahead” signs are properly placed. The only thing the active-duty cops get from the program is grief from angry motorists. Using non-union workers is one of the reasons the police union is siding with Hull. Adlard defends the city program’s management by saying sworn officers aren’t interested in staffing radar vans. Given the nature of the work, how the system is administered and the ill will $83,000 already buys, you can hardly blame the officers. Beyond the obvious, this is the type of case that attorneys who have appeared in the city’s court have been wanting to see for a long time. Secretly, they hope it will shine a bit of light on how the court operates — stacked or not. Count John Henry Hingson near the top of that list. “Justice is a bit different in Beaverton,” says the defense attorney, who practices in Oregon City. “Now Beaverton finds itself in an uncomfortable situation, and it really isn’t sure what to do.” Hingson was annoyed three years ago when he tried to force Beaverton into obeying state law governing photo red light cases. He volunteered to defend three clients, hoping for a conviction he could appeal for the chance to debate the city’s policy. Every time Hingson appeared, the judge dismissed the case and killed his opportunity to appeal. “But the city can’t get out of this one,” Hingson says. “The last thing it can do is dismiss the case and open itself up to criticism that police officers get different treatment than everyone else.” The city’s best option may be to send the case to a court where Hull is the only person on the city payroll. City leaders could see how things turn out when they don’t control the process. But that may be exactly what Beaverton’s leaders are worried about. Jerry F. Boone’s column of Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Defendant’s not guilty in jury of readers In the court of public opinion, the case of Beaverton vs. Officer Jessica Hull ended in a decision for the defendant. At least that’s the way responses came in to Monday’s column about the Beaverton cop fighting a city-issued photo-radar speeding ticket. She got the ticket about a year ago, driving a police cruiser on Southwest Allen Boulevard while on duty. Roughly a quarter of the readers want to string up the police officer. The rest want to indict the folks at Beaverton City Hall who oversee the contentious but profitable photo-radar program. To review the evidence: Hull was caught speeding. Lots of cops speed. It often is part of the job. They do it to catch up to fleeing felons, to make up ground on suspicious vehicles or to rush to another officer’s support. They don’t always use lights and sirens. Sometimes it is best if they don’t. A cop working a radar gun would have never issued Hull a ticket. But the city’s photo-radar van doesn’t know the difference between a police car and a Porsche. Hull apparently doesn’t exactly remember why she was speeding. Officers inside the police department say she is sure enough that it was in the line of duty that she refused to plead guilty and pay the fine. Absent a believable alibi, Beaverton wants its $125 fine. The cops who called me and requested that I not use their names say they don’t like the photo-radar system and the municipal court’s cozy relationship with City Hall. They want Hull’s case to go to a higher court. One correction from Monday’s column: Linda Adlard, Beaverton chief of staff, said I was wrong when I reported she and the mayor decide whom to hire and fire as judges. That’s a decision the City Council makes. So now we sample the jury (or at least those who voted by midday Tuesday through e-mail or phone call) and see how readers would decide the case: Gerri, Beaverton: “I’d like to run a red light or get a photo-radar ticket and get out of it, too. Sometimes I’m in a hurry to get across town. If I have to put on a blue suit to get out of a fine, I’ll put on a blue suit. This is a bunch of baloney.” Gary, Beaverton: “You outlined the obvious conflict of interest very well. In military parlance, Beaverton city administration would be loudly identified as a ‘chicken operation.’ ” Barbara, Eugene: “She was speeding! . . . I feel quaint actually thinking that police officers were supposed to uphold the law. “I have received a speeding ticket (two, actually) and paid them. I just figured I got caught, and paid because I thought that’s how one played by the rules.” Linda, Tigard: “Another interesting twist to when you get a ticket from the photo radar –the tickets are issued by a company in Arizona! Don’t you think what happens in Oregon should stay in Oregon?” Hans, Beaverton: “Forget the fact that Beaverton wastes taxpayer money like toilet paper and recoups the cost by employing marginally constitutional antics. . . . For such a shameless and soulless entity, the city of Beaverton sure has deep pockets! As a taxpayer (and a victim of these phony-baloney red light cams and radar vans) I’m sick of it.” Dave, Beaverton: “The city nets less than 10 percent of the revenue generated by these underhanded enforcement policies. Also, if the red light photo ticketing program raises more money than the speeding citations, the people of our area are being nicked for around ($1 million) per year! . . . No wonder the police aren’t on board.” Apparently, most of the readers aren’t either. From The Oregonian of Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Photo radar challenge fails, will be appealed By David R. Anderson BEAVERTON — Tuesday’s speeding ticket trial of police Officer Jessica Hull included accusations of misconduct by city officials and a challenge to the very foundation of Beaverton’s photo-radar system. None of that seemed to impress Municipal Judge John T. Mercer, who found Hull guilty of speeding on duty and ordered her to pay a $125 fine. That’s exactly what Hull’s lawyers thought would happen. Now they say it is likely they will appeal to Washington County Circuit Court, where they can get the case out of Beaverton’s legal system. “We expected it; this is the city,” said Mark Makler, the lawyer for the police union. “This is a way for the city to wash its hands.” City officials weren’t available for comment after the two-hour trial. Hull, 29, was accused of driving her patrol car 40 mph in a 30-mph zone in the 12400 block of Southwest Allen Boulevard on April 16, 2006. City leaders, who agreed to pay as much as $5,000 for an outside lawyer to prosecute the case, have said they are taking a principled stand that no one — including an on-duty Beaverton police officer — is above the law. Makler said the case is about attacking photo radar because it is not operated in Beaverton by active-duty officers but by retirees who aren’t union members. Hull, who did not testify, declined to comment after the trial. James McIntyre, Hull’s lawyer, accused city officials of misconduct. He filed three motions requesting the case’s dismissal. The most important, he said, was a contention that city officials violated state law when they fired the Multnomah County district attorney’s office after a special prosecutor there told McIntyre the case would be dismissed. Susan Isaacs, a private lawyer hired by city officials last week, responded that the city had the right to choose its lawyer. Mercer agreed. The judge did not rule on a motion by The Oregonian and KGW-TV and joined by McIntyre to unseal an affidavit filed by the district attorney’s office. Isaacs argued for the city that it should remain sealed because it contains privileged information between district attorneys and city officials. Norm Frink, Multnomah County chief deputy district attorney, would not comment on the affidavit or the reason for withdrawing from the case. McIntyre also argued that the city violated Hull’s right to a speedy trial. McIntyre cited the case of state Rep. Mitch Greenlick, who was ticketed for running a red light in Portland. The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that 15 months between the citation and a trial violated the Portland Democrat’s right to a speedy trial. But Mercer ruled that the 10 months since the citation was issued to Hull was not an unreasonable amount of time. McIntyre also attacked city leaders’ operation of the photo-radar system, which uses retired police officers. He claimed Allen DeVault, a retired police officer who was operating the photo-radar van, did not qualify as a police officer under the state law that requires “uniformed police officers” to run the system. Records from the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training show that DeVault’s certification lapsed in March 2003. But Isaacs argued, and Mercer agreed, that DeVault didn’t need to be certified to be considered a police officer for the city. Reserve officers, for example, are not certified with the state. After Mercer rejected McIntyre’s motions to dismiss the case, the trial consisted mostly of testimony from DeVault, police Chief David Bishop and a contractor who supplies the city’s photo-radar equipment. McIntyre did not claim Hull was responding to an emergency. Instead, he argued that the city had not sent the photo-radar equipment to the manufacturer to be calibrated for nearly 14 months. City policy is to calibrate the equipment about once a year. But Mercer said DeVault tested the equipment that morning and it was working. In the end, the judge said the traffic rules applied to Hull as much as any other driver that morning on Southwest Allen Boulevard. Jerry F. Boone column of Wednesday, April 18, 2007 The real point of cop’s trial? You tell me The real issue in the Beaverton vs. Jessica Hull case has nothing to do with whether the city cop’s police car was doing 40 in a 30-mph zone when she was caught on photo radar a year ago. It is . . . um. . . . Well, I’m not sure. It could be why Beaverton leaders insist a part-time uncertified photo-radar officer who doesn’t carry a weapon or handcuffs and who gets paid to sit in a van and watch a TV monitor is called a cop. Or it may be why city leaders hired a special prosecutor — possibly as many as two or three — to build a case against Hull and rejected their advice to walk away from the case. Perhaps it is how city leaders ignored their own policy and cited Hull after using a radar unit two months beyond its annual certification. Or it could be none of the above. The only thing certain after Tuesday’s two hours of courtroom machinations is that the real issue won’t be decided until the case goes to Washington County Circuit Court on appeal. It will be the first Beaverton photo-radar ticket anyone can recall ever going beyond a Beaverton courtroom. And that should worry city officials. I’m hoping it lands before Judge Gayle Nachtigal, who already knows some of the players from her nearly two years with the Nike vs. Beaverton debacle. I can’t think of anyone in the audience who was surprised when Municipal Court Judge John Mercer found Hull guilty. Not her attorney. Not police Chief David Bishop. Not the judge. Not Hull. Not Linda Adlard, the city’s chief of staff who is generally considered the overseer of the photo-radar program (in spite of the “Beaverton Police” script on the vans). Not the cadre of police officers from neighboring departments who showed up to watch how justice is administered inside Beaverton Municipal Court. “We’re here to support Jessica and to see how officers are treated in Beaverton,” said Sgt. Mike Fort, among a handful of motorcycle cops wearing Portland Police Bureau uniforms. “It’s different than in Portland,” he said. That’s all he would say. Perhaps the only surprise Tuesday was that it took so long for the judge to come to a decision. It was a courtroom crowded with witnesses and the curious. And it wasn’t just Hull on trial. It was Beaverton’s entire photo-radar system and — to a degree — the court’s reputation. Mercer first waded through an hour of motions covering things he generally didn’t want to consider. Agreeing to some of them — such as voiding the authority of the photo-radar officers — could easily jeopardize the very foundation of the photo-radar system, which last year grossed more than $1.5 million in fines from speeding and red-light cameras. On the bright side, it may be encouraging to know that even a cop gets the same treatment and predictable outcome as everyone else in the city’s courtroom. All during the two hours, Hull sat next to her attorney, never speaking. It is hard to tell if she is a gritty trailblazer or a sacrificial lamb. The only thing she said — before her lawyer began answering questions for her — was that she expected things to turn out exactly the way they did. That was probably the voice of experience, with a perspective gained from years on the other side of the ticket book.From The Oregonian of Wednesday, May 9, 2007 Ticket case filing is revealing Beaverton fired a special prosecutor with an opinion the council didn’t like, documents indicate By David R. Anderson BEAVERTON — City officials fired a special prosecutor after he recommended the city dismiss a photo-radar speeding ticket against an on-duty police officer, a newly released court document shows. The case against Beaverton police Officer Jessica Hull was weak for four reasons, including the lack of a clear policy and the appearance that Hull was singled out for prosecution, wrote Jose Cienfuegos, a Multnomah County deputy district attorney. The case raises concerns that city leaders interfered with an independent prosecutor, said John Kroger, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor and former federal prosecutor. Once the city hired the district attorney to avoid a conflict of interest, it should have deferred to him. “They should not be shopping for a second prosecutor who will rubber-stamp their judgment,” he said. “It flies in the face of getting an independent counsel.” Kroger compared the case to the special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal: “It’s a little like Richard Nixon trying to fire Archibald Cox.” But the private lawyer now prosecuting the case for the city, Susan Isaacs, said Tuesday that Cienfuegos was never a special prosecutor. Instead, he was in an attorney-client relationship with the city. As the client, city leaders could dismiss him. “It’s the client who gets to make the decisions regarding the case,” said Isaacs, who followed Cienfuegos on the case. Hull, 29, was accused of driving her patrol car 40 mph in a 30-mph zone on Southwest Allen Boulevard on April 16, 2006. Municipal Judge John Mercer convicted her April 17, 2007, and ordered her to pay a $125 fine. Isaacs also said Cienfuegos is wrong about the case facts, including that Hull was responding to a call. Isaacs pointed out that Hull’s lawyer, Jim McIntyre, didn’t use any of the four supposed defenses during trial last month. But McIntyre said he didn’t raise all possible issues at trial because he knew he would get a new trial if he appealed to Washington County Circuit Court. He has filed that appeal, but no hearing has been scheduled. City officials also deny they fired Cienfuegos. Instead, he asked to be removed from the case because he didn’t have time, said Linda Adlard, the city’s chief of staff. However, Cienfuegos’ filing contradicts the city’s claims and raises doubts about the case. Cienfuegos wrote that “there did not appear to be any coherent policy regarding this issue.” In addition, it appeared the city handled Hull’s case differently than others in which public employees were cited on duty. “I was unable to find another investigation that was similar in extent to the one conducted in this case, nor was I told of one,” Cienfuegos wrote. He wrote that it appeared Hull was responding to a call at the time, which is a legitimate defense. And Hull was improperly given the citation in person instead of by mail. In early October, Cienfuegos said he met with his boss at the district attorney’s office, Fred Lenzser, and they agreed to dismiss the case. A month later, Cienfuegos met with Adlard and other city officials. The details of that meeting remain secret, but soon after Cienfuegos was removed from the case. After Cienfuegos was off the case, the City Council voted in March to pay as much as $5,000 for a private lawyer to prosecute the case. The council made the decision with no discussion. Councilors on Tuesday offered varying answers to whether they knew Cienfuegos recommended the case be dismissed before hiring another lawyer. Cathy Stanton said that she didn’t know but that it probably would not have made a difference. Betty Bode said she couldn’t remember. And Catherine Arnold said she knew but only because she had a private conversation with Alan Rappleyea, the city attorney, before the meeting. Cienfuegos filed his affidavit under seal. McIntyre asked Mercer last month to unseal the document. The Oregonian and KGW-TV had also filed motions seeking the document. Mercer ruled Cienfuegos’ affidavit should be unsealed. However, he removed at least seven paragraphs at the request of city officials, saying they were exempt under attorney-client privilege.

Accounting Assistant/Administrative Assistant
Advertising Agency seeks Accounting Assistant to work primarily with Accounting Manager including reception duties and general administrative support to Sales & Media Departments. 1. This position is open for a reliable, responsible, detail orie…… Engineers Petrochemical Experienced Petrochemical Engineers see our […]

May Day rally shaping up to be smaller than last year’s
This afternoon’s May Day rally won’t start moving through downtown for another half hour or so but Jordana Sardo has already noticed a difference from last year’s rally. The last May Day march was “gigantic,” she said. Thousands of…

Another side: “May Day is a communist holiday.”
Brady Romey of Battle Ground stages a counter protest against what he and a friend say is a gathering of illegal immigrants seeking special rights. A May Day marcher urges Romey to leave. “Both sides have to be represented,” says…

Previous stories about the death of Jessie Mary Valero
From The Oregonian of Friday, March 18, 2005 Woman, 48, found dead in Hillsboro apartment Jessie Mary Valero’s death is the first confirmed homicide of the year in Washington County By Holly Danks The body of a 48-year-old woman, the victim of a violent death, was found Thursday morning in her unlocked Hillsboro apartment. Hillsboro police are investigating the death as a homicide — the first confirmed in Washington County in 2005. Police declined to identify the victim, but relatives and friends said the woman was Jessie Mary Valero, who lived in the Park Side Apartments in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue. “She died from apparent homicidal violence,” said Lt. Mark Bonnett, Hillsboro police spokesman. He declined to offer specifics, pendintraining, but when she missed work Wednesday, friends from the restaurant became alarmed, manager David Swearingin said. One asked Valero’s son to check on her. When she didn’t answer her front door about 9 a.m. Thursday, he went around to the back and found the sliding-glass door open, Aranda said. The man found Valero’s body under a sheet and pillow on the living room floor, she said. “We really would like to know what happened,” Aranda said. Bonnett said the apartment showed no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Police searched the area with a police dog and climbed onto the roofs of the three adjoining one-story apartments in Valero’s building, three apartments near Valero’s and the shopping center behind the complex. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. One asked Valero’s son to check on her. When she didn’t answer her front door about 9 a.m. Thursday, he went around to the back and found the sliding-glass door open, Aranda said. The man found Valero’s body under a sheet and pillow on the living room floor, she said. “We really would like to know what happened,” Aranda said. Bonnett said the apartment showed no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Police searched the area with a police dog and climbed onto the roofs of the three adjoining one-story apartments in Valero’s building, three apartments near Valero’s and the shopping center behind the complex. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. Neighbors said they didn’t hear anything unusual in the area Tuesday night or Wednesday. “There’s not a lot of traffic,” said Roberto Arellano Cruz, 30, a construction worker who lives in the Birchs Apartments, which share a turnaround and small playground with Park Side. Valero, whose husband died several years ago, lived alone but talked to family members Tuesday, Aranda said. Everything seemed fine, she said. Denzil Scheller, owner/manager of the Park Side Apartments, said Valero had lived there since August. “She was a real sweet woman. Pleasant. I liked her. I don’t think anybody there didn’t like her,” he said. Aranda said Valero got along well with everyone and was always ready to help. “She never said no to anybody,” Aranda said. “She is a very happy lady. She likes to dance.” Roberto Boascencia, manager of the Cooler Club, 1735 S.E. Tualatin Valley Highway, said Valero came in about three nights a week. “She’d come to hang out with the guys, get drinks and dance,” he said. Police were contacting Valero’s relatives, friends and co-workers for possible clues. “There’s not much to go on,” Bonnett said Thursday afternoon, shortly before the county medical examiner removed Valero’s body from the apartment. There were 10 homicides in Washington County last year, including two in Hillsboro. By this date in 2004, there had been three homicides in the county. Beaverton police are investigating the death of a woman found March 1 in a Murrayhill apartment’s pond as suspicious but have not said it was a homicide. From The Oregonian of Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005 Officials offer only names of trio, charges in murder case Three men held in jail since July are arraigned in the stabbing death of a 48-year-old Hillsboro woman By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Three men were arraigned Monday after a five-month investigation into the fatal stabbing of a 48-year-old woman in her Hillsboro apartment. Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 22, of Forest Grove and Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 32, of Hillsboro face the death penalty in the killing of Jessie Mary Valero, who lived in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue. Each was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, and one count each of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. According to the indictment handed down Friday, the two killed Valero while trying to cover up their identities in the robbery and burglary, making it a capital crime. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 25, of Hillsboro was charged with two counts of murder, and one count each of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. He was not charged with trying to cover up his identity. Police and prosecutors are being extremely tight-lipped regarding the case. No information other than charges and names was released, and police did not publicize the arrests before the arraignments. “It is a very complex case,” said Cmdr. Chris Skinner of the Hillsboro Police Department. “All I can say is that as a result of exhaustive investigation over many months, we made three arrests on these three individuals.” Cazares Mendez has been in the Washington County Jail since July 24 on warrants charging him with methamphetamine possession and stealing a car. Skinner said Reyes Sanchez and Lugardo Madero have been held since late July as material witnesses in the Valero stabbing. Nearly two dozen of Valero’s relatives and friends gathered at the jail court for Monday’s arraignment. They declined to comment. At Valero’s apartment complex, relatives and friends described her as a happy, sweet woman who got along with everyone and was always ready to help. She lived alone in the Park Side Apartments, behind Shute Park Plaza. Valero had just gotten a job at the then-new Little Caesars pizza restaurant a few blocks from her apartment. When she didn’t show up for opening day, employees asked her son to check on her. Police said Valero’s body was found on the living room floor, under a sheet and pillow. They found no signs of forced entry. The next hearing for the men will be Aug. 30, and their trial is set for Oct. 20. From The Oregonian of Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006 Three men are held without bail in death The men face murder charges in the stabbing of Jessie Mary Valero of Hillsboro By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — A Washington County judge ruled Tuesday that there was enough evidence to hold three men without bail on murder charges after hearing testimony linking them to a screwdriver that was used to stab a woman 29 times and jewelry that was stolen from her Hillsboro apartment. It was the first time prosecutors and police publicly outlined what they think happened to Jessie Mary Valero. The 48-year-old woman was found dead on the living room floor of her Park Side apartment on March 17. According to the capital murder case laid out by Rob Bletko, Washington County chief deputy district attorney, Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 22, of Forest Grove; Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 32, of Hillsboro; and Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 25, of Hillsboro killed Valero while robbing her for items they could trade for methamphetamine. Cazares and Reyes are charged with killing Valero while trying to conceal their role in the robbery and burglary of her apartment. They could be put to death if convicted on charges of aggravated murder. Lugardo is charged with two counts of murder for causing Valero’s death during a robbery and burglary. Valero lived in the same apartment complex as Reyes, in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue. Friends of the defendants said the three knew Valero and had been in her apartment before, according to police reports. Lugardo told police that he was waiting outside Valero’s door as a lookout but ran when he heard sounds of a struggle from inside. John Manning, Reyes’ court-appointed attorney, said Lugardo changed his story just a couple days ago and there was no evidence connecting Reyes to the crime scene. However, Maricela Herrera Nuno, 29, of Hillsboro testified during the release hearing that she knew Valero and, after the killing, saw Reyes wearing a pendant of the Virgin Mary on a gold chain that she said was Valero’s favorite. Reyes traded the pendant to one of Herrera’s roommates for meth, said Herrera, who pleaded guilty in May to delivery of a controlled substance and is serving a 16-month prison sentence. Herrera also testified that she saw Reyes and Cazares, who often came to her Southeast 10th Avenue apartment to trade stolen items for meth, sharpening screwdrivers in her garage last March. She said they told her they used them to break into cars. A Hillsboro police dog found a screwdriver with a point sharpened like an ice pick when tracking behind Valero’s apartment the day she was found dead. Valero’s DNA matched DNA from the blood on the screwdriver, Bletko said. Herrera also testified that Reyes and Cazares came to her apartment looking for drugs before sunrise March 16, the day before Valero’s body was found. Cazares had blood on his hands, and Reyes had blood on his pants, she said. “I could see that they were, like, nervous, but I didn’t know if it was because they wanted more drugs or something else,” Herrera said. Ray Bassel, Cazares’ court-appointed defense attorney, called two neighbors who testified that they saw Valero outside her apartment the afternoon of March 16, hours after police said she died. But highlighting language differences and faulty memories in his cross-examinations, Bletko convinced Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Gardner that the witnesses could be mistaken. The case’s next hearing is set for April 12, when defense attorneys will argue against the death penalty.From The Oregonian of Friday, Jan. 12, 2007 Pendant used as clue in woman’s death Prosecutors say Jessie Mary Valero was killed during a robbery to get money for drugs By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — A family snapshot of Jessie Mary Valero cradling her newborn granddaughter is the focal point in an aggravated murder trial that began this week in Washington County Circuit Court. Besides putting an endearing face on the 48-year-old stabbing victim –and offering a view other than the gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos to come –the wall-size blow-up shows Valero wearing a religious pendant that is central to the prosecution case against Jorge Reyes Sanchez. Reyes is the first of three men to go to trial in Valero’s March 2005 killing. Reyes’ defense attorneys lost an objection to the photo’s use before the trial started. They want the jury to picture Valero, instead, as a prostitute who frequently took men home from a Hillsboro bar. One of them, a former boyfriend or stranger who left behind DNA on Valero’s pajamas, killed her in a sexual rage, court-appointed defense attorney John Manning suggested in his opening statement. Police said they questioned the former boyfriend and discounted him as the killer. Another semen deposit belongs to a suspect in a Marion County rape who has not been identified or arrested. “There is no forensic evidence that ties any of the defendants to the murder,” Manning said. Reyes, 23, of Forest Grove and Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 33, of Hillsboro each face the death penalty on a charge of aggravated murder and also are accused of felony murder, murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 26, of Hillsboro is charged with felony murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. “They entered her apartment to steal her jewelry; they encountered her,” said Rob Bletko, Washington County chief deputy district attorney, in his opening. “She knew the defendant (Reyes). They had no choice but to kill her.” On Thursday, Bletko questioned Margaret Gardner, who said she saw Reyes trade a Virgin Mary pendant for methamphetamine a day or two after Valero’s body was found under a pile of blankets and pillows on the living room floor of her Southeast 11th Avenue apartment. Gardner said she was sure it was the same pendant and distinctive gold chain in Valero’s photo. Gardner said her girlfriend, a meth dealer, gave it to her. About a week later, Gardner said, Reyes told the drug dealer the pendant belonged to a woman who had been murdered and he wanted it back. “It disappeared and was never seen again,” Bletko told the jury of eight women and four men. Valero’s son discovered her body about 9 a.m. March 17, 2005. Based on when people last talked to her, police estimate Valero was killed between 8 and 10 p.m. March 15, 2005, the night before she was to report to a new job at the Little Caesars pizza place on Southeast 10th Avenue. Bletko said Valero had been stabbed 29 times. Police searching the alley behind her apartment found a sharpened screwdriver that had Valero’s blood on it. They also found a red bicycle propped inside Valero’s front door. Witnesses are expected to testify that Reyes and Cazares sharpened screwdrivers to break into vehicles to steal what they could trade for meth. Both also were seen riding a red bike that Reyes bragged about stealing. Lugardo, the third defendant, testified Wednesday that he sometimes broke into cars, traded stolen stereos for drugs and smoked meth with the other defendants. But Lugardo said he didn’t want to break into a home, so he stayed outside when Reyes and Cazares went into Valero’s apartment. When they were taking too long, Lugardo said he went to the door. “I heard noise, noises inside the apartment,” Lugardo said, “and that’s when I ran.” Lugardo testified that Cazares threatened him about a week later. “He said that he killed the lady, that he was with (Reyes). He said that I shouldn’t say anything –that the same thing could happen to me.”From The Oregonian of Jan. 31, 2007Man guilty in meth murder Jorge Reyes Sanchez broke into the victim’s home to steal jewelry to use for drug money; 2 others are charged By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Nearly two years after Jessie Mary Valero’s brutal murder, her family hopes Tuesday’s guilty verdicts are the beginning of the end. A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for a little more than five hours before unanimously finding Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 23, guilty of all charges: two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of felony murder and one count each of murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. “We feel the case still has a long way to go,” said Ray Valero, 31, one of the victim’s two sons. “We need the stress level of the family to go down.” The same jury will start hearing testimony Thursday to decide whether Reyes of Forest Grove should be put to death or be put in prison for life without parole or with parole possible after 30 years. According to Washington County prosecutors, Reyes and two friends killed Valero after breaking into her apartment to steal jewelry to trade for methamphetamine. Valero, the mother of three and grandmother of eight, was found dead March 17, 2005, in her Park Side apartment in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue in Hillsboro. Police estimate she was killed between 8 and 10 p.m. two nights before the discovery. Valero had been stabbed 29 times, her pajama-clad body covered with blankets and pillows and left on her apartment’s living room floor. Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 33, of Hillsboro faces the same charges as Reyes and is scheduled for trial Feb. 27. Cazares also faces the death penalty if convicted. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 26, of Hillsboro is charged with felony murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. He does not face the death penalty in his May 8 trial. Court-appointed defense attorneys John Manning and William Brennan tried to show that the case against Reyes relied on unreliable, drug-addled criminals as witnesses. They also said no evidence at the scene — blood, semen, fingerprints or hair — matched Reyes or the other defendants. During his testimony against Reyes, Lugardo described himself as a car prowler, not a house burglar. Lugardo said he waited outside Valero’s apartment because he “did not know the lady who lived there.” When he heard the sounds of a struggle from inside, Lugardo said, he ran. A friend of Valero’s testified to seeing Reyes wearing the victim’s religious pendant at a Hillsboro bar within 48 hours of her murder. A drug dealer testified Reyes traded her the same Virgin Mary pendant and unique gold chain in exchange for meth. Others testified Reyes and Cazares sharpened screwdrivers and routinely carried them for breaking into cars. Police found a sharpened screwdriver in a puddle behind Valero’s apartment, her blood staining the handle. Witnesses also linked Reyes and Cazares to a stolen red bicycle that police found propped inside Valero’s front door. Defense attorney Manning portrayed Valero as a prostitute who routinely brought men home from bars. The ferocity of the murder suggested she was killed in a sexual rage, not a burglary, he said. Testimony from a defense pathologist supported Manning’s theory. Washington County prosecutors Rob Bletko and Dan Hesson acknowledged the witnesses were current or former drug users and dealers but said they had nothing to gain by testifying against Reyes. Valero’s daughter, Anita Valero Casarez, 25, said it was hard sitting through the trial, hearing the details of the murder and having her mother’s reputation called into question. The family wants Reyes to get the death penalty, Valero Casarez said. But, she added, “anything that happens still won’t bring her back.” From The Oreogonian of Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 In deciding death penalty, jurors hear of victim’s good Jorge Reyes Sanchez killed Jessie Mary Valero, a grandmother By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — When jurors heard testimony Thursday to help them decide whether Jorge Reyes Sanchez should be put to death for murder, they heard not what a bad man he is but what a good woman, mother and grandmother his victim was. After a nine-day trial, the same jurors on Tuesday found Reyes, 23, guilty of aggravated murder, felony murder, murder, robbery and burglary in the March 2005 death of Jessie Mary Valero. “It is easy sometimes to forget that there is a human being who goes along with the name,” Rob Bletko, Washington County chief deputy district attorney, told jurors. Valero, 48, was stabbed 29 times in the living room of her Park Side apartment, in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue in Hillsboro. A medical examiner testified that any of several wounds to her neck, head and heart would have been enough to kill her. Bletko said the facts of the brutal crime — that Reyes and two others broke into Valero’s apartment to steal jewelry to trade for methamphetamine and stabbed her with a sharpened screwdriver to conceal their identities — are enough for jurors to find Reyes acted deliberately and is a continuing threat to society. Those are two concerns jurors must consider to sentence Reyes to death. Bletko called on Valero’s family to address the third question: Should Reyes receive the death penalty? Prosecutors usually emphasize a defendant’s criminal history and penchant for violence to bring on the death penalty, but Reyes has no record of serious criminal convictions. As Valero family members spoke, Reyes slumped onto the defense table, rubbing his eyes and head. Jurors looked away from him; several cried. Valero’s son, Ray Valero, 31, found her pajama-clad body under a pile of sheets and blankets on her living room floor early March 17, 2005, a day after she didn’t show up for a new job at Little Caesars. On the witness stand, he sobbed and struggled to explain the emotional toll. “I have problems sleeping at night,” Ray Valero said. “I can’t go a day without seeing her lying there.” Jose Valero Jr., 50, the victim’s brother, said Jessie Valero helped raise her seven siblings and held the family together. “She was like an angel,” he said. “After you got done talking with her, you’d feel better.” Anita Valero, the victim’s only daughter, said she has a hard time explaining to her three children where their grandmother went. “They ask every day for her, when is she coming back.” Court-appointed defense attorneys John Manning and William Brennan presented several of Reyes’ relatives to try to paint a sympathetic picture and mitigate against the death penalty. Two uncles testified that Reyes was respectful around them, gentle with children and never showed a temper. “I’m very sad about what Jorge is going through, especially for his mother,” said his uncle Abel Reyes. Under cross-examination, however, the uncles admitted they didn’t keep close contact with Reyes or know he had been living in a drug house, was a meth addict and had been jailed earlier for theft. The case is expected to go to jurors Tuesday. Two other co-defendants are scheduled for trial later this year. Four of the 31 men on Oregon’s death row are from Washington County. The last person sentenced to death in Washington County was Martin Allen Johnson in August 2001. Johnson, now 50, was convicted of drugging, raping and strangling 15-year-old Heather Fay Fraser and throwing her body from a Clatsop County bridge into the Columbia River in 1998.From The Oregonian of Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 Jury gives Reyes life sentence Jurors say they doubted his potential for violent crimes in the future By Holly Danks HILLSBORO –Stabbing Jessie Mary Valero 29 times with a sharpened screwdriver was enough to make her killing deliberate, but jurors decided it didn’t make her killer a continuing threat to society. A Washington County Circuit Court jury spared Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 23, the death penalty Thursday, instead sending him to prison for life. “We had no problem with the death penalty because of the severity of the crime,” said Laura Lyons, a juror who said she pounded her fist on a table 29 times to illustrate the point during deliberations. “What we couldn’t prove to ourselves was that it was probable that he would commit violent crimes in the future.” Jurors must unanimously answer yes to both questions –about deliberateness and future dangerousness — to impose a death sentence. Reyes doesn’t have a history of violent crimes, which Lyons said some jurors initially saw as reason to let him out of prison in 30 years “to start his life over.” However, after talking it out for eight hours over three days, Lyons said all 12 jurors voted for life with no parole because they couldn’t get past the brutality of Valero’s murder or Reyes’s lack of remorse. The same Washington County Circuit Court jury last week found Reyes guilty of aggravated murder, felony murder, murder, robbery and burglary after a nine-day trial. Valero, 48, was stabbed 29 times in the living room of her Park Side apartment, in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue in Hillsboro. Her son, Ray Valero, 31, found her body March 17, 2005, under a pile of sheets and blankets after she missed her first day of work at Little Caesars. “I have no words,” Ray Valero said Thursday after the penalty was read. However, Jose Valero Jr., the victim’s younger brother, did not mince words: “He needs to be dead, just like my sister is dead.” Reyes, who did not testify during his trial, cried as he looked away from jurors when the sentence was read. On Tuesday, Reyes told jurors: “I can look all of you in the eyes and say I did not commit this crime, I did not attack that lady.” He said he grew up poor in Mexico, quit school to start working when he was 11, saw his father routinely beat his mother, and crossed into the United States illegally when he was about 16 after walking in the desert for a week. “Yes, he had a bad life, but so did a lot of jurors,” Lyons said. “We can’t allow our sympathy any part in deliberations.” Reyes’s attorneys suggested that while he might have been at the murder scene, there was no evidence he did the actual stabbing. They presented psychological testimony that Reyes was a quiet non-aggressive follower of lower than average intelligence. Two co-defendants, Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 33, and Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 26, both of Hillsboro, are scheduled for trial later this year. Court-appointed defense attorney John Manning said he would continue looking for new evidence to get Reyes a new trial. Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Gardner did not allow Manning to present hearsay evidence that a woman told others she had killed Valero. Some of Reyes’s relatives told jurors that putting him to death would be the worst thing possible for their close-knit family. But Rob Bletko, chief deputy district attorney, pointed out that several family members did not have contact with Reyes for years and didn’t intervene when he was jobless and doing drugs. “There’s one thing that’s clearly more horrible” than having a relative put to death, Bletko told jurors. “And that was Ray Valero walking in and finding his mother stabbed to death on the floor.”From The Oregonian of Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007 Woman’s killer draws life term The crime’s brutality results in no chance of parole for Jorge Reyes Sanchez By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Even after the dead woman’s family begged him to confess, Jorge Reyes Sanchez denied at his sentencing for aggravated murder that he was at the scene when Jessie Mary Valero was stabbed 29 times with a screwdriver. Despite his denials, the 23-year-old Forest Grove man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole. Jurors spared Reyes the death penalty, saying he had no prior violent criminal history. But they decided he did not deserve a chance at parole after 30 years because of the brutality of the crime and his refusal to accept responsibility. “The only way to bring justice is to tell what he knows, what he saw,” Anita Valero, the victim’s daughter, said Tuesday. A co-defendant will go on trial for aggravated murder this month. A third co-defendant who says he waited outside Valero’s Hillsboro apartment during the attack testified against Reyes and is set for trial in May. “I was condemned by false witnesses, by rumors and lies,” Reyes responded to the family’s pleas. “I wasn’t in this place. I am innocent of everything.” At that, Rob Bletko, chief deputy district attorney, told Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Gardner that Reyes tried to make a last-ditch deal while the jury was deliberating. “He acknowledged that he was at the homicide scene, he acknowledged that he took the two co-defendants there; he knew her,” Bletko said. Valero, 48, was found dead March 17, 2005, her body lying on the living room floor of her apartment on Southeast 11th Avenue in Hillsboro. Laura Lyons, a seventh-grade teacher on the jury, said the panel unanimously convicted Reyes of aggravated murder on the first vote. “We put him at the crime scene; we proved to ourselves that he was there,” Lyons said. Prosecutors tied Reyes to the scene by introducing witnesses who said that he regularly rode a red bicycle found leaning against the inside of Valero’s front door and that he was seen wearing a religious pendant that belonged to Valero. Witnesses also testified that Reyes, who knew Valero well enough to dance with her at a local bar, traded the victim’s gold pendant for methamphetamine. Gardner criticized Reyes for being insensitive to the victim’s family. “I don’t think that you are fit, basically, to be in our society,” the judge said. “To be in our society, you have to accept responsibility for your acts.”From The Oregonian of Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Second trial opens in woman’s killing One man has been convicted in the 2005 slaying of a Hillsboro grandmother By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — The faces at the defense table and in the jury box are new, and attorneys argued fresh twists on the evidence as the second trial opened Tuesday in the 2005 killing of a Hillsboro grandmother. Jurors hearing the case against Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 33, of Hillsboro cannot be told that a friend of his has been found guilty of aggravated murder in the stabbing of Jessie Mary Valero during a robbery in her small Southeast 11th Avenue apartment. Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 23, of Forest Grove was sentenced last month to life in prison without parole after a jury rejected the death penalty. Afterward, jurors said evidence indicated Reyes was a shy non-aggressive follower who was at the murder scene and took jewelry belonging to Valero, 48. But they were unconvinced he stabbed her. Prosecutors will try to prove that Cazares did, with a sharpened yellow screwdriver that police found stained with Valero’s blood in a puddle behind her apartment. Cazares also faces the death penalty if found guilty of aggravated murder. Valero’s son found her dead under a pile of blankets and pillows on her living room floor the morning of March 17, 2005. Police think she was killed late March 15. Before he traded it for methamphetamine, Reyes was seen wearing a gold Virgin Mary pendant that Valero’s family and friends said belonged to her. Prosecutor Rob Bletko said Tuesday that he would tie Cazares to a different religious pendant taken from Valero. Defense attorneys said they will show jurors that no fingerprints or DNA belonging to Cazares was found in Valero’s apartment. However, Reyes was not spared even though no evidence tied his fingerprints or DNA to the scene. Ray Bassel, court-appointed defense attorney, said a pathologist will testify that the way Valero’s blood settled proves her body was moved after her death, bringing into question all the crime scene evidence. The defense attorney also said Cazares will take the witness stand to offer an alibi for the time of the murder. Reyes, who did not testify at his trial, previously told police he took Cazares and Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, a third co-defendant, to Valero’s apartment because he knew her and knew she had jewelry they could steal and trade for meth. Lugardo, 26, of Hillsboro told jurors in both trials that he waited outside Valero’s apartment when the other two went inside. While he admitted stealing stereos from cars, Lugardo said he wasn’t a burglar. During his testimony Tuesday, Lugardo said he saw a yellow screwdriver in Cazares’ back pocket as the men walked to Valero’s apartment. Lugardo said he ran when he heard a struggle inside. A few days later, he saw Cazares at a Hillsboro store. Lugardo testified that Cazares said “they had killed the lady” and warned Lugardo to remain silent or “the same thing could happen to me.” Bassel pounded at Lugardo’s criminal record for theft and forgery, while getting him to admit that he changed his story to police several times. Lugardo’s murder trial is scheduled for May 1.From The Oregonian of Friday, April 6, 2007 Jury weighs witnesses’ credibility Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez is charged with murder in Jessie Valero’s death By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — A jury today will continue deliberating the fate of a Hillsboro man who could be put to death if found guilty in the 2005 stabbing of a woman in her living room. Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 33, is charged with aggravated murder in the killing of Jessie Mary Valero. The 48-year-old grandmother died during a drug-related robbery in her home in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue in Hillsboro. A co-defendant, Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 23, of Forest Grove, was sentenced to life in prison in February for the same crime. Jurors barely started deliberations Thursday before breaking for the day. The trial opened March 13 and featured less than two weeks of testimony. Because police did not find DNA, fingerprints or other forensic evidence in the victim’s apartment that placed any of the defendants there, the case will come down to whether the jury believes Cazares or those who testified against him. Rob Bletko, Washington County chief deputy district attorney, admitted that the witnesses are not upstanding community members. During testimony in the Valero murder, many contradicted themselves and each other and said they had forgotten details. However, Bletko said, “it was obvious the defendant was coached, and our witnesses were not.” As the first defense witness, Cazares testified last week that he was never in Valero’s apartment, didn’t know her and wasn’t with Reyes or Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, a third co-defendant, late March 15 or early March 16, 2005, when police think Valero was killed. Lugardo, however, testified to waiting outside Valero’s apartment while Cazares and Reyes went around back to break in and steal jewelry to trade for methamphetamine. Lugardo admitted that he and the others routinely burglarized cars but said he drew the line at breaking into a residence. Lugardo said he ran when he heard the sounds of a struggle inside Valero’s home. Cazares told him a few days later that “they had killed the lady” and warned that if he said anything “the same thing could happen” to him, Lugardo testified. Omar Ortiz, who Cazares said he was with the night of the woman’s death, testified he hadn’t seen the defendant at all in March 2005. A drug dealer also testified that Cazares and Reyes came to her apartment with blood on their hands and clothes before sunup March 16, 2005.From The Oregonian of Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Death penalty on line in hearing Testimony will help a jury decide punishment for a killer of a Hillsboro woman By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Jurors who convicted a second meth addict of aggravated murder for stabbing a Hillsboro grandmother to death during a 2005 robbery will begin hearing testimony today to decide if Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez deserves to live or die. Jurors unanimously found Cazares, 33, of Hillsboro guilty Tuesday on all seven counts of aggravated murder, murder, robbery and burglary in the death of Jessie Mary Valero. The eight women and four men deliberated for about 10 hours over three days. Valero, a 48-year-old mother of three and grandmother of eight, was stabbed 29 times with a sharpened screwdriver. Her son, Ray Valero, found her body March 17, 2005, in the living room of her apartment in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue. The verdicts “lift another weight off our chest, but there’s more to go,” said Ray Valero, speaking for the victim’s relatives after Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Gardner told jurors to return today for the trial’s penalty phase. If court-appointed defense attorneys Ray Bassel and Barbara Garland convince jurors that there is reason Cazares should not be put to death, they must choose between life in prison without parole or life in prison with parole possible after 30 years. A separate jury found Jorge Reyes Sanchez guilty of the same charges in January and determined he should spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. They heard testimony that Reyes, 23, was a shy follower who didn’t have a history of violent crimes. For a death sentence, jurors must unanimously agree that a defendant would probably commit future violent crimes. Cazares testified during his trial that he did not know Valero, had never seen her before or been in her apartment. He explained that he was with a friend at the Plaid Pantry less than a block from Valero’s home about the time of her death buying cookies before using methamphetamine. However, Omar Ortiz, the defendant’s alibi witness, testified he did not see Cazares in March 2005. Chief Deputy District Attorney Rob Bletko said both Reyes and Sanchez were seen with jewelry missing from Valero’s apartment. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 27, a third co-defendant in the murder, testified at both murder trials and is scheduled for his own next month. Lugardo said he was waiting outside when Cazares and Reyes went around the back of Valero’s apartment to break in so they could steal something to trade for meth.From The Oregonian of Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Meth user sentenced to life in prison The family of a murdered Hillsboro grandmother says life is more than the victim got By Holly Danks HILLSBORO — Life in prison isn’t a severe enough punishment for the men who killed Jessie Mary Valero, says the family of the murdered Hillsboro grandmother. Jurors on Tuesday spared Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez, 29, the death penalty in Valero’s 2005 stabbing but decided he should never be paroled from prison. They deliberated for about four hours over two days. Cazares, whose defense focused on his untrustworthy drug-world friends and his addiction to methamphetamine, smiled while awaiting the sentence and showed no emotion when it was announced. “No matter what sentence he gets, no matter how much time he stays alive in prison, it’s still longer than my mother — she’s dead,” Ray Valero, the victim’s son, said after the jury announced the punishment. Ray Valero found his 48-year-old mother dead on the living room floor in her small Park Side Apartment, in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue, early on March 17, 2005. Investigators said she had been stabbed 29 times with at least one sharpened screwdriver, both from the front and the back. Cazares and two co-defendants were arrested months later. Jorge Reyes Sanchez, 23, was found guilty in February of the same charges as Cazares: aggravated murder, murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. He also was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, 27, is scheduled for trial May 22 on murder charges. He testified at the two trials that he, Reyes and Cazares routinely broke into cars to steal property to trade for meth. Lugardo said that the three went to Valero’s apartment but that he stayed outside when Reyes and Cazares went around back to break in. Lugardo testified that he ran when he heard the sounds of a struggle inside. In other key testimony, Lugardo said Cazares threatened him a few days later, saying he had “killed the lady” and the same thing would happen to him if he told anyone. Friends of Cazares and Reyes also tied them to Valero through her stolen jewelry. Reyes later traded a gold Virgin Mary pendant for meth, his drug supplier testified. In a photo of Valero holding one of her eight grandchildren, she is shown wearing the religious pendant. But jurors in each trial decided the defendants would not be continuing threats to society. To find in favor of the death penalty, all 12 jurors would have to answer that the defendant would probably commit violent crimes in the future. Dan Hesson, Washington County deputy district attorney, tried to convince jurors in his closing argument that Cazares was a danger in the general prison population because so much meth is available at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Barbara Garland, one of Cazares’ court-appointed attorneys, acknowledged that he was “a perfect poster child to discourage people from using drugs.” But she argued that he should be given the chance to turn his life around and have hope of getting out of prison after 30 years, an option the jury rejected. Cazares testified that he had never seen Valero or been to her apartment. Before jurors began deliberating Friday on the penalty, Cazares said he got down on his knees and prayed every night to “ask for forgiveness if at any time in my drug addiction I cause pain or harm to another person.” He said he recognized that “at one point I was selfish” because he let drugs have “a great impact on my life.” Hesson told jurors that Cazares fell far short of taking responsibility for the murder. Sentencing will be May 7.From The Oregonian of Tuesday, May 8, 2007 Judge slams cell door on murderer Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez gets life in prison without parole in the death of Jessie Mary Valero By Amy Hsuan HILLSBORO — At least Jose Guadalupe Cazares Mendez will get to see his family, even if it’s from behind prison bars, say his murder victim’s relatives. But Jessie Mary Valero’s family will never again see, touch or hug the 48-year-old grandmother who was stabbed to death by Cazares and a friend in 2005 to fuel their need for methamphetamine. On Monday, Cazares stoically faced his sentence before Judge Mark Gardner, bringing to close the second of three trials in the Hillsboro woman’s brutal murder. Cazares, found guilty of aggravated murder, murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the crimes he committed with Jorge Reyes Sanchez. In February, Reyes was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Separate juries bypassed execution when they decided both men’s sentences. The two men were accused of stabbing Valero 29 times with a sharpened screwdriver while robbing her Park Side apartment. Jose Luis Lugardo Madero, who still faces a murder trial in Valero’s death, testified that he, Cazares and Reyes routinely broke into cars to steal items to trade for meth. Lugardo said he waited outside Valero’s apartment while the two men broke into the building. When he heard the sounds of a struggle inside, Lugardo said he ran. At Monday’s sentencing, family members of Valero spoke of a woman who was deeply committed to her close-knit family. Valero was a mother of three and grandmother of eight. “He’ll have his life day and night sitting in his cell,” said Valero’s daughter Anita Valero. “But my mother won’t be around for my daughter’s 15th birthday. While he’s in jail, he’ll be able to see and get visits from his family. But I won’t see my mother ever again.” Valero’s body was discovered March 17, 2005, by her son Ray Valero under blankets and pillows in her apartment in the 800 block of Southeast 11th Avenue. “Our family has suffered a great loss,” Ray Valero said. “It’s going to take us a long time to heal.” Gardner said that the most important thing for Cazares to do was to accept responsibility for his actions. “Until you come to grips with what you did, there will be no peace for you,” the judge said. “You’ve done a terrible thing.” Cazares declined to respond or make a statement when offered the chance Monday. Lugardo, the third defendant, is scheduled for trial May 22.

May Day march crowd in downtown Portland estimated at 3,000 to 5,000
A mix of union leaders, migrant workers, activists, Amnesty International representatives, bakery workers and black-clad anarchists marched through the streets of downtown Portland this evening as part of the city’s annual May Day celebration. No official crowd estimates were available…

More vignettes from rallies, marches
Here are more vignettes from the several thousand who gathered for May Day protests in dowtown Portland and Salem: * Alberto Benitez, wearing an American flag across his chest and a Mexican flag hanging from his belt loop, joined the…

“They need to know where they come from.”
Lucia Lopez and her two sons prepare to march. “Si. Se Puede!” Yes. We can do it. The crowd is responding, fists pumping skyward, to a speaker calling for the legalization of millions of immigrant workers. Lucia Lopez and her…

lion attack
lion attack

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Portland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.