gdp's Comments

KATU - Portland, OR : Softball coach takes plea deal in nude photo case | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Spo

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 20:47:19 +0000

Yes, coastda1 IS Josh Marquis. Mr. Clark does not have "jail hanging over his head." He has 2 years PRISON which is essentially what we used to call a suspended execution of sentence meaning if revoked he WILL do 2 years, not just a couple weeks in jail. In concept I agree with posters who say that people in positions of public trust should get enhanced sentences. However Official Misconduct is only a misdemeanor usually carrying minimal jail time, not even a felony. To those doubtful about plea bargain rates just go to the State Court Administrator's website which tracks rates of jury trials for each judicial district and statewide. The last year for which there are full year stats are 2010 http://courts.oregon.gov/OJD/docs/OSCA/2010_Stats... In my county, Clatsop we tried more than average more than average of criminal cases - about 7%. (In the first half of 2011 we tried almost 10%) You will see that the state-wide average is 4.5% Any other case was either dismissed or resolved by some sort of plea negotiation.

KATU - Portland, OR : Softball coach takes plea deal in nude photo case | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Spo

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:45:27 +0000

We did subpeona boatloads of phone records. _The phone companies do NOT keep images or if they do for only a couple days. If we had the actual photos we would have had a much stronger case. This man pled guilty to a felony - Hindering Prosecution - which will prevent him from not only being a cop but most other professions. He's also convicted of Tampering With Evidence. _Realize however that Oregon sentencing laws are pretty anemic. Without a plea deal he would have been looking at 60 days in jail MAX if revoked. As is if he violates it's 2 years in prison._Whoever said they'd rather the DA go to trial and lose than plea bargain is not being very thoughtful of victims. This man and his family claimed the victim was a liar and threatened to sue. This plea means he had to plead GUILTY - the case is over - forever. I am NOT afraid to go to trial. I do it a lot. I have retried Randy Guzek for murder 3 times in 20 years In this case preserving the future of this young girl was more important than making him register as a sex offender.He is branded as a felon and has to undergo all the treatment a sex offender would have to complete.

KATU - Portland, OR : Softball coach takes plea deal in nude photo case | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Spo

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:05:11 +0000

Jennifer Clark is charged with the crime of Tampering With Evidence. This plea bargain has more prison time hanging over this man's head than he would have had if he had been convicted at trial. Oregon's sentencing guidelines are VERY lenient. He stands convicted of two crimes - one a felony. He can never be a cop again, has to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation, cannot go to Tillamook County except to visit his parents, and can never have any contact with the victim.. The plea agreement (the way 95% of all crimes in Oregon and the US are resolved) had the specific approval of the victim's family. If if was YOUR 14-year old daughter, would you rather have her torn apart in public by a defense attorney or know with absolute certainty that the man who took advantage of her was now a convicted felon, unable to ever hold a position of trust again, and facing 2 years in prison if he violates probation? (that's not MAYBE 2 years in prison - that is the set penalty if a judge revokes his probation) This case is not over so follow coverage to see what happen may happen to others.

KATU - Portland, OR : Judge orders man to serve full sentence for DUII deaths | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland New

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 22:01:22 +0000

Thanks to Judge Brownhill for making clear what the sentence originally said and as Dan reported what the original plea petition, signed by Willie AND his lawyer, related "190 months=15 years 10 months." That sort of sealed the deal. And kudoes to KATU for being the only media outside Astoria to report on this case (although others have since picked up Dan's story). More disturbing but not broadcast because of time limitations was testimony by Jayne Ferlitsch that she had been checking the prison website EVERY year for the anticipated release date. When an inmate enters the Department of Corrections (DOC) they are evaluated and for obvious reasons their sentence is calculated - based on the sentencing order. Yet for over 10 years DOC reported Willie's release date as 2016, not 2012. Suddenly in 2011 it was changed. Why? Dan was unable to get a response from DOC nor was I. For people justifiably angry about lenient treatment of repeat DUII offenders consider this: You passed, by almost 60%, Measure 73 in 2010. It called for felony treatment on third DUII conviction within 10 years (a DUII diversion does not count). Even though Kevin Mannix wrote the bill he went to the legislature and agreed with legislators to take AWAY the 16-25 month prison sentences associated with Felony DUII and limit the sentences to a MAXIMUM of 90 days in jail. Many jails have very limited space and release inmates early so now if convicted of a 4-time DUII felony DUII the defendant will likely to 13-25 months but if only a 3-time DUII, 90 days or less. The excuse was the supposedly enormous cost to locking up a a couple dozen repeat DUII felons. What is it worth to prevent more heartbreak such as that endured by the Ferlitch family? DISCLOSURE: I am Joshua Marquis, the District Attorney in Astoria

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 17:14:28 +0000

This was NOT the Courts screw-up. It was the bureaucrats at the Department of Corrections (DOC) The Judge wrote a perfectly valid 190-month sentence order handed top BOTH me as the DA AND the defense lawyer. If there was a problem we would have addressed it then. What happened was 12 years LATER DOC decides they are going to release this multiple-killer 3 years early. Since they are required to notify the DA we immediately caught it - learning off their new interpretation of the sentence for the first time, notified the victim, DOC, and when DOC didn't respond, KATU.

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 17:08:07 +0000

Well thank you, HE is. Hearing on 1/6/12. It wasn't an "oopsie" It was a perfectly valid sentencing order that everyone EXCEPT DOC understood. They seem far too anxious to get inmates out the door. In over 20+ years I've never once seen an "oopsie" that keeps an inmate in longer......

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 06:15:15 +0000

As a direct result of this case the Ferlitsch family and Crime Victims United got a law passed that a person convicted of their SECOND vehicular must now serve a minimum of 25 years in prison. Keep in mind that is also the sentence for intentional murder in Oregon. "true life" can ONLY be handed down for aggravated murder. Oregon law makes it extremely difficult to give even repeat violent offenders truly lengthy prison sentences. An there are those who think the money is wasted because supposedly we don't make them better by locking them up. I disagree and think most Oregonians do too, but watch the next couple sessions of the Oregon Legislature, particularly the Senate Judiciary Committee

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 06:10:48 +0000

I have to petition the court unless I want a 4-time killer to get out of prison three years sooner than the Judge intended. The person who interpreted the order is NOT a lawyer. The lawyers who examined it, besides the Judge, who has over 16 years as a judge would be me with 30 years, my Chief Deputy, with 30 years, and at least five other lawyers who do not work in my office. The hearing will be taking place on January 6 in Clatsop County. This is the problem with bureaucracies that don't pay close enough attention to the details. Wounds get re-opened without necessity. What we would do, what another court would do is either contact the judge or examine the record. DOC did neither. DOC made it clear the ONLY way they would revise the sentence release date is if the order were "clarified" or "amended" and since they hold Mr. Willie I have no choice, but people should know what is happening and the reaction to this story makes it pretty clear how most people feel.

KATU - Portland, OR : Kitzhaber bans executions for remainder of his term | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, S

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:31:14 +0000

That would be except Japan and India......

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:55:32 +0000

About 15 years. I have tried and won many vehicular manslaughter cases and I had lost one in Newport in 1988 on re-trial. I have charged several people with Manslaughter 1 but only one jury (State vs. Joel Guzek) returned a guilty verdict on Man1. Most vote for Man 2 because of language that requires the state to prove "circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life" which is defined nowehere in the law. I agreed to a plea bargain because of the certainty it provided and more importantly that the victim's family would not have to endure 10-20 years of appeals.

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:26:11 +0000

I don't know why "COGrammy" has such a grudge against me. Maybe I prosecuted a relative 20 years ago when I was Chief Deputy DA in Bend. The way this works is the judge prepares the order and sometime later both attorneys review it. I will be posting the actual sentencing order at www.coastda.com later today and people can decide for themselves whether the judge meant for Willie to serve ZERO time for severely injuring Angela Ferlitsch. The first time my office was aware of this "tortured interpretation" (my chief deputy's words) on 10/17/11. We immediately notified the victim and wrote a letter to DOC pointing out that the judge was RIGHT, they were WRONG, and please fix it. When they refused we filed a motion to amend and called KATU. Unlike DOC I answered Dan Tilkin's questions on camera. The system, of which I am part, has a duty to citizens generally and victims in particular. But the judge was absolutely clear in court and that could have been easily verified by either speaking with ANYONE present or doing what we all do when there is a question, reading or listening to the original transcript.

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:50:42 +0000

The judge is not responsible for any leniency in this sentence. The absolute maximum, even under Measure 11, assuming everything went perfectly AND the judge made ALL the sentences consecutive would have been 26 years. But I have been trying vehicular manslaughters for more than 20 years and because the law for Manslaughter in the First Degree has peculiar language in it, juries usually return Manslaughter 2 verdicts instead. In plea bargaining, which every DA in America does and anyone who says they don't isn't being truthful, the goal is to assure a sentence without the uncertainty of appeals (I've tried one death penalty case three times over 20 years because he keeps appealing and juries keep sentencing him to death). But the Fertlisch family did not want their family members the uncertainty and trauma of a trial and 16 years was supposed to be a lock with "no appeal" as Jayne said in Dan Tilkin's story. The first time the DA's office found out that the DOC was "interpreting" the perfectly clear order was Oct. 17, 2011 and we immediately notified the victims, then DOC, and when DOC refused to act, KATU.

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:56:23 +0000

The judge is not responsible for any leniency in this sentence. The absolute maximum, even under Measure 11, assuming everything went perfectly AND the judge made ALL the sentences consecutive would have been 26 years. But I have been trying vehicular manslaughters for more than 20 years and because the law for Manslaughter in the First Degree has peculiar language in it, juries usually return Manslaughter 2 verdicts instead. In plea bargaining, which every DA in America does and anyone who says they don't isn't being truthful, the goal is to assure a sentence without the uncertainty of appeals (I've tried one death penalty case three times over 20 years because he keeps appealing and juries keep sentencing him to death). But the Fertlisch family did not want their family members the uncertainty and trauma of a trial and 16 years was supposed to be a lock with "no appeal" as Jayne said in Dan Tilkin's story. Please think of this case when you hear some legislators say we can't afford to keep Measure 11 because it is too expensive or too harsh.

KATU - Portland, OR : Family outraged after told drunken driver getting out of prison early | Local & Regional | KATU.com

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:43:14 +0000

As the prosecutor both in 1999 and now let me set a few things straight. It was my office that notified both KATU and the victims family only AFTER we wrote to the Department of Corrections (DOC) and pointed out that there was NOTHING WRONG with the judge's sentencing order - it clearly sentenced James Willie to 190 months (almost 16 years) all under Measure 11 - meaning no early release, so-called "earned time" etc. He and all inmates get credit for time served awaiting sentencing, in his case about 6 months. But there was NO confusion by me, the judge, the victims or even the killer what his sentence was. When DOC is about to release someone they are required to notify the DA and we in turn notify the victims. Since I handled the case personally 12 years ago I remember it quite well. So did the surviving victim and her family. We TRIED to point out to DOC that several OTHER lawyers also read the order as clear as a bell but they refused leaving us with the only option (which we have done) to petition the court to modify the sentence. These were not Willie's first victims. He killed two people in a drunk driving crash in the 70s and served barely a year (the good old days some want to return to). Since then, with Jayne Ferlitsch leading the way, the Oregon Legislature made a person's SECOND vehicular manslaughter a minimum of 25 years in prison but that cannot be retroactively applied. The point is the judge did NOT write an ambiguous sentence. DOC wants to push people out the door to save money and I just happened to remember this case well enough and was still around more than a decade later. How many other cases have been "interpreted" to result in early release?