1/14/23 News Update

RACIAL PROFILING <<The Portland Police Bureau received improved grades on last year’s annual report from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission analyzing racial bias in traffic stops by law enforcement agencies across the state. In prior years, the CJC found Black drivers were more likely to be arrested following a traffic stop by PPB officers. No …

1/13/23 News Update

OPACITY <<Portland police Officer Joshua Dyk shot and killed 40-year-old Aaron Stanton on July 27 in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Southeast Portland. Less than four months later, Officer Christopher Sathoff fatally shot Immanuel Clark-Johnson, 30, near Reed College. But the public did not learn these names until December, when the Portland Police Bureau identified Dyk …

1/12/23 News Update

SUSPENDED <<A recent candidate for Clark County sheriff, currently employed as a Vancouver officer, has been suspended from police work and is subject to four separate internal investigations that have been launched since September. Cpl. Rey Reynolds has had his “police officer powers” suspended and is on administrative leave, according to a recent email circulating …

1/7/23 News Update

LAWYER SHORTAGE <<The number of defendants held in Oregon jails without legal representation has tripled within the past two months. As of Thursday, 77 defendants are languishing behind bars – their criminal cases at a standstill – because there are no public defenders available to represent them. The longest a defendant has been jailed without …

1/6/23 News Update

BANK ARSON <<The Portland Fire Investigations Unit released surveillance photos of a man suspected of arson at a bank in Southeast Portland in late December. Portland Fire and Rescue crews responded around 3:13 a.m. to a fire at Bank of America on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and Southeast 38th Avenue on Dec. 31, 2021. Firefighters reported …

1/5/23 News Update

POLICE SHOOTING <<A Boardman Police officer shot at a suspect Wednesday before taking him into custody in Morrow County. The suspect and the officers were not injured. The officers tried to contact 39-year-old Matthew Lous Spargo during a traffic stop about a violation to a restraining order when the shooting happened. Spargo was taken into …

1/1/23 News Update

JURIES <<Hundreds of felony convictions became invalid Friday after the Oregon Supreme Court struck down all nonunanimous jury verdicts reached before the practice was banned two years ago. The retroactive ruling applies to all split-jury convictions reached during the 86-year stretch when Oregon was one of only two states, alongside Louisiana, to allow such verdicts. …

12/30/22 News Update

BROWN HOPE <<The embattled racial justice nonprofit Brown Hope delayed the $2,000 monthly stipends that it promised to 25 Black families after its bank froze its account, an email obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows. Black Resilience Fund Program Manager Alexandrea Wilson wrote in the Dec. 21 email to grant recipients that Brown Hope’s bank was …

12/29/22 News Update

HATE CRIME << West Linn family said they feel targeted by a racial slur written on a neighbor’s house. The family who feels like the racist language written on a house on Sunset Avenue is directed towards them tells FOX 12 not enough is being done to keep them safe. The Channel family said they’ve …