Hundreds of Portland-area felony cases dismissed over public defender staffing shortages

A shortage of public defenders in Oregon's Multnomah County, where Portland is located, spurred local judges to dismiss more than 200 felony cases since February, some of which involved alleged beatings of children and other violent attacks, a new analysis shows.

"The purpose of the court system is to get people the help they need," Tri-Met bus driver Chris Day told Oregon Live. "And if they’re not getting the help, things are just going to get worse."

Hundreds of Portland-area felony cases dismissed over public defender staffing shortages

Portland's legal system doesn't have enough public defenders, so they are dropping charges (FELONY charges).

of felonies and 75 accused of misdemeanors that were dismissed in the county by judges since February due to a lack of public defenders.

The outlet noted that most cases involved accusations of car thefts, people fleeing the police or illegal possession of firearms. However, other cases involved "person crimes," where suspects were charged with beating, assaulting or threatening a victim in the county.

they can re-file the charges if/when the PD situation changes.

in what used to be one of the most highly regarded cities in the US

anyone with personal experience with?

a reply to: ElGoobero

I live in Oregon and this is a huge thing on the whole West coast of Oregon!

Portland, Eugene, Springfield, Roseburg...they all are dealing with it in the same way!

I read local daily news articles about this and truthfully it's sad. The area I live in has almost become completely lawless for lack of a better term! Child molesters arrested and released three days later because we (Oregon) also enacted the "no-bail" law and has become the crime capital of the nation!

Drugs decriminalized...no prosecution...crime through the roof...new firearm bans...seems that nothing is punishable in this state and the ones that suffer are the law abiding citizens as opposed to the criminals.

It's a very scary place to live these days!

I feel sorry for the victims. They're being victimized twice.

More states are adopting these insane policies. Come January, Illinois is doing much the same as New York, California and Oregon. You would think they would look at what is happening in states that have these policies and say "Nope" but they seem to believe that not punishing criminals will keep them from committing more crimes.

Liberals are all for this kind of thing till they are the victim, then they "Want Something Done".

I was going to link to a tiktok video...but never mind I guess...can't figure it out!

Here's a youtube version of the story though!

"The purpose of the court system is to get people the help they need," Tri-Met bus driver Chris Day told Oregon Live. "And if they’re not getting the help, things are just going to get worse."

The first job of the criminal court is to uphold the laws and hold those accountable for breaking them, to keep society safe. Second is to determine if there is a possibility for rehabilitation. That quote is a microcosm of the root issue with these leftist “utopias”. That’s why their cities are garbage, they don’t understand how truly violent and depraved many of these individuals are. Just give a murderer or child rapist a big hug and stern talking to. That’s all they really need right?!

California is releasing 7,000 sex offenders this week, many of them pedophiles. There seems to be a concerted effort in the US to turn us into a lawless society, rife with crime.

There's only one reason for doing this that I can think of. Politicians play dirty to get what they want, and they want everybody to get onboard with more surveillance and a disarmed population.

People will be begging for authoritarian rule when they're done turning society upside down.

a reply to: ElGoobero

Born and raised in Portland 31 years. Haven’t been back in almost 12 years, due to what a sh!thole it’s become. It used to be a truly amazing city.

Both my kids were born there too. I’d love to take them back and show them all the cool spots. Problem is, all the cool spots are gone and boarded up, due to the inmates being in charge of the asylum. Hey who’d doesn’t like walking into a restaurant, with human feces piled up outside the front door? It’s great for the appetite.

Eventually vigilante justice will rear its ugly head. It’s only a matter of time before the people take justice into their own hands. If you study history, It’s happened all over the world.

a reply to: ElGoobero

I'm starting to get the distinct impression that Oregon just generally sucks. Sorry to anyone who lives there, but you should weigh your options very carefully.

So a guy could kill a public defender and have his charges dropped due to the shortage of public defenders?

Perfect planned shortages in this 21st Century 😀

originally posted by: Creep Thumper
I feel sorry for the victims. They're being victimized twice.

And the next new victims too 😧

originally posted by: bounder
So a guy could kill a public defender and have his charges dropped due to the shortage of public defenders?

Any public defender who isn't packing as a precaution, can't be trusted with negotiating law because they obviously lack the most basic sense. At that point the weak are just weeding themselves out.

originally posted by: DAVID64
More states are adopting these insane policies. Come January, Illinois is doing much the same as New York, California and Oregon. You would think they would look at what is happening in states that have these policies and say "Nope" but they seem to believe that not punishing criminals will keep them from committing more crimes.

Liberals are all for this kind of thing till they are the victim, then they "Want Something Done".

Look at who is running this country now. They are nothing but criminals in charge, put there by massive criminal-ness. They rejoice this behavior. They celebrate as our country burns to the ground.

originally posted by: DAVID64
More states are adopting these insane policies. Come January, Illinois is doing much the same as New York, California and Oregon. You would think they would look at what is happening in states that have these policies and say "Nope" but they seem to believe that not punishing criminals will keep them from committing more crimes.

Liberals are all for this kind of thing till they are the victim, then they "Want Something Done".

But any sane and logical person would take one look at the data and realize that NOT punishing the criminals is what has led to the massive increase in crime. So I find it difficult to believe that's what ANYONE believes.

I think it's just that the liberal left has gotten so powerful and so greedy that they continue to spur the decline of society simply to line their pockets. The new agendas that will be in place - and they WILL be in time - will pull more money from the taxpayers than ever before while locking them in permanently to secure the new safety policies.

It's always about the money.

And instead of going after the criminals, they're going after guns. Which as everyone knows, doesn't work unless you get rid of ALL guns and that simply isn't going to happen, thank God. Also when you keep releasing the criminals to commit more crimes, it doesn't help with the work loads the prosecutors are having to deal with.

“Historically, trial unit DDAs have heavy workloads. But in the past two years, the significant rise in homicides and violent felonies combined with the backlog of cases led to unsustainable workloads,” the employee’s statement said. “Exhaustion and burnout make it impossible to give our best to vulnerable victims.”

Snowden also read the statement of a deputy DA who recently left after 20 years in that office.

“The feeling in the office at the time I left was that dedicated, public service-minded people were being ground into the dirt under the crushing weight of exploding workloads caused by staffing reductions,” the deputy DA said. “It’s just not sustainable.”

www.wweek.com...

Portland is now a mini Chicago.

Let them wait in jail until a public defender is available. Maybe they get time served? Maybe they learn that actions have consequences?

originally posted by: Ahabstar
Let them wait in jail until a public defender is available. Maybe they get time served? Maybe they learn that actions have consequences?

Sounds good but what about those that are truly innocent?

I mean such things do happen...people wrongfully arrested and such...can you imagine the infringement on a persons rights at that point? Talk about lawless...criminals could care less about laws but jeez...let's not turn into criminals too!

Certainly we want to uphold a persons presumption of innocence until proven guilty! Alternatively executions in the streets for all who are suspected of crime...I certainly don't want to be a part of that!

a reply to: jerryznv

And thus the motivation for more public defenders.

But is it that there is a drastic loss of numbers or recent upsurge in crime the actual problem?

Portland is a very progressive city. They should abolish the police. Then they can abolish the public defender and prosecutors offices. Hell they can even abolish the county court. Then this problem will cease to exist. No more shortages due to lack of need!

Spend the savings on hormone therapy for toddlers, buying mansions for “marginalised groups”, fund a Twitter competitor, sponsor some Nazi in a war or whatever nonsense the talking heads have told them to support this week.