Oregon
Oregon public defenders warn of ongoing crisis as defendants remain without representation
The exterior of Deschutes Defenders office at 215 NW Greenwood Ave., in Bend, Ore., on Sept. 2, 2024. This week, Oregon’s state court administrator warns of the statewide shortage of public defenders that has left many defendants without legal representation.
Winston Szeto / OPB
The number of people who have been accused of a crime and are without an attorney — a constitutional right — has reached an all-time high in Oregon.
In the last month alone, the number of unrepresented individuals increased by 11%, Nancy Cozine, the state’s top court administrator, told state lawmakers this week.
Oregon’s shortage of public defenders has been a high-profile problem for several years. But the latest numbers illustrate the disheartening reality that even after lawmakers funneled more than $90 million more into the system in 2023 and dedicated brain power to fixing the problem. It’s not been enough.
As of the end of January, there were 4,178 individuals who didn’t have an attorney statewide. The highest number of individuals in this situation are in Multnomah (1,172), Marion (756), Jackson (754), Washington (628), Douglas (253) and Coos counties (99).
Another eyebrow-raising statistic: 731 people who have been without representation for more than six months. Most of the people are currently not incarcerated; 191 are in custody.
The bulk of the charges are driving under the influence of intoxication, which is nearly 17% of the cases. For out-of-custody felony cases, the average wait time to get an attorney has increased to an average of 110 days.
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Amanda Dalton, a lobbyist with the Oregon District Attorneys Association, told lawmakers this week, it’s not just misdemeanor crimes that are going unchecked. There are worse crimes where people are being let out of custody because there are no attorneys. Like a case in Douglas County, where a person is being accused of raping a minor and spent 22 months without counsel. The person was released because no attorney was present.
The problems in the system were identified years ago. In 2018, a report found that Oregon’s system of state public defense is so bureaucratic and structurally flawed it couldn’t guarantee clients were getting the legal defense they are owed — a requirement of the U.S. Constitution. The constitution requires a defendant who cannot afford to hire their own attorney to be provided counsel at public expense.
In 2023, lawmakers made substantive changes to the system; although even then there were calls from public defenders that they didn’t go far enough. The public defense commission, the independent body that is appointed by the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court, said they are in the midst of trying to fix a complicated system that has been broken for years and it’s a long process. The commission hired a new leader in late 2022, after the head of the commission was ousted.
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Most recently, there has been some high-profile disagreements over how to frame the crisis. During an interview with OPB last month, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez offered a sharp critique of many of the county’s public defenders.
“I call it the work stoppage,” said Vasquez, who took office last month.. “I hear it referred to as a defense attorney crisis. I don’t accept that. I don’t agree with that terminology. I see it much differently.”
Following the comments, many public defenders have expressed concern and anger over Vasquez’s remarks.
Stacey Reding, executive director of Metropolitan Defenders Inc., said “calling it a work stoppage is insulting.”
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Reding said she’s had high turnover in her office. New attorneys often have less experience, she said, and can’t take as many cases as the lawyers they’re replacing.
“Our district attorney’s office could take actions that would help with the public defense crisis,” Reding said. “In Multnomah County, our attorneys prepare a lot of cases for trial that turn into dismissals on the eve of trial. If our district attorney’s office could identify those cases that are dismissals much earlier in the process and dismiss them, that would save many hours of defense attorney time that we could then turn around and focus on taking new cases.”
The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.
Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.
On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.
In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.
During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.
The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.
“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”
Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.
Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.
In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
Umatilla, Morrow counties establish Young Republicans of Oregon chapter
Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, March 25, 2026
IRRIGON — Young Republicans living in Umatilla and Morrow counties now can join a local chapter of the statewide Young Republicans of Oregon organization.
The Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will advance Republican values and leadership in young residents through political training, networking opportunities and connection to Republican leaders. The group is focused on young adults, generally attracting college-aged people, though it includes people aged 18 to 40.
The five Young Republicans of Oregon members living in Umatilla and Morrow counties elected three officers to lead their new chapter. Irrigon’s Evan Purves was elected chair, with Connor Roberts of Hermiston as his vice chair and Kaelyn Moore of Milton-Freewater serving as secretary.
“I am super grateful for this opportunity to lead my neighbors,” Purves said. “It’s going to be really fun. We have some good events planned.”
Purves, 19, is a student at Blue Mountain Community College who eventually hopes to pursue a four-year degree in public administration. He initially became interested in the Young Republicans during an internship with Oregon state Rep. Greg Smith, of Heppner. He said it was an experience that showed him how the legislature works.
The internship also inspired him to step into a leadership role with the Young Republicans and help establish a local chapter of the organization. The newest chapter of the Young Republicans of Oregon, which was announced Monday, March 23, has been in the works since November 2025.
The Young Republicans of Oregon State Chair, Tanner Elliott, said the new chapter — the fourth chapter statewide — indicates momentum for conservative values.
“In less than a year, we’ve continued expanding because young conservatives are stepping up and getting involved in their communities,” Elliott said. “I want to congratulate the chapter’s leadership team on their election and especially commend their new chair Evan Purves for taking on this role. I’m confident this group will make a meaningful impact in Eastern Oregon and help drive our organization forward.”
Future plans in Umatilla, Morrow counties
The leadership team of UMYR already is making efforts to effect change.
In early May, Purves said, Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will host a door knocking campaign in support of Smith’s reelection campaign. There also will be an official kickoff event the same weekend celebrating the new chapter and outlining priorities for the future.
“If there’s anything that we might struggle with is membership,” he said. “The recruiting part is us going out there and hosting events and socials, having opportunities for people to come out and do something fun that anybody’s invited to.”
Regarding other priorities, voter engagement is important to Purves,
“Even though we live in a big conservative area, there’s not a lot of politically engaged people, especially in my generation,” he said. “We want to get them involved.”
He said one of his concerns is businesses leaving the state due to policies that aren’t friendly to corporations, a common issue raised by Republican lawmakers. The decisions being made impact every community, he said, and he wants to have a say in what the leaders are doing.
“These bills affect all of us,” he said. “It’s just important to get people involved and get people to vote and be a part of it.”
People interested in updates on the efforts of the Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans can follow the group on Facebook or Instagram or become a member at yro.gop.
Doorbell camera shows fireball streaking across the sky over Stow, Ohio,
Thousands of people across eastern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania heard a loud boom that the National Weather Service (NWS) said may have been caused by a meteor.
Yet another meteor has entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Onlookers across parts of California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon spotted another space rock streaking across the sky on Monday, March 23.
Jason Jenkins, who spotted the fireball while driving to work, told ABC News that the meteor reminded him of a “lightning strike because it was so bright.”
“The video doesn’t do justice on how bright and close it seemed,” Jenkins added.
The American Meteor Society received 137 witness reports and 11 videos chronicling the brief but dazzling moment.
Watch ‘fireball’ streak across Oregon skyline
Videos show green fireball streaking across night sky
A green fireball was seen crossing the sky in the Pacific Northwest.
From northeast Ohio to Texas, the March 23 event was the latest in a series of sightings across the U.S. this week. Those sightings were characterized by a “loud boom” and a rogue meteor fragment.
Hundreds of people in California, Nevada and Arizona captured another “shooting star” on camera this last weekend. The vast majority of reports came out of California.
A bright, glowing orb zipping through the night sky, trailed closely by a signature fiery “tail,” is seen in various clips shared by awestruck residents over the course of the week. Some even reported a greenish-yellow glow as the space rock lit up the sky for about five seconds.
What is a meteor?
Meteors, like comets or asteroids, are space rocks that orbit the sun, according to NASA.
Often called “shooting stars,” meteors come from meteoroids − small, often pebble-sized pieces that break off asteroids or comets. When a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes a meteor.
Because meteors enter the atmosphere at such high speeds, the space rocks burn up as they fall from our sky, creating the streak of light we commonly know as a shooting star or “fireball.”
If a meteor survives the entry and ends up on the ground (or lodged in someone’s roof), it is then called a meteorite.
Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY
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