Portland’s DA is seeking to help a host of violent criminals during his final days in office after voters fired him for being too progressive.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt is petitioning a judge to either reduce or revoke charges for eight people, including some convicted of murder, violent assaults and robbery, according to Oregon Live.
Under Senate Bill 819, which was passed in 2021, district attorneys and convicts can jointly ask a judge to revisit a conviction or prison sentence.
Schmidt, 43, is planning to use the legislation to help criminals including Frank F. Swopes Jr., who was convicted of suffocating an elderly woman to death in 1993 and sexually assaulting another pensioner one week later.
Swopes was found guilty of murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, three counts of first-degree burglary, kidnapping, unauthorized use of a vehicle and eluding police, after killing Jean L. Stevenson, 75, during a robbery at her Portland home.
Along with his co-conspirators, Swopes took her wedding ring and $8. Stevenson died after his co-defendant pushed to to the ground on Swopes’ instruction to ‘keep her quiet’, according to evidence seen by Oregon Live.
Swopes said he never touched Stevenson. But he took part in another burglary a week later, and tied a 76-year-old woman to her bedframe for 90 minutes and sexually assaulted her while thieving her possessions, per court records.
Prosecutors said he ‘terrorized’ the woman until she gave him her ATM code, bound her hands and feet, stripped her and then ‘either urinated or ejaculated on her’.
A Democrat Portland DA is making moves to free a wave of violent criminals from jail during his final days in office. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt (pictured) is petitioning a judge to either reduce or revoke charges for eight people
Shane Ebberts (pictured), who was convicted in 1996 of first-degree assault for bludgeoning a community college student with a mallet handle in a random attack, is on Schmidt’s pardon list
Aliza B. Kaplan, director of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Criminal Justice Reform Clinic and a law professor who helped write the bill which allows Schmidt’s petitions, argued in favor of Swope, who burgled homes to fund his cocaine habit.
She told Oregon live that the criminal, now 62, served 32 years of an ‘excessive’ 35-year sentence despite the fact she says he ‘did not intend nor cause’ the victim’s death.
Meanwhile, his co-defendant caused the death but got away with an early release from a 17-year sentence as part of a plea deal.
‘He has spent those 32 years in prison very productively. He is an ideal candidate for SB 819, which provides an opportunity to resentence him and let him finally go home to his family,’ Kaplan said.
The victims in Swopes’ cases have died while he was in prison, according to his petition.
Shane Ebberts, who was convicted in 1996 of first-degree assault for bludgeoning a community college student with a mallet handle in a random attack, is also on Schmidt’s pardon list.
Ebberts was 16 at the time of the crime and he became one of the first people to be prosecuted under Measure 11, which allows youths over 15 who have been accused of serious crimes to be tried in adult court, where sentences are more severe.
The youngster was found guilty of assaulting David Clarke, 25, and Evan Gardner, 22, on a field at Mt. Hood Community College on May 5, 1995.
Ebberts hit Gardner on the head with a mallet handle, while his friend Brian Lawler swung a baseball bat at Clarke’s head. The victims were randomly attacked as they were scoping out the field for a frisbee golf court, prosecutors said.
Now 46, Ebberts has served his jail time, but a joint petition by Schmidt and his defense lawyer is asking a judge to allow him to withdraw his guilty pleas for assault and enter a new plea to a lesser charge of attempted second-degree assault instead.
Ebberts was 16 at the time of the crime and he became one of the first people to be prosecuted under Measure 11, which allows youths over 15 who have been accused of serious crimes to be tried in adult court, where sentences are more severe
DA Schmidt, 43, is planning to free criminals including Frank F. Swopes Jr., who was convicted of suffocating an elderly woman to death in 1993 and sexually assaulting another pensioner
The petition recognizes that the victims are opposed to throwing out the convictions, but claims the black mark against Ebberts’ name ‘no longer advances the interests of justice’, per Oregon Live.
If granted, the move would allow Ebberts to later ask to expunge the crime from his record.
Chuck French, a retired Multnomah County prosecutor who handled Ebberts case, told Oregon Live he did not agree with the move by Schmidt. ‘This was a terribly traumatic experience for the victims,’ French said.
One of the victims, Gardner, said he was outraged when he was told about his attacker’s petition on December 23. He said he still remembers hearing the crack of the baseball bat against his friend’s skull, before he was hit by Ebberts.
‘As a group, they inflicted irreparable harm that will stay with both of us and our families and our extended families forever,’ Gardner told Oregon Live. ‘It shattered my feeling of safety.’
Other criminals Schmidt wants to help out include Allen Wayne Howard, 57, who wants his 41-year sentence for robbing Roosters Pub in 2001 reduced.
Howard, who ha served 23 years of the sentence so far, allegedly fired a gun at the cement ground while threatening to shoot the nine people inside.
His application for review argues that a single robbery conviction today with no injuries would be punishable by a 10 year prison sentence – less than a quarter of his term. At least two of the victims are opposed to his appeal, according to Oregon Live.
Other joint petitioners who want their convictions thrown out include Tanya Stoudamire, 52, who was found guilty of child neglect in 2006, after letting her children live in a home where drugs were sold.
Incoming DA Nathan Vasquez unseated Schmidt after promising a tough on crime approach
Aaron D. Kent, 42, also wants his 2002 conviction for delivery of a controlled substance within 1000 feet of a school cast aside.
Adding insult to injury for victims, the joint petitions were only filed last minute, prompting critics to accuse Schmidt of trying to push the changes in undetected through the holiday season and during his final days in office.
His replacement, Nathan Vasquez, who takes office on January 6, blasted the move.
‘These have all the appearance of a last-minute giveaway,’ he told Oregon Live. ‘They’re extremely violent individuals who have committed horrible crimes, and they’re being given some kind of a break.’
Schmidt’s office has said the petitions, which are set to be heard in court on Monday, are in line with previous petitions he has backed over the past year.
‘We have an established and extensive process, including input from our community advisory board,’ he told Oregon Live over email.
‘Each of these petitions have been considered in a thorough process over a number of months. This is the same work we’ve been doing throughout my term.’
Vasquez was voted in as Portland’s new DA earlier this year, after Schmidt’s soft-on-crime policies were blamed for ruining the city.
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