Crime Victims United of Oregon (CVU) has issued a statement and a new ad blasting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek for her soft-on-crime policies during her time as Speaker of the Oregon House. In the ad, Danielle Tudor, a victim of the serial “jogger rapist,” blasts Kotek for failing to allow a bill ending the statute of limitations for rape. Tudor also hits the fact that Oregon will not even require her attacker to appear on a sex offender registry after his early release in December.
Tudor was 17 when Richard Gillmore broke into her home and raped her. He made her one of his many victims, one as young as 13.
Related: Overdoses Up 700% After Oregon Decriminalizes Hard Street Drugs. Officials Mystified.
How can deep blue Oregon be so anti-woman that it allows a dangerous serial rapist out of prison early without being added to the public sex offender registry? Several laws have passed over the past ten years — all of them under the speakership of now candidate for governor Tina Kotek — that have gutted the sex offender registry while allowing early release for violent repeat offenders. The blog Oregon Catalyst has a timeline of the laws that comprise the Oregon Sex Offender Leveling Program:
HISTORY OF OREGON’S SEX OFFENDER LEVELING PROGRAM
- HB 2549: Created the Sex Offender Leveling Program within the Department of Corrections in 2013. Removed the discretion for sex offender registry from elected judges to a three-tier risk program created by administrative rule with little legislative oversight. Appropriated only $250,000 additional funds. Provided that risk assessments must be completed for the then-4,000 unclassified sex offenders in Oregon. At the time, Oregon had an estimated 20,000 convicted sex offenders. Removed automatic placement of juvenile sex offenders on sex offender registration list. All current offenders were to be on the list by January 1, 2014, and offenders with older cases to be assessed by January 1, 2017. This deadline was missed.
- HB 2320: Extended the Sex Offender Leveling Program in 2015, with a deadline of January 1, 2018, to complete risk assessments. Moved the program to the State Board of Parole. Appropriated up to $3.3 million for the 2015-17 and 2017-2019 biennia.
- SB 757: Extended the Sex Offender Leveling Program in 2017, moving the deadline for completion to December 1, 2022. Appropriated no new funding.
- HB 2045: Extended the Sex Offender Leveling Program in 2019, moving the deadline for completion to December 1, 2026. Required offenders to report address changes within 10 days of moving or be subject to a fine/sanction. Appropriated no new funding even though the Parole Board said they needed 30 FTE to complete this work.
Tina Kotek, the first openly lesbian Speaker of the State House in U.S. history, served in the legislature for a single term before rising to her current role in 2013, which she held until this year. She is the longest-serving Speaker of the House in Oregon history. In that decade of control, she has presided over democratic majorities and approved every bill that hit the floor for a vote.
Related: Meet the Oldest Candidate in America
Oregon didn’t just get soft on crime after the George Floyd riots. Oregon has been actively gutting public safety for years now. Tudor and CVU further explained in a statement:
Jogger Rapist Victim Danielle Tudor Explains why WOMEN Should Oppose Tina Kotek for Governor.
Tina Kotek voted for the failed Sex Offender Registry program that will allow Richard Gillmore to leave prison on December 16th, 2022, as a Level-One Sex Offender instead of as a high-risk serial rapist. Gillmore won’t be on the public Sex Offender list when he’s released. He raped girls as young as age 13. Tudor was 17 when Gillmore broken into her home and raped her in her parents’ bedroom.
Tina Kotek as Speaker also refused to permanently lift the statute of limitations on Rape crimes. Gillmore was not prosecuted for EIGHT RAPES he admitted to, but the statute of limitations had run out.
Now Gillmore will be back on our streets, living in our community undetected.
Tudor and CVU President Steve Doell have appealed to outgoing radical progressive governor Kate Brown (D-Portland) to use her authority to direct employees of the Parole Board to intervene in Gillmore’s release:
“Governor Kate Brown has it in her immediate authority to protect Oregon women from a serial, predatory rapist whose past history of raping women and children makes it difficult to believe he won’t reoffend,” said Doell. “Under the original failed sex offender notification program, the legislature abdicated its authority to the Department of Corrections, and then later, the Parole Board, to create the program by administrative rule. That means the Governor can direct her appointees to correct this problem immediately with an emergency, temporary rule that will reassess Richard Gillmore as a high-risk sex offender until the legislature can fix the program once and for all.”
Doell noted that prior to passage of House Bill 2549 in 2013, elected judges had the discretion of which sex offenders were of high enough risk that they should be placed on the public registry for community protection. He said the three-tier program was poorly designed and has failed to keep the public safe.
Brown, one of the few elected officials in Oregon subject to term limits, has a long history of favoring criminals over victims of violent crime. This appeal is obviously a Hail Mary pass in a state that has repeatedly made national news for being soft on crime.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member