Outrageous: Serial Rapist Gets Sentenced Reduced, Almost Freed – With Video
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My state…Oregon…been here 22 years this weekend…when I saw this my jaw dropped, I am outraged…
In a perfect world, Richard Troy Gillmore would die in prison. The Portland serial rapist would serve all 60 years of his original sentence and grow old behind bars, no longer a danger to the community or the people he terrorized.
In the real world, Gillmore may leave prison this year — more than three decades too early, looking as fit as he did during his days as the city’s notorious Jogger Rapist.
Oregon’s parole board should prevent this early release from happening. Just as important, the powerful and unelected three-member board should welcome an outside review. Oregon needs an oversight board that is as responsive to victims and the public as it is to predatory criminals like Gillmore.
A judge sentenced Gillmore in 1987 to a maximum of 60 years in prison for breaking into a Portland house and raping Tiffany Edens, then a seventh-grade girl. The judge imposed a tough sentence for one very good reason: Gillmore had admitted to assaulting at least seven other women during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but Oregon’s short time limits for prosecuting rape prevented additional charges for those other crimes.
Within a year, the Oregon parole board slashed Gillmore’s maximum sentence in half.
Gillmore applied for early release when Edens was still a teenager. He kept applying until finally, last year, the board ignored the experts’ warnings and approved his request. The parole board’s baffling decision compelled Edens, now a 35-year-old mother, to come forward and try to correct the mistake before Gillmore left prison.
No crime victim should have to work this hard.
No crime victim should be expected to do the state’s heavy lifting.
By fighting back, Edens exposed several problems. For starters, the parole board failed to notify the victim on time. It placed strict limits on victim testimony. It disregarded alarming psychological evaluations. It approved a release without the assurance of adequate community supervision.
These failings violate both the spirit and the letter of the law.
But at the very least, the parole board should be more transparent to the public, more responsive to victims and more aware of statutory requirements. The board also should read psychological evaluations more carefully: All three clinicians who examined Gillmore in the past year say he is a danger to the community with a high likelihood of raping again.
Parole Board Chairman Steve Powers says he’s open to suggestions and willing to work with the 2009 Legislature. His leadership is commendable. The parole board should reverse the Gillmore decision and require the serial rapist to stay in prison. Then the board should welcome a long-overdue review.
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