Woke Portland DA pushes for reduced sentences for violent offenders, including murderer, on his way out of office

With just a few days left in office, the lame-duck district attorney in Portland, Oregon, has pushed for a judge to reduce the sentences of several violent offenders, including a man involved in the murder and sexual assault of an elderly woman.

Mike Schmidt has been the district attorney of Multnomah County, Oregon, for more than four years. During that time, he has taken a far-left approach to law enforcement, working "to make the criminal legal system more equitable," according to his official bio.

'The sentence that he received at the time, a lot of people would have believed was too light.'

It seems that "equitable," soft-on-crime approach did not sit well with voters, who went with challenger Nathan Vasquez, a former Republican who ran as an independent, instead of Schmidt in November.

With Vasquez poised to take over his job on January 6, Schmidt has made one last push for reducing the sentences of eight criminals under Senate Bill 819.

Among the offenders whom Schmidt hopes to help is Frank Swopes Jr., 62, who was convicted of felony murder in the death of 75-year-old Jean Stevenson in December 1993.

The details of the case are gruesome. Swopes and an accomplice broke into Stevenson's home, tied the terrified woman to her bed, stole her wedding ring, and proceeded to sexually assault her, KATU reported. Stevenson later died of asphyxiation after Swopes' accomplice pushed her to the floor, the New York Post said.

Thus far, Swopes has served 32 years of his 35-year sentence, but Schmidt hopes that he will be released early. The prosecutor in the case, former Deputy District Attorney Jim McIntyre, called the attempt to reduce Swopes' sentence "unconscionable."

"The sentence that he received at the time, a lot of people would have believed was too light," McIntyre said, according to KATU. "And he's going to have three more years to serve, and that's exactly what he should serve."

Another convict on Schmidt's list is Shane Ebberts, who pled guilty to first- and second-degree assault in connection with an attack on a college student in 1995. Ebberts was 17 at the time.

Ebberts has already served his sentence of seven and a half years, but Schmidt wants to give him the opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea and instead plead guilty to second-degree attempted assault, the Post said.

Evan Gardner, one of Ebberts' victims, is incensed about the move to expunge the first- and second-degree assault convictions from Ebberts' record in favor of the lesser charge.

"As a group, they inflicted irreparable harm that will stay with both of us and our families and our extended families forever," Gardner said, according to the Post. "It shattered my feeling of safety."

'This is the same work we’ve been doing throughout my term.'

DA-elect Vasquez further argued before Multnomah County Judge Melvin Oden-Orr that many of the victims in the cases Schmidt put forward have not been contacted as required by law.

"It just has all the appearance of being a very last-minute giveaway," Vasquez said.

"They’re extremely violent individuals who have committed horrible crimes, and they’re being given some kind of a break."

Between concerns about victim notification and the offenders themselves, Judge Oden-Orr elected to postpone a decision about resentencing most of them until February 13.

In response to the judge's decision, Schmidt indicated that calling for leniency for violent criminals is just part of his job.

"Today, the court held hearings in several SB 819 cases and agreed that charges could be changed or dismissed to allow people to move on with their lives with clean records in recognition that they had turned their lives around," Schmidt said in a statement, according to KGW. "I hope that the court will thoughtfully consider and grant the petitions."

Schmidt's statement did not offer any evidence that the offenders had, indeed, "turned their lives around," though Schmidt noted in a separate statement that "each of these petitions have been considered in a thorough process over a number of months" that includes the input of a community advisory board.

"This is the same work we’ve been doing throughout my term."

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