Oregon: Portland Wants Washington Court To Block Defense Attorney’s Public Record Request

Attorneys with the city of Portland are preparing to go to court in Washington state to try to stop a defense attorney from obtaining a 26-year-old police report in a child sex abuse case.

It’s an unusual case because the record Portland leaders want to withhold belongs to another jurisdiction: the Clark County Sheriff’s Department.

The record in question is a Portland Police investigation of child sex abuse that took place in 1992. The victim was under 12. The perpetrator, James Clark, pleaded no contest to attempted sex abuse in the third degree.

The Clark County sheriff’s office received a copy of the Portland Police investigation of the incident when Clark  registered there as a sex offender.

Clark is homeless and recently began camping in Portland. In 2017, he was arrested and charged with failing to register as a sex offender in Oregon, a felony. Read more…