How could a man accused of punching an Asian man and his 5-year-old daughter as they biked along the Eastbank Esplanade walk free almost immediately after his arrest on suspicion of a felony bias crime over the Fourth of July holiday?
Mayor Ted Wheeler joined a chorus of finger-pointers casting widespread blame for the handling of Dylan J. Kesterson, putting police and county justice leaders on the defensive this week.
The short answer is: A complicated rubric of decisions and evaluations played into Kesterson’s release, including the county’s pretrial release procedures, the lack of Kesterson’s previous criminal record and injuries later found after a visit to the hospital by the man attacked.
Portland police arrested Kesterson, 34, last Saturday on suspicion of committing first- and second-degree bias crimes after witnesses reported he beat the family and yelled slurs in a confrontation just south of the Hawthorne Bridge.
Kesterson, who has lived on the streets of Portland for about a year after growing up in Henderson, Nevada, was released from Multnomah County’s downtown jail and failed to show up for his first court date Wednesday morning, records show.
In a statement, Wheeler called the situation “outrageous” and highlighted that Kesterson had been let go under a county program, known in the jailhouse as “recog” or, more formally, the recognizance unit.
“Each and every person in the state’s criminal justice system must work to fix these broken elements so this does not happen again,” Wheeler said.
His office didn’t respond when asked what the mayor would have done differently.
Deputy District Attorney Quinn Zemel wrote in a charging affidavit that Ryuichiro Abe’s wife, who was also on the bike ride, told officers that Abe was punched “more times than can be counted” and that Kesterson used a “hammer fist” to strike their daughter’s bike helmet.
The family also told police that Kesterson repeatedly yelled a slur targeting their race, an affidavit says. The family lives in California and is of Japanese descent. Bystanders reported Kesterson as screaming “go back to your country” and “you don’t belong here,” according to the affidavit.
A police spokesperson said officers booked Kesterson on allegations that they had probable cause for at the time, noting that Abe, 36, declined immediate medical treatment.
“The statute for assault requires that there be a physical injury, which was not apparent at the scene,” Sgt. Kevin Allen said Friday.
“I take issue with the notion that the charges were light,” Allen added, referring to the fact that first-degree bias crime is a felony offense.
The court affidavit said Abe told police he would go to the hospital and sent officers a photo the next day showing he had been diagnosed with “post-traumatic headaches and a minor concussion.”
Kesterson had already been released and then didn’t show up at a detention hearing on Wednesday. But he wasn’t on the lam for long, authorities said.
According to police, an off-duty officer spotted Kesterson about two blocks away from the new central courthouse about 3 p.m. Wednesday and alerted other on-duty officers, who quickly arrested him.
Both the courthouse and the district attorney’s office were closed during the long July Fourth weekend, but the district attorney’s office eventually added more charges, including attempted second-degree assault, which would have triggered an automatic hold during booking.
Multnomah County Chief Criminal Judge Cheryl Albrecht said Kesterson “had no arrests or convictions of any type and so qualified for conditional release prior to arraignment.”
Albrecht said Kesterson likely would have been released even without new county rules that went into effect July 1 under a bill passed by state lawmakers in 2021 requiring each circuit court to craft a release rulebook.
As recently as March, the county’s jailers could use their own judgment to override the risk assessment score used to determine who walks out of jail, but that was removed from the equation to “help address disparate outcomes,” said Jessica Morkert-Shibley, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Community Justice.
The rulebook, technically known as the presiding judge’s order, now prescribes all release decisions, taking into account factors like past convictions or failing to appear in court, according to Morkert-Shibley.
“While the program does not make release decisions, we recognize the imperative of criminal justice partners working together, across all systems, to help ensure public safety,” she said.
Kesterson is scheduled to be arraigned on the new set of charges Wednesday.
