Before he became a person of interest in the deaths of four women, convicted felon Jesse Lee Calhoun was accused of smashing a woman’s car with a large stick over a $10 debt, strangling a former girlfriend and driving with a suspended license.
Each time, neither police nor probation authorities appear to have done much to intervene.
The run-ins could have led to jail time for a probation violation or a return to prison for breaching the terms of his commutation, but somehow they didn’t.
The apparent failure by police and probation officials allowed Calhoun, 38, to remain free, revealing critical gaps in the region’s justice system and raising questions about the supervision of the hundreds of people whose sentences were commuted by former Gov. Kate Brown.
Brown’s call in 2021 to commute Calhoun’s sentence has drawn fierce scrutiny, but a closer review shows a series of bureaucratic lapses contributed to Calhoun’s ability to elude consequences for his alleged escalating violence towards women.
Gov. Tina Kotek rescinded Calhoun’s commutation last month and police arrested him. He remains in near-total isolation at the Snake River Correctional Institution in eastern Oregon as an investigation continues into what police characterize as the suspicious deaths of women whose bodies were found within three months and 100 miles of each other in and around Portland this year.
Multnomah County prosecutors said they’ve identified one man as a person of interest in the deaths but haven’t named him. Sources familiar with the investigation say Calhoun is that man. He hasn’t been charged in any of the deaths and court records don’t list a lawyer representing him.
Authorities declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Witness accounts, records and interviews with county officials confirm Calhoun’s multiple brushes with law enforcement over three months in late 2022 — before the women started turning up dead — and little, if any, follow-up.
Between the day he was released from prison in the summer of 2021 and his July 6 arrest on a probation violation, authorities ran Calhoun’s name through an extensive law enforcement database, according to Multnomah County officials. It includes criminal histories, outstanding warrants and probation status.
County probation officers get instantaneous alerts when police run someone on their caseload through that database, known as Law Enforcement Data Systems, or LEDS, a common tool in police work. Those flags can serve as an early warning sign to probation officers that their client may have run afoul of the law.
Probation officials confirmed this week that they received alerts that Calhoun’s name was run through LEDS, though they would not say how many.
A county spokesperson, Jessica Morkert-Shibley, said probation officials received no additional information from police about why they had checked Calhoun’s name and were unaware of any criminal complaints against him at the time.
“We did not receive any specific reports or direct contact with law enforcement that he was involved in criminal activity or was the subject of a report,” she said.
“Law enforcement reports and direct contact by law enforcement can help us determine if any violations have occurred,” she said.
Morkert-Shibley said the county is limited in the information it can provide about Calhoun given that it is “an active, ongoing investigation.”
In an email, Portland police Lt. Nathan Sheppard said the bureau doesn’t have a policy requiring officers to notify probation staff when police have contact with someone they supervise. He said probation officials “automatically receive a notification from LEDS.”
Investigators suspect Calhoun is linked to the deaths of Kristen Smith, 22 of Gresham, Charity Lynn Perry, 24, of Vancouver, Bridget Leann Ramsay Webster, 31, of Milwaukie and Ashley Real, 22, of Portland. Police have released no information about how the four died.
It was Real who told Portland police last November that Calhoun had strangled and assaulted her.
Calhoun’s record stretches back to 2003 and includes allegations of assault, harassment, kidnapping and driving a stolen car among other crimes.
His latest convictions came in 2019 and included assaulting a public safety officer, burglary and the unauthorized use of a vehicle.
He was sentenced to a little more than four years, with a release date of June 2022.
Oregon Department of Corrections records show Calhoun faced no discipline during his recent prison stint.
His prison work record and proximity to release helped land him a spot on a crew that fought deadly wildfires that swept through western Oregon in 2020.
The following year, he was among 41 prisoners whose sentences Brown commuted as a gesture of thanks.
During her administration, Brown embraced her broad clemency powers, which allowed her to grant pardons and commute sentences. In all, she commuted the sentences of an estimated 1,000 people, most of them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brown’s commutations were conditional. A copy of her order makes clear that Calhoun was required to follow all state and federal laws. It says the governor has the power to revoke the commutation if Calhoun’s release “no longer serves the interests of the state of Oregon.”
Governors retain the authority to revoke their decision at any time while the person is on probation and may return them to prison to serve out the rest of their sentence, said Jeremiah Stromberg, an assistant director at the Oregon Department of Corrections.
Calhoun walked out of the Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland on July 22, 2021, about a year ahead of his original release date. He went directly onto probation.
People on probation are required to check in with a probation officer in person each month. Multnomah County officials said Calhoun completed “treatment obligations” he was ordered to meet.
“During his time on community supervision, Mr. Calhoun reported as directed,” Morkert-Shibley said. “He was satisfying the conditions of his supervision to our knowledge.”
The court ordered Calhoun to pay $5,001.33 in restitution; Oregon Judicial Department records show he’s paid $3,902.39 so far.
In the fall of 2022, while he was still on probation, Calhoun was the subject of three incidents involving a police response.
On Sept. 8, Portland police received a complaint about Calhoun allegedly smashing a woman’s car window with a large stick studded with nails over a $10 debt, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.
On Sept. 27, Portland police cited Calhoun for driving with a suspended license, a traffic violation, court records show. The citation notes he was driving a 2013 Ford Mustang near Southeast 88th Avenue and Powell Boulevard. He didn’t show up at a court hearing on Dec. 13 and was convicted of failing to appear in court. He was fined $445.
His car was impounded that month, according to Multnomah County officials, who provided no additional details.
On Nov. 11, Real reported to Portland police that Calhoun attacked and strangled her, her father told The Oregonian/OregonLive last month. Real’s father Jose Real said the officer who took the report told him that police were familiar with Calhoun.
The location of the alleged assault fell within the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction so Portland police referred the matter to that agency, Sheppard said.
Chris Liedle, a spokesperson for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, declined to answer any questions about the agency’s response to Real’s strangulation complaint, including whether deputies were aware that Calhoun was on probation at the time and whether they notified Calhoun’s probation officer of the allegations.
The agency also declined to answer a general question about its policy for notifying probation officials when police encounter someone on post-prison supervision.
“We cannot comment on any law enforcement contacts or processes involving Jesse Calhoun,” Liedle wrote in an email, citing the ongoing investigation involving Calhoun.
Sheppard referred questions related to Calhoun to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Liz Merah, a spokesperson for the office, also declined to comment.
She said, however, that neither Portland police nor the sheriff’s office sent the strangulation and vandalism reports to the DA’s office to consider for prosecution.
“Our office did not receive any referrals from any law enforcement agency regarding Jesse Calhoun at those times,” she said in email.
Over the course of the past week, county officials provided shifting responses to questions about whether probation officers had received any alerts of LEDS checks on Calhoun.
On Monday, spokesperson Julie Sullivan-Springhetti said probation hadn’t received any.
On Tuesday, Sullivan-Springhetti said in an email that county officials planned to review the notification system in response to questions from the news organization “so we can more specifically respond to what number and kinds of hits we did receive.”
On Wednesday, Morkert-Shibley confirmed probation had received LEDS notifications on Calhoun.
In general, she said the notifications are “broad and unspecific” about law enforcement’s contact or “near contact” with the person involved.
“It does not indicate the nature or reason the person was run or that there was contact with a law enforcement partner,” she said. “It’s simply that your client was run by a law enforcement partner.”
She said the agency receives up to 2,000 LEDS hits a day and “direct contact by law enforcement can help us determine if any violations have occurred.” Probation officers supervise up to 45 people each, she said.
County probation officials said they rely on police to give them a heads-up when someone on their caseload is in trouble. Morkert-Shibley said the Department of Community Justice has a round-the-clock phone line police may call with information about a person on probation.
The person’s probation officer and 24-hour contact information come up when a police officer runs a name through LEDS, she said.
“We rely on receiving police reports or other official evidence before moving forward with an arrest and parole violation process,” she said.
Some police agencies automatically send reports to probation officers about a person on their caseload. If the matter involves Portland police, probation officials must make a request for the report, according to a Community Justice Department supervisor.
Sgt. Kevin Allen, a Portland Police Bureau spokesperson, said in an email that officers “sometimes” call probation officers “when they believe that the person detailed may have violated their release conditions.”
“(T)here are times when officers may send a LEDS message with a short summary of an interaction when the officer feels it may be warranted,” the email said.
Whether they do so is up to them, Allen said.
Sheppard, the Portland Police Bureau’s lead public information officer, said he had “no idea” if the officers who took the vandalism and assault reports on Calhoun knew of his probation status.
In a statement Friday, Erika Preuitt, director of the county Department of Community Justice, called community safety the agency’s “topmost priority.”
“As the department does in response to any serious incident, we are investigating the circumstances,” she said, adding that her department will address “any system-wide gaps that can strengthen safety in our communities.”
Calhoun’s apparent slip through the bureaucratic cracks prompted a renewed scrutiny of commutations approved by Brown.
Pivoting from her predecessor, Gov. Tina Kotek has taken on the role of Oregon’s chief probation officer, encouraging prosecutors and probation officials in a letter to tell her office directly about people who violate the conditions of their commutations.
District attorneys in Washington and Clackamas counties said they directed prosecutors in their offices to audit all commutations to determine whether anyone had committed new crimes, including during the period when they would have otherwise been in prison.
Clackamas County prosecutors, for instance, said their analysis found more than half of the 127 people who received commutations have reoffended. The examination includes everyone whose sentence was commuted, including those during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initially, Brown’s staff identified 15 people with Multnomah County convictions who helped in the wildfire effort. Only four, including Calhoun, received commutations, according to the DA’s office.
The office so far has limited its review to the three others who got wildfire commutations, but on Friday, Merah said the office will undertake a broader review.
Prosecutors will evaluate people from Multnomah County who individually applied for and received commutations from Brown to determine if they have stayed out of trouble. The group under review does not include those who got out early due to the pandemic.
She said the District Attorney’s Office received 59 individual applications for commutations; Schmidt opposed 34 of them and supported the rest. Brown ended up commuting at least 23.
Of the wildfire commutations, one of the people has stayed out of trouble. Two picked up new charges.
Last year, Treveon T. Thomas, 23, was accused of being a felon in possession of a gun and possession of a loaded gun in public. Court records show a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Merah said District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s office notified Multnomah County probation officials “so that the officer assigned to his supervision can review the situation.”
Casey Longtree, 30, faced charges of possession of a stolen car and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, though both were dismissed because Merah said “the victim did not want to participate” in the prosecution. She said prosecutors also notified probation officials.
Schmidt’s office didn’t provide Brown any feedback on Calhoun at the time she considered granting the commutation. Merah has said the office wasn’t given a “meaningful opportunity” to respond.
On July 3, Schmidt wrote to the governor’s office that Calhoun, since his commutation, “has been involved in criminal activity currently under investigation by Oregon law enforcement.” He didn’t elaborate.
Kotek revoked Calhoun’s commutation that day.
