PORTLAND, Ore. — Mike Schmidt won the 2020 election for Multnomah County District Attorney by landslide, carried by the promise of being a progressive prosecutor who would help to reshape criminal justice in the county. He took office just as the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests in Portland took off, and he's become a lightning rod for criticism of Portland's inability to grapple with crime, often linked to addiction and homelessness.
In many years, the race for Multnomah County's top prosecutor has been relatively uneventful. But with crime at top of mind for many people in the greater Portland area, the 2024 race promises to be something to watch.
Schmidt is running for reelection, but he faces a challenger from inside his own office: Senior Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez. A veteran prosecutor, Vasquez has handled thousands of cases over his 23 years with the Multnomah County DA's office. The Story's Pat Dooris sat down with him last week to learn more about the differences between him and his boss, Schmidt.
According to Vasquez, the DA's office has all but ceased to prosecute misdemeanor crimes, and he believes that has eroded accountability in the community.
"It's really resulted in a situation where we've become kind of 'no rules Portland,'" Vasquez told Dooris. "So one of the first things would be to rebuild the partnership with law enforcement."
That partnership, Vasquez said, is broken — something he lays squarely on the shoulders of Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
"The elected DA broke that early on in his tenure, and it has never been able to come back," Vasquez said. "It was so bad that I think even a recent example was when the chief of police had to send out a memo to law enforcement officers telling them to stop telling people that the DA won't prosecute cases. It's something that I hear on a daily basis, and I know that with greater collaboration we can deliver a better public safety to the community."
Watch the attached video for The Story's full interview with Senior Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez.
Schmidt has said that prosecutions are down from before the pandemic, particularly on non-violent crimes, because law enforcement officers have not been referring charges as frequently — or when they do, it's without sufficient evidence for the DA's office to prosecute.
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To Vasquez, that's still Schmidt's responsibility. Prosecutions are down by roughly half, falling from about 12,000 a year before the pandemic to 6,000 in 2023, he said.
"And you know this is something that he campaigned on, was to prosecute less," Vasquez said. "This was something that he set out and told people he was going to do — so no one should be surprised that we're not prosecuting a lot of cases. And when (he) tried to put it to the police officers, you know, really if you're telling police officers, 'Your cases, your efforts are not welcome,' then why would they get out of their car and make that arrest?"
Much of this friction with police traces back to Schmidt's original sin, even Vasquez seems to agree. Early during the racial justice protests of 2020, Schmidt announced that he would not prosecute a number of protesters who were arrested on non-violent charges, particularly "interfering with a police officer," which can result from something like failing to leave an area quickly enough when ordered to by an officer.
Over 520 people were let off the hook, while prosecutors, including Vasquez, continued to go after people arrested for more serious riot-related charges. The federal government, too, quietly dismissed dozens of its own protest-related cases in Portland.
"He also said very clearly to the police officers that the cases in which they were assaulted ... those are going to be dealt with with an extreme scrutiny, and basically made the officers feel like they were some somehow second-class citizens in all of this," Vasquez added. "And it I think that that sent a really strong message to police that quite frankly to this day I don't think they've forgotten."
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