PORTLAND, Ore. — A "prolific graffiti artist" in Portland received his sentence Monday for multiple vandalism cases beginning in 2023, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
The district attorney's office said that a Multnomah County judge sentenced Jerry Mijangos, 28, to a total of 30 months in prison as a result of four separate criminal cases.
Mijangos was arrested in January on a probation violation, having been linked to "repeated incidents of vandalism" throughout 2023 and into 2024 using the tag "KASR."
At the time of his arrest, the Portland Police Bureau said that Mijangos had been picked up a number of times dating back to 2021, and that officers had referred over two dozen cases involving Mijangos to prosecutors.
"We've done four rounds of cases on Mr. Mijangos," Officer Nathan Kirby-Glatkowski told The Story's Pat Dooris. "During the first one back in 2021, you know, we sent a whole stack of cases to the district attorney's office. We made an arrest. We interviewed Mr. Mijangos. I was really hopeful at that point that we would resolve the situation, and they wouldn't continue tagging and we would done, we would have a success."
Kirby-Glatkowski, along with his partner, Officer Amelia Flohr, are part of PPB's Neighborhood Response Team. They both worked on those cases involving Mijangos. Despite that, Mijangos was quickly released from jail and went right back to tagging.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Mijangos was just continued unabated," Kirby-Glatkowski said. "There were other arrests by patrol catching him in the act, making tags ... My partner and I again investigated another series of cases, several of them felonies, many different victims — Mr. Mijangos is somebody that targeted small businesses, public buildings, roadways.
"But you know, we can't understate the impact on everybody, but especially his impact on small businesses was pretty profound. Right across people's windows and doors and on their businesses. It was ... there were a lot of victims that really hurt by him."
To this day, PPB isn't sure how many times Mijangos painted his tag around the city, or how much the clean-up has cost. The tagger pleaded guilty for previous crimes in April 2023. He was sentenced to serve probation in that case — and a month later, he was back at it.
Even after his arrest in January, Kirby-Glatkowski said, Mijangos got back to it once he was released from jail.
"I was really hopeful we were there, you know ... he spent several weeks in jail after that arrest. However, when he was released, he immediately went back out and started offending again," the officer said. "Mr. Mijangos was probably, by the time he was most recently arrested, our most prolific tagger in the city. He was up everywhere and he had no compunctions about putting his tag in places where it had a pretty horrific impact."
On Aug. 19, Mijangos agreed to a deal and pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal mischief and two counts of second-degree criminal mischief. Judge Andrew Lavin sentenced him Monday to 30 months in prison, in line with the plea deal. Mijangos was transferred to the Oregon Department of Corrections.
“Graffiti remains a significant concern for our community. It is one of the most common complaints I hear about, and I understand the reason behind it," said Portland Police Chief Bob Day, commenting on the sentence. "Senseless vandalism makes a city look neglected and tarnishes its image.
"The arrest and significant sentence for Jerry Mijangos sends a message to the people committing this illegal act that it will not be tolerated. Thank you to our officers who are trying to investigate and apprehend graffiti suspects and the DA’s office for their continued partnership."
In its statement, the Multnomah County DA's office likewise acknowledged the impact of vandalism on business owners and the community, in particular thanking PPB officers Kirby-Glatkowski and Flohr who "worked tirelessly on this case."
For his part, Kirby-Glatkowski said he hopes the city has turned a corner after limitations and an overall downward slide through the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think that we got to a point in this city where graffiti reached an egregious level," he said, "and it has a real impact on human beings stepping out of their house and going to work or going to where they play, or going to wherever they do, they see this graffiti everywhere, and it's generally indicative of a criminal permissiveness. It's ugly. It's disgusting. It's a blight on our society and we are at a point now where I think most of society like feels that way and wants action done on this.
"So if you're out there doing graffiti, if you're out there doing vandalism, it is criminal. And we are going to come find you and hold you accountable for that. This is what the city wants. This is what I want, and we'll make it happen."