Lincoln Co. District Attorney's Office

Emergency Messages as of 1:20 PM, Sun. Feb 9

No information currently posted.

logo

Subscribe to receive FlashAlert messages from Lincoln Co. District Attorney's Office.

News Release

DA Update On Detective Gap In Services -02/04/25

Jenna Wallace was appointed by Governor Kotek on June 21, 2024, as Lincoln County's District Attorney. At that time, the District Attorney's criminal division had 1 deputy district attorney and 8 vacancies. Since DA Wallace's appointment, 6 additional attorneys have started employment with the District Attorney's Office.

 

Lincoln County's crime statistics are staggering. In 2024, the District Attorney's Office filed 6,977 criminal charges with a 16% increase in weapon offenses, 53% increase in drug crimes, and 8% increase in wildlife offenses. The District Attorney's Office filed 759 person-on-person crimes; 98 of which involved a weapon.

 

In the first 35 days of 2025, the District Attorney's Office filed 645 criminal charges, a 17% increase from the prior year. In 2025, the District Attorney's Office has seen a 33% increase in person-on-person crimes, 22% increase in traffic crimes, 16% increase in DUII crimes and a 136% increase in drug crimes. So far, the District Attorney's Office has filed 72 person-on-person charges, 11 of which involved a weapon.  

 

Further, Lincoln County's homicide rate has increased 500% from 2023. In the past six months, this county has experienced three officer-involved shootings and two homicides. This brings the total number of pending homicide cases to six, an unprecedented number for this county. The District Attorney detective, in combination with the Cold Case Team, was fundamental in solving Ryan Staggs's homicide three years after Staggs went missing. Currently, the Cold Case Team is actively working on the Kelly Disney homicide and has received federal funding and resources from the FBI Behavior Analyst Unit (BAU) in Quantico, Virgina. However, the District Attorney's Office must identify an internal lead detective.

 

In the past year, the District Attorney detective position has been instrumental in the successful trial prosecution of several cases prosecuted by DA Wallace, including Corey Jeffcoat (who was convicted of Sodomy in the First Degree, Rape in the First Degree, etc. for violently sexually assaulting his significant other on multiple occasions), Aubrey Skinner (who was convicted of Assault in the Second Degree for causing injury to his significant other with a PVC pipe), John Crowley (who was convicted of Assault in the Second Degree for smothering his girlfriend with a pillow), and Gunner Cravens (who was convicted of sexually abusing a 13 year-old family member).

 

As previously stated, the detective position became vacant on Monday, January 27, 2025. On January 29, 2025, the Lincoln County District Attorney's Office issued a press release regarding the vacant detective position and the impact the vacant position will have on operations. On February 3, 2025, Lincoln County responded on Facebook and claimed the press release contained misleading information.

 

This is, in fact, the first time in 20 years that the District Attorney's Office has been without any detective services. The full-time detective position has been vacant three times over the past 4 years; however, during those vacancies, the District Attorney's Office employed a second grant-funded detective that covered many gaps in services during any vacancy. The grant-funded detective position lost funding in September 2024, which reduced that employees' hours. The position was then eliminated by the County without discussion with the District Attorney's Office.

 

The District Attorney's Office was aware the County believed the statement regarding detective vacancies was misleading as Administrator Tim Johnson raised this concern to DA Wallace on January 30, 2025. DA Wallace corrected his misunderstanding as outlined above. It is unfortunate that this information was not passed along to the County's Public Information Officer prior to the response on Facebook four days later.

 

The District Attorney's Office also currently has a vacant Digital Forensic Analyst position that has been vacant since January 2024. Since May 2024, the District Attorney's Office has been actively advocating to modify the position into a Digital Forensic Detective hybrid position to meet the needs of the District Attorney's Office and Lincoln County crime victims. Although this modification has no budgetary impact as confirmed by County Administrator Johnson, the County has not approved the modification and the position remains vacant. If the position had been approved and filled, the District Attorney's Office would not be experiencing any gaps in detective services.

 

Every day the District Attorney's Office is without a detective, this community suffers. The District Attorney's Office urges Lincoln County to provide resources in this time of need, rather than withholding resources. The District Attorney's Office is actively working with the County Human Resources Department to post and fill the position as soon as possible.

 

The Lincoln County District Attorney's Office is optimistic that the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners will recognize the community impact this gap in services has caused in the last seven days and work to rectify this situation as soon as possible to ensure the pursuit of justice and community safety.  

DA Office Experiencing Critical Gap In Services -01/29/25

Effective Monday, January 27th, 2025, the Lincoln County District Attorney's Office will be unable to provide any detective services for the first time in over twenty years due to a vacancy in the full-time detective position. The District Attorney's Office currently employs an individual who is a certified law enforcement officer, currently qualifies for the position, and previously held the position in August 2024. A request has been made for that individual to temporarily work out of class to avoid any gaps in services. Unfortunately, that request has been denied by the County without explanation.

 

The District Attorney's Office is focused on filling the detective position as soon as possible and has submitted a requisition to fill it with the qualified employee, who previously occupied the detective position. This request was made pursuant to the employee asserting rights under the Lincoln County Employee's Association Collective Bargaining Agreement. Based upon the County's past practice, this requisition process can take anywhere from 24 hours to 5 months depending upon the urgency of the request and government bureaucracy.

 

At this time, there is no alternative plan to fill the gaps in services left without an internal detective. All potential options have been exhausted. This will negatively impact the District Attorney's Office's day-to-day operations and delay our ability to prosecute crime in Lincoln County.

 

Until further notice, due to the vacancy of the detective position, the District Attorney's Office will be unable to provide victims or witnesses transportation to court hearings, grand juries and/or criminal trials, which will likely result in requests for continuances or potential dismissals. This will also impact our ability to send a law enforcement representative to child forensic interviews at the Children's Advocacy Center, causing a potential delay in child sexual or physical abuse investigations. We will be unable to assist in locating offenders in warrant status, including offenders who have fled Oregon in an attempt to avoid arrest on Measure 11 offenses. Further, the detective position is the lead representative for Lincon County's Cold Case Team, which is responsible for investigating missing persons and homicides that have remained unsolved in Lincoln County. Until the detective position is filled, this will cause a temporary pause in any cold case investigation, including the Kelly Disney homicide which was recently awarded federal resources and funding.

 

Additionally, instead of handling all criminal follow-up investigations internally, those requests will be sent back to the originating law enforcement agency. The District Attorney's Office understands and apologizes for the burden these requests will cause on already under-staffed police agencies and appreciate any support during this gap in service to continue to serve this community to the best of our ability.  

 

The District Attorney's Office recognizes that these gaps in services are not reasonable nor sustainable and will be a detriment to our community. We hope to resolve this issue as soon as possible to lessen the impact on crime victims and Lincoln County citizens.