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.