By Matt Day Chuck Sheketoff’s professional life has been spent working for those in need. The idea of social justice propelled the Silverton resident from his New England roots, to Midwest coal-mining communities, to Oregon courtrooms and statehouse corridors. Now he works from a second-floor Silverton office, advocating for a fairer tax policy for Oregonians. Sheketoff’s Oregon Center for […]
The Marion County grand jury’s unanimous decision finding that Silverton Police Officer Tony Gonzalez’s use of deadly force against Andrew “AJ” Hanlon was consistent with the law plunged Silverton back into the spotlight.
July 24, just hours after the grand jury’s findings on the June 30 shooting were released, vans from Portland television news stations converged on City Hall, with Silverton Police Chief Rick Lewis giving an improvised press conference in front of the building.
During Silverton Police Officer Tony Gonzalez’s July 22 arraignment on charges of sexually abusing a minor, Judge Joseph Ochoa announced the grand jury had added two additional counts, bringing the total to three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of third-degree sexual abuse.
First-degree sexual abuse is a Measure 11 crime and carries a mandatory sentence, in this case 75 months for each count. Measure 11 was a 1994 ballot initiative that set minimum mandatory sentences for serious crimes.
By Matt Day Whenever there is a police officer-involved shooting in Oregon, a predetermined series of events is put into motion. That was the case when Silverton Police Officer Tony Gonzalez shot and killed Andrew James Hanlon the night of June 30. According to the protocol, the police agency connected with the case can’t conduct an investigation of its own […]
By Matt Day Almost every day, Andrew James “AJ” Hanlon would buy a cup of lemon chamomile tea at the Silver Creek Coffee House in downtown Silverton, a popular spot for teens and twenty-somethings. Frequently, Hanlon would linger for the conversation. Hanlon, an Irish citizen, arrived in Oregon in June 2007 planning to spend a few months living in Silverton […]
By Matt Day While taking a creative writing class in college in the early 1970s, Don Dunn wrote a short story. Part sci-fi, part historical fiction, the tale centered on a man coming of age in trying times. Dunn went on to graduate from Mt. Angel College in 1971 with a degree in humanities. The story wound up in the […]
By Matt Day
In her 10th year of work with Silverton Youth Peer Court, Cynthia Schaeffer is noticing a trend she’s never seen before.
Theft is up from last year. Between January and May of 2008, 33 percent of peer court cases were theft-related, up 10 percent from the same period in 2007. But theft fluctuates year to year, and she isn’t worried about the jump in cases.
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