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The State of Oregon has placed criminally insane sex offenders in a residence at 177 N. 29th Ave., Cornelius. The program run by Luke-Dorf, a nonprofit Tigard-based mental-health provider, handles only sex offenders of the class “guilty except for insanity.”
Jerry Farstad, incarcerated for sodomy and sexual penetration with a foreign object,was quoted as saying the community shouldn’t fear him and the other residents. “They’re probably figuring the people here might recommit a crime”
Of course that’s exactly what fellow resident Matthew Shipley did when he previously escaped from a state hospital and raped a 3-year-old girl in 1988.
Sgt. David Thompson, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said the Psychiatric Security Review Board recently instructed Connell House management to walk the offenders through the neighborhood on a regular basis.
“These offenders are not wearing restraints,” Thompson said. “If an offender decides to walk away from the group, staff members will take no action to detain them.”
Bob Nikkel, who administers the office of mental health and addiction services for the state of Oregon said that siting decisions were based on established planning rules and that those released from the Oregon State Hospital into community homes like the one in Cornelius go through a rigorous determination by a state board before they are released.
The Open Records Project sees a simple solution to any community discomfort. Mr. Farshad and Mr. Shipley can simply bunk in with Mr. Nikkel.
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