1st at 5A Vancouver police
officer is facing criminal charges
following an arrest that went awry.
It was captured on body cameras and
the video shows the officer pulling
down a suspect's pants and threatening
to tase him in the genitals.
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us.
I'm Laurel Porter.
The officer in question is off the job
this afternoon and facing assault charges.
Let's bring in Mike Better in The Newsroom.
And Mike, this is graphic video. Yeah,
it really is Laurel.
We want everyone at home to be aware
of that before we air the story.
A lot of you will find the
video quite troubling,
but others will not.
And that includes an expert in
policing who says this would
not have happened had the
suspect just followed orders.
Hey, go ahead and stop for me.
Body Cam footage provided by the Vancouver
Police Department shows two officers
trying to arrest a man suspected of
stealing from an East Vancouver Walmart.
Before the officers could
get the guy in handcuffs,
he punched one officer in the face
and kicked the other in the chest.
The officers managed to get
the suspect on the ground,
at which point Officer Andrea
Mendoza Tased him in the back.
Then she pulled down his pants and
threatened to do the same to his genitals.
Or I'll do it in your nut. I'm
done. I promise.
Yeah, I will get change you with
the death. Knock it off. I will.
Officer Mendoza was placed on
administrative leave within a few
days of the May 21st incident.
And just this week,
prosecutors filed 4th degree
assault charges against the officer.
It seems like a little bit of an overstretch.
Brian Higgins is an adjunct professor at
the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
He's also a former police chief
and Director of Public Safety.
He says he does not have a problem
with Officer Mendoza's actions.
The officers would not have been
forced to use any level of force
had this individual just comply.
So really,
what got the ball rolling was
this individual's resistance.
Resistance or not?
Vancouver Police Chief Jeff Morey is
calling his officer's actions disturbing.
He added this in a prepared video statement.
I want to emphasize to the community
that my expectation is that at
all times our personnel serve
the public with professionalism,
compassion and respect.
Among those who believe none
of that was on display in this
encounter is the mother of the man
being taken into custody.
His name is Elijah Guffey Prejean.
His mother tells KGW her son
was profiled and assaulted,
and she wants Officer
Mendoza to lose her job.
All right, it's worth mentioning Elijah
Guffey Prejean is no longer facing charges
for what happened back on May 21st.
Clark County prosecutors have
dismissed those charges.
The Vancouver chapter.
The NAACP will appreciate that.
They sent us a statement saying the officer
should be terminated for gross behavior.
In the meantime, the police union
is standing by Officer Mendoza.
They say she did her job faithfully
and did not commit a crime.
They believe when all is said and done,
she'll be exonerated. Laurel.
Thank you, Mike.
An update now on the Washington
County Sheriff's deputy who was
shot in the line of duty. Today.
The Sheriff's Office released his
name and details about a fundraiser
to help him and his family.
Tim Gordon joins us now in the studio.
First stop. Tell us, Tim,
how is the deputy doing?
Yeah, Laurel Civil Deputy Charles Dos A.
Well, he is doing better
than his previous condition.
He's still with serious injuries,
but he is in stable condition now.
He was shot several times in the face,
arms and chest,
according to a GoFundMe set up for him.
The Sheriff's Office released these
pictures of the deputy earlier today.
He's been with the Washington County
Sheriff's Office for 10 years.
Deputy Doze, the and two other deputies
were serving an eviction notice at the
Forest Room Apartments in Tualatin on
Wednesday When they knocked on the door,
34 year old Christopher Graves started
shooting about two hours after Doze was shot.
Graves was found dead inside his apartment.
It's still not clear whether
officers shot him or he shot himself.
Doze is one of five civil deputies at
the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
They handle numerous services
like serving legal paperwork,
enforcing court orders,
appearing as court witnesses
and a court witness,
and toured abandoned cars.
A GoFundMe set up to help the deputy and
his family recover has already raised
over $7000 at last check and we have a
link to a fundraiser at the kgw.com.
Another civil deputy and two other
sheriff's deputies are on paid
administrative leave after that shooting.
That is standard procedure in these cases.
Laurel.
Well I know our viewers,
a lot of them will support
the deputy and his family.
Thank you so much.
Tim, a former girls rugby coach at
Newburgh High School, is in jail
after being arrested for sex crimes.
28 year old John David Ali Gisbert is facing
several counts of sexual abuse of a child.
Police say a parent reported
their child was a victim.
Gisbert stopped coaching in June.
You're looking at the largest fentanyl
bust ever in Multnomah County.
The Sheriff's Office just released these
photos from a seizure earlier this week.
This all started on Tuesday when deputies
arrested a wanted man in the Goose Hollow
neighborhood of Southwest Portland.
They got a search warrant
for his car and apartment,
and this is what they found.
58,000 pills in bags,
16 pounds of fentanyl powder scales,
2 pill presses, $5000 in cash and a handgun.
The £16.00 of powder could have been
turned into another 80,000 pills
and the street value of all this is
somewhere in the ballpark of $320,000.
Now to an update in the tragic
case of 13 year old Milana Lee who
was killed in Beaverton last year.
The suspect, Daniel Ryan Gore, is now 17.
He's charged with first degree murder,
and the court's been deciding
whether he should be tried as a
juvenile or as an adult.
Evan Watson has the latest
now from Washington County.
A judge has decided that Daniel Ryan Gore,
the teenager accused of killing
13 year old Milana Lee last year,
should be tried as an adult.
That means, if convicted,
Gore would face up to 30 years
in prison instead of eight more
years in juvenile custody.
Milana Lee's death rattled
the Beaverton community.
Just thirteen years old and a 6th
grader at Conestoga Middle School.
Investigators found her
strangled to death and hidden
in a Creek in May of last year.
There was evidence she was sexually abused.
Lee's grandmother,
in tears after the ruling,
said the family wanted Daniel
Gore to be tried as an adult.
I'm pretty sure they are emotional too,
and all crying. I'm pretty sure.
So we. I think it's right decision.
But what I can say that's all.
Gore is accused of rape and murder.
He was 16 at the time.
If convicted,
Gore will now face a longer sentence.
He would have been released at
25 if convicted as a juvenile.
The judge said Gore was sufficiently
mature to understand his actions.
And keeping Gore in the juvenile
system is not in the best
interest of Gore and society.
My granddaughter is gone.
She's not in this anymore here,
so I don't want he make
hurt to other people. Since
Oregon passed juvenile justice
reforms in 2019, it's been very
rare for a judge to rule that 15 to
17 year olds charged with serious
crimes should be tried as adults.
That's only happened a handful of times,
according to Justice Department data.
Now Gore's case becomes one
of the exceptions.
He'll soon be indicted in
Circuit Court if he can't plan
so he can know what he's doing.
So he Of course he has to go
to adult as church as adult
in Washington County. Evan Watson, KGW News
Teams are out in the Park Rose
neighborhood today helping pick up
debris from the abandoned Kmart that
burned to the ground last week.
According to the city crews with the
company that was leasing the building,
Prologis are canvassing the area today,
helping to remove large pieces of
debris from lawns and other areas.
If you have debris you want removed,
A-Team member maybe knocking on your door.
You can also report it using an online form.
It's also worth noting the EPA and
Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality did not find any evidence of
asbestos in the debris that they sampled.
In the meantime,
neighbors are now suing over the fire.
A neighbor filed a class action
lawsuit against the owners of
the building and Prologis,
which was leasing it.
The lawsuit claims they failed to
keep the property in good condition
and says neighbors experienced harm
when debris from the abandoned store
fell on their homes and yards.
Court documents also lay out previous
complaints made to the city about trash
and homeless activity on the site.