By Paul Daquilante • Staff Writer • 

Malheur judge will rule on Hopper's post-conviction request

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Comments

Joel R

Wow, what a mess.

oldeee

It sounds like he was lucky to ONLY get 144 months.

tlpreston

So if that is the case and they where driving 100 why did they not charge both the drivers with street racing?

Paul Daquilante

tlpreston . . .

Andrew Olsen, referenced in the story, who was also involved in this incident, was charged, pleaded guilty rather than taking his case to trial and received a prison term (lesser time than Jeremy Hopper). He has since completed his sentence.

Paul Daquilante/reporter

BigfootLives

This is a sad case indeed. Hopper’s father was a year behind me and Ms. Gates and David Fisher were a year ahead of me at Amity High School. What hurts even more is that the legal team left holes in the defense big enough to drive an appeal through. If this would get kicked to a new trial the family would have to live all of that again, all of the pain. Sad situation.

tlpreston

Paul Dauquilante I understand that but again everything I have read you refer to it as street racing yet neither driver was charged with with street racing

Joel R

Everyone is entitled to good legal representation, but I have to say that Hopper got exactly what he deserved. He wasn't purposefully trying to kill anyone that day but he was acting like a reckless, damn fool and twelve years in a cage to reconsider his ways seems like the perfect outcome to me. I think of him every time I see and hear one of those silly low rider cars with the loud muffler go ripping through traffic at a high rate of speed.

Sam E.

tlpreston-speed racing in Oregon is a class A traffic violation, not a crime. You can’t be placed under arrest for “speed racing”. The closest equivalent is reckless driving, a class A misdemeanor. The same level offense as carrying a 10+ round magazine (if it stands).

SCALEPERSON

A man died, a young girl disabled for the rest of her life. What is the debt that should be paid for that? This seems to be a case of negligent, reckless, not malicious behavior. Does a young man sitting in prison take care of that? I would say strict post prison supervision and it sounds like he has financial responsibilities that he should be paying on and any reparations he can make. So sad for everyone.... I personally hope this young man can return to society a mature, productive person.

Joel R

Have to respectfully disagree with you ScalePerson. His sitting in prison for twelve years is important for at least two reasons.
1. It is societies way of making the powerful statement that the lives of that man and woman matter and when they are recklessly destroyed (even unintentionally) we as a society will not look the other way. We will respond with serious consequences meted out to the reckless perpetrator.
2. It's serves as a deterrent. I'll bet his street racing buddies all sat up and took notice when at the end of the trial he was walked out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

I do agree with you on one thing though ScalePerson. I also hope that he can eventually return to society and live a mature and productive life. Even one step further, I hope he can return to society and find a way to bring some good into the world as a result of all of this.

Joel R

Sam, Wouldn't a police officer just treat all speed racing as reckless driving? Is there such a thing as speed racing that is not reckless?

Joel R

Here is the definition of 'Reckless" from the Oregon Revised Statutes:
“Recklessly,” when used with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, means that a person is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.

Joel R

That seems fairly vague to me. I'll bet lawyers do a lot of wrangling over whether something was 'reckless' or not.

JWC

SamE,

That prohibition on carrying 10+ round magazines applies to off duty police officers, just like us peons. Interestingly; the members of the Washington County Tactical Negotiation Team that came to the rescue when Dillan Cashman went on his shooting rampage routinely keep their pistols and rifles with standard, 10+ round magazines with them when off duty so that they can respond more rapidly to emergencies. The off duty Border Patrol agents who were compelled to belatedly confront the mass murderer at Uvalde Highschool because their on duty colleagues were cowering in the hall way while they waited for the shooting to stop, were also carrying their pistols and rifles with 10+ magazines while they were off duty. Measure 114 will inevitably compel members of police tactical teams to leave their weapons at the police station when they are off duty. As a result, they will have to travel to the police station to retrieve their weapons then deploy to the scene of the emergency. Their response times will be about an hour longer.

Oregonian

Hopper exercised horrible judgment the day he chose to illegally race on public roads.

He then showed poor judgment again when he picked Goodfellow and Marshall as attorneys to represent him.

It isn't reasonable for someone to make two horrible mistakes in a row and ask the court to let you off the hook. Bad choices lead to bad consequences.

Bleepbloop

More unsubstantiated personal attacks by JWC. The worst amongst us

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