Woman, 25, hopes new law can expunge record | Crime & Justice | bendbulletin.com - Bend Bulletin

In October 2017, Caitlin Silveria answered “guilty” when a Deschutes County judge asked her how she pleaded to the felony of heroin delivery.

Since then, she’s breezed through probation and rehab, and worked hard to complete her education and become a responsible member of society.

But Silveria, now 25, is still repeatedly rejected for jobs. She worries her short, troublesome stay in Bend after high school will haunt her for the rest of her life.

“I really want to help people like me, but I can’t do that with a felony on my record,” she said.

But Silveria hopes a new effort at criminal justice reform in Oregon will help her move on with her life and achieve her education and career goals.

District attorneys around Oregon are developing policies in preparation for the implementation of Senate Bill 819, which goes into effect Jan.1. The new law will allow people convicted of some felonies — like Silveria — to partner with district attorneys to petition for full or partial expungement of their criminal records.

The law excludes aggravated murder, misdemeanors and felonies that can already be expunged under Oregon law. The statute is intended to be used “in the interest of justice” when victims recant their testimony, when it comes to light that the state relied on bad scientific evidence or when inmates become seriously ill.

“There just aren’t legal mechanisms for getting back into court,” said Aliza Kaplan, professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, who helped develop the law that was approved by the Legislature this summer. “No DA wants to convict an innocent person. And if new evidence emerges, everybody wants to get back into court, so this provides an avenue to do that.”

Kaplan said the law can help address disproportionate sentencing trends, like over-sentencing of racial minorities.

“The way I look at 819 is it’s another avenue to address wrongs or racial disparities, and it requires the DA to agree with it, so it’s pretty safe as far as bringing all the people on board,” she said.

Around three years ago, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel asked his prosecutors in a staffwide email to tell him about one case they’d worked that had stayed with them, for whatever reason.

After a positive experience as a tutor at community college, she wished to become a teacher or addiction specialist, but her felony history was proving to be a hindrance.

“I feel like this was a success, but also a failure at the same time as I know she will have a conviction for a Class A Felony the rest of her life,” Moore wrote to Hummel.

As an adopted child growing up in Visalia, California, drugs weren’t a part of Silveria’s life. Her father, Doug Silveria, a stock broker with Morgan Stanley, and mother Annie Silveria, a sociology professor at College of the Sequoias, valued education, and their daughter did well at a Christian school.

But in May 2013, Caitlin Silveria broke her back and was prescribed oxycodone. The exposure to opiates awoke something in Silveria, her mother said.

Around this time, Silveria and her parents learned there was a history of substance abuse in her biological family.

“I think there was definitely a propensity for it,” Annie Silveria said. “If I had known, would I have done things differently with Caitlin? Maybe. We would have at least been more aware of the situation.”

Caitlin Silveria’s addiction “snowballed” after that, she said. She fell in with friends who used heroin and meth and she started bringing people by her parents’ house they didn’t feel comfortable around. Once, a friend of hers excused himself to go to the bathroom and instead stole items from her parents’ bedroom, including her father’s wedding ring, which was never recovered.

Hoping a change of scenery would lead to a change in behavior, Doug and Annie Silveria arranged a hasty move and sent their daughter to Bend, where she had family.

But things only got worse in Oregon. Isolation and boredom drew her downtown, then to Drake Park, where she started using again. Before long, she was “catching charges,” six drug-related arrests in less than a year.

“It was a smaller town than I used to,” she said. “The cops there are on it.”

Prosecutor Moore offered Caitlin Silveria a deal: serve a prison sentence of three to five years, or go to rehab, in exchange for a guilty plea on a felony drug charge, which in Oregon at the time was nonexpungable.

She weighed her options after her lawyer left the room, but she knew what she needed to do.

This summer, professor Kaplan’s clinic requested the Legislature take up the bill, which drew inspiration from similar laws in Washington and California. Hummel joined the state’s two other outspoken progressive district attorneys in supporting the bill in Salem, sharing Caitlin Silveria’s story with lawmakers during hearings.

The Oregon District Attorneys Association was officially neutral. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, association President Paige Clarkson, Marion County district attorney, praised aspects of the proposed law, like establishing district attorneys as the petitioning authority, while expressing concern it will be less effective in rural parts of the state.

“This is uncharted territory for Oregon prosecutors,” said Crook County District Attorney Wade Whiting, who’s received several inquiries from prison inmates asking to be considered for resentencing. “I expect the use from my office to be limited and only for truly exceptional circumstances where the defendant has demonstrated complete rehabilitation and the victim and their family is fully in support.”

SB 819 appeals may be even more limited in neighboring Jefferson County, where District Attorney Steve Leriche has not started developing a policy for considering appeals.

“It isn’t on my radar,” Leriche said.

In Deschutes County, Hummel explained how his office will handle SB 819 appeals. For one, a stakeholder committee will vet each case and issue a recommendation, which Hummel said he’ll consider before making a final determination. He also won’t set criteria for types of cases he won’t consider, saying he will look at each case individually.

He said cases of domestic violence or sexual abuse will be most difficult to appeal, and victims will be consulted in all cases.

“I’ll allow anyone to make their pitch,” Hummel said.

When Annie Silveria learned about the new law, she called her daughter.

“Caitlin has carried a tremendous amount of guilt. I know she has,” Annie Silveria said. “I know she still feels guilty.”

Caitlin Silveria was at work when her mother called. She excused herself, went to her car and cried.

source: https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/crimeandjustice/woman-25-hopes-new-law-can-expunge-record/article_c31bc400-4c90-11ec-bbfc-538295de2a4f.html

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