Fed Up with TriMet

The beating of a 71-year-old man near MAX stop in Gresham touches off storm of anger, frustration in the community

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 6, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (27 Reader comments)

John Klicker / The Outlook

Gresham’s Nancy Burchell says she sees illegal acts around the Gresham Central Transit Center all the time. Burchell lives a few blocks away and has called 9-1-1 numerous times in the last two years to report criminal activity. She doesn’t think living room furniture should be there because it encourages loitering and crime.

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From her vantage point near Cedar Park in downtown Gresham, Nancy Burchell sees a lot. She only has to gaze out her window to witness people, often juveniles, engaged in smoking, drinking, urinating, fighting and cursing, as well as buying, selling and using drugs.

From the nearby TriMet park-and-ride building, she regularly hears firecrackers and car racing and recently witnessed a car being broken into. It’s a far cry from the placid environs of her former Holllybrook neighborhood.

“I’ve called 9-1-1 numerous times over the past year and a half,” she said, describing the time she’s lived downtown. “In Hollybrook, I never called the police once. I went from one extreme to another.”

Burchell wasn’t totally shocked when she heard a 15-year old suspected gang member allegedly beat a 71-year-old man in the head with a baseball bat after both exited the MAX train around 9:15 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3.

“I’m not surprised, not surprised at all,” she said. “I have seen kids carrying bats and sticks over there for some reason. Why are they carrying a stick? It’s got to be for protection.”

The victim, Laurie Lee Chilcote of Sandy, has been hospitalized since the attack at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where he is being treated for extensive head injuries. His condition was upgraded to good Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Gresham Police arrested Abel Antonio Chavez-Garcia, 15, on the scene within minutes of the attack a few blocks from the Transit Center. He faces charges of first-degree assault, attempted murder and first-degree criminal mischief.

A stronger presence

The assault of Chilcote, a man known for his volunteer work with children through the Police Activities League and other organizations, has touched a nerve in the community, especially among those who feel something must be done about crime and violence on and around TriMet MAX stations.

Just one day before Chilcote’s beating, Gresham Mayor Shane T. Bemis said Gresham Police officers would augment TriMet patrols on the MAX beginning Wednesday, Nov. 7. After citizens expressed the need for greater enforcement, Bemis wrote TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen to inform him of the plan.

“Accounts of public intoxication, gang activity, assault, harassment, and drug activity – not to mention fare avoidance – are prevalent,” Bemis said in the letter.

At 10:26 a.m. today, Gresham officers will board MAX trains at the Transit Center after a brief news conference led by Bemis and Police Chief Piluso. They discussed the plan with Outlook reporters during a preview of the conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Piluso called the implementation a “planned enforcement effort” that will include a mixture of uniformed and plainclothes officers working staggered shifts on different duties. Some officers will patrol trains while others patrol city MAX station platforms, including the Transit Center. She declined to provide the number of officers or length of time they would be used to augment TriMet enforcement.

“We don’t want to compromise this type of enforcement,” she explained. “We don’t know for how long. The enforcement action will define that.”

Stressing a desire to fully cooperate with TriMet, Piluso said Gresham officers will have the agencies’ ordinances governing behavior on trains and buses at their fingertips. Among TriMet codes that extend beyond conventional statutes is a seldom-enforced ban on uncovered cups of coffee.

Piluso doesn’t want to waste officers’ time scrutinizing beverages, but offered that a passenger carrying a baseball bat for no apparent reason might be questioned.

“A kid carrying a bat in a high-crime area? That may give us probable cause, a reasonable suspicion,” she said. “The laws are a little vague in that area.

“We will utilize every option, every element, including checking fares,” she said. “We will use the ordinance as the tool it’s meant to be.”

TriMet ups enforcement

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