Gresham man sentenced for sexual assault

Kurtis Steltz to serve seven and a half years in prison

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 2, 2010 (2 Reader comments)

Kurtis Raymond Steltz

Contributed photo

A Gresham man will spend seven-and-a-half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a local park after meeting her on Craigslist.

Kurtis Raymond Steltz, 26, of Gresham pleaded no contest to first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sex abuse on Jan. 22. On Tuesday, Feb. 23, Multnomah County District Court Judge Kimberly Frankel sentenced him to the mandatory minimum sentence of 90 months in prison for the kidnapping charge and the mandatory minimum of 75 months for the sex abuse charge.

The sentences will be served at the same time. Both crimes are Measure 11 offenses, so there is no possibility of early release.

Police arrested Steltz on accusations of rape, sodomy, coercion and fourth-degree assault for a sexual assault in Gresham’s Kirk Park in the 1000 block of Northeast 188th Avenue on Aug. 15, 2009.

A woman walking through the park saw the attack and intervened. The suspect ran away and police arrested him two days later at his home, an apartment in the 800 block of Northeast 183rd Avenue in Gresham.

The victim told police she met Steltz on Craigslist and agreed to meet him. But when they met on a street, he was armed with a handgun. He grabbed her and forced her to perform oral sex on him. He then forced her into nearby Kirk Park.

Fearing he would kill her, she threatened to scream if he didn’t drop the gun. The man dropped the gun in some bushes, but took her further into the park and allegedly raped her.

Another woman walking through the park saw Steltz throw a woman onto a picnic table and begin to have sex with her. She yelled at the man, who immediately pulled up his pants and ran away. The woman on the table was crying and yelled, “Please help me!” followed by, “Thank God you’re here, you saved my life.”

The two women then went to a nearby house for help.

Steltz also was sentenced to 10 years of post-prison supervision and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

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