Lawyers for two men who face murder in aid of racketeering charges as alleged members of the Hoover street gang successfully sought to remove U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut from the case.
They argued that while Immergut served as Oregon’s U.S. attorney, staff under her direction prosecuted one of the men, Lorenzo Laron Jones, on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from an Aug. 8, 2005, shooting near the Vue Nightclub in downtown Portland.
Though Immergut wasn’t in court directly handling his prosecution, she oversaw the prosecution, Jones’ lawyers argued. That earlier case is among the racketeering acts alleged as part of the Hoover gang conspiracy charges set for trial this year, they said.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. Mosman on Monday granted the recusal of Immergut. He said he wasn’t fully persuaded her removal was required, but found that the relatively rare step was prudent if Immergut’s handling of the case became an issue on appeal.
Jones, known as “Low Down,” faces two counts of murder in the aid of racketeering, accused of killing two gang rivals in Southeast Portland in 2017 and 1998. Jones is also accused of eight other shootings, possessing stolen guns and distributing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine between 1988 and 2018.
Ronald Clayton Rhodes, also known as “Big Fly,’’ is accused of a single charge of murder in aid of racketeering in the December 2015 shooting death of Kyle Polk, 21, of Portland. Polk was on his way home from his first job when he was shot and killed outside a Plaid Pantry at Southeast Division and 112th Avenue. He died at the front door of the store.
Both Jones and Rhodes have pleaded not guilty to the racketeering charges. They’re being tried together, accused of committing murders and other crimes with the goal of gaining standing in the Hoover gang.
Federal prosecutors handling the racketeering case didn’t object to Immergut’s recusal. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Barr said concern about Immergut’s impartiality “is more about public perception than factual performance” but that the “balance tips in favor of recusal.”
She acknowledged that Jones’ prior conviction for being a felon with a gun “garnered more-than routine office resources and public attention.”
In their argument for Immergut’s recusal, Jones’ lawyers Richard Wolfe and Ryan T. O’Connor also cited Immergut’s quotes in a March 16, 2008, story in The Oregonian under the headline, “Task Force Gives Cops Muscle to Hit Gangs.” Immmergut, as U.S. attorney from 2003 to 2009, was quoted discussing the difficulty of identifying gang members involved in crimes, noted that gangs don’t recognize borders between Oregon and Vancouver, Wash., and praised a former Portland gang task force for foiling an interstate home invasion robbery by other members of the Hoover gang.
But Mosman said he found the quoted statements inconsequential and not specific to Jones’ or Rhodes’ cases. “Any person in her position” is entitled to make such “ordinary protestations about the problem with violence,” he found.
Jones had been sentenced as an armed career criminal to 21 years and 10 months in prison in May 2008 for the felon-with-a-gun conviction, but the lengthy sentence was set aside by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case came back before Mosman in 2016 for re-sentencing, and Jones was given time served in 2016 and released. The lesser sentence came after the Supreme Court held that part of the “violent crime” definition used to determine if someone is an armed career criminal was unconstitutionally vague.
Wolf and O’Connor argued that a reasonable person could question whether Immergut “feels that a conviction and a lengthy sentence in this case are necessary to finish the job undone by the relief Mr. Jones obtained in the federal habeas corpus proceeding.’’
The racketeering case was set to go to trial in late August, but is likely to be delayed at least a week to assign a new judge because of “this unusual happening this late in the game,” Mosman said.
Wolf said he became aware of Immergut’s prior connection to Jones earlier this month through Jones’ former attorney, former Oregon Public Defender Steven Wax.
The racketeering case alleges Jones committed new crimes after his release from the prior case.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
