PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Victims of the man known as the jogger rapist are expressing outrage and frustration the public won’t be getting more warning he’s getting out of prison.
KOIN 6 was the first to report Richard Gillmore is set to get out of an Oregon prison on Dec. 16th and be placed in subsidized housing in Portland’s Old Town. The Oregon Parole Board classified him as a low-level sex offender, even though he’s admitted to being a serial rapist.
The public won’t be warned where Gillmore lives, and he won’t come up on the sex offender website. KOIN 6 News has obtained the score sheet the parole board recently used to classify him as low-level to attack again. Two of his victims and an expert are questioning the parole board’s process.
“We know he’s raped as young as 13 years old and that should not be acceptable to anyone,” said Danielle Tudor.
“I don’t understand how they can be so deliberately irresponsible,” added Tiffany Edens.
Tudor was 17 years old in 1979 and was on the phone with police when Gillmore broke into her Portland home and raped her in her parent’s bedroom.
“I kept asking them, ‘when are you going to get here? When are you going to get here?'” said Tudor.
Her case went unsolved until 1986, until Gillmore broke into Edens’ Gresham home, she was just 13.
“He watched me for at least two weeks, knew when I was going to be home alone, and decided to break into my home without any regard to my own safety, my mental health, my family, nobody,” Edens said.
Court records show he admitted to eight or nine total attacks, but because the three-year statute of limitations ran out, and some victims didn’t come forward, Gillmore was only convicted of the attack on Edens.
“Why are we willing to release someone into the community, which we actually don’t know anything about his mental health because it’s been seven years since he’s had a psych evaluation?” Tudor said.
Most of the psychological evaluations between 2001 and 2016 concluded that Gillmore was still a risk.
None of the exams were used in producing a recent score sheet by the parole board to classify Gillmore as low risk. The form is called the Static-99R. It features 10 questions that take into account factors like a sex offender’s age and prior sex offenses. A higher score means there is a higher risk to re-offend.
Gillmore scored a zero, which is in the middle of the low range, largely because he’s over 60, which knocked off three points. He also didn’t get penalized in his score for prior sexual convictions, because he has none. His confession to seven or eight additional crimes are not counted per the instructions on using the form. If they were included, his victims say he could score as high as six, which classifies him as high-risk.
Dylan Arthur, executive director of the parole board defended the score sheet used to label Gillmore as low-risk.
“The Static99-R is the most widely used actuarial risk assessment tool for adult males convicted of sexual crimes in the world,” he said. “This use of the Static99-R is only specific to the notification level, and not the level to which they may be supervised by in the community.”
Portland-based forensic psychiatrist Dr. Brian Holoyda’s practice includes sexual violence risk assessments.
“In general, the research indicates that the Static-99R has a moderate ability to predict an individual’s risk of recidivism,” he said. “The Static-99R does not tell you much of anything about the individual’s dynamic risk factors. So aspects of the person’s thinking or emotional state or recent behavior that might be relevant to their risk for sexual violence going forward. So to make a determination about a person’s risk of sexual violence based solely on the Static-99R would in most contexts be considered incomplete.”
The last psychological evaluation on Gillmore was done seven years ago.
“Mr. Gillmore has a capacity to impress with his rather charming and personable persona but in my opinion, this presentation cannot be trusted,” wrote forensic psychologist, Robert Stuckey in 2016, where he warned about Gillmore’s “dark side” and the “dynamics that lead to his serial rape behaviors and the underlying possible sadistic emotional feelings involved in the acting-out rape behaviors.”
That’s when Gillmore decided to cancel his parole hearing and wait seven years, until now, when his prison sentence is over and he has to be released.
“It makes me angry that we have to take care of this again, that we’ve got to make it right. And it’s not, it’s not necessarily for Tiffany and I, it’s for the community. It’s for Oregonians that deserve to know where this man is living. And if he’s in their neighborhood,” Tudor said.
KOIN 6 was told the scoring rules of the Static-99R can’t be changed to include Gillmore’s admitted history because it throws off its ability to compare him to other sex offenders.
Multnomah County, which will supervise Gillmore after he is released, says their staff will give Gillmore an additional test to get a better idea of his risk level. Also, given the unique nature of his offenses, Gillmore will be on a high-risk supervision plan. They will do GPS monitoring to restrict his movement in the community, including a curfew and regular check-ins.
“While Mr. Gillmore presents as low risk on assessments, given the unique nature of his offenses, we will place him on a high-risk supervision plan. We intend to have a GPS electronic monitoring device on Mr. Gillmore, restricting his movement within the community. His supervision plan will include a strict curfew and regular check-ins — scheduled and unscheduled with his parole and probation officer, among other providers. It includes a clear prohibition of contacting victims, directly or indirectly, and prohibitions on contact with minors and places where minors may congregate,” the county said.