A man who police say set up several booby traps across the Interstate 205 multi-use path with a friend in Southeast Portland was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation and 20 hours of community service.
One of the traps -- made of string pulled tight across the path -- ensnared a bicyclist, cutting her face in several places as she rode into it about 10:30 p.m. Nov. 9.
Antonio Tolman-Duran, 27, told police he wanted to “(expletive) with the homeless” because “we don’t want them around here,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
During a brief hearing, Tolman-Duran pleaded no contest to recklessly endangering another person, a misdemeanor. Other charges, including one accusing him of felony third-degree assault, were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. He declined to make a statement.
Tolman-Duran’s friend, Raven Jones, 23, also was accused of identical charges. Jones was scheduled to check in with Multnomah County Circuit Court on Monday for a trial this week, but didn’t show. A warrant has been issued for Jones’ arrest.
Jones is also named in court papers as Justin James Jones. Jones also told police their motive was to harass homeless people, according to the affidavit.
Jones was taken into custody that night wearing a kangaroo or lion onesie costume, with a roll of string in its pocket, police said.
Carlene Ostedgaard, 35, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the taut string at first felt like a bee sting when she rode into it. Then it sliced into her face and left fiber in her eyes.
She had been going to meet her partner for some late night pizza. She took the path near Southeast Division Street and was traveling about 20 mph when she noticed what she thought were kids running up a hill and then sitting on a retaining wall. She suddenly hit the string.
“I was so beside myself,” Ostedgaard recounted several days later. “I just couldn’t believe that someone would choose to do this to any random person passing by.”
She called her partner and then 911. Police arrived and found Tolman-Duran, Jones and a third person, Dakota Murphy. Police also arrested Murphy but prosecutors dropped the charges days later.
Ostedgaard didn’t attend Tolman-Duran’s sentencing hearing.
Tolman-Duran’s defense attorney, Gayle Kvernland, told Judge Leslie Roberts that her client has little money to pay fees because he hadn’t been employed for a couple of years, now works a limited amount through a temporary agency, lives with his grandparents and receives food stamps. He doesn’t have custody of his children, ages 5 and 6, but he does have parental responsibilities, such as taking them to medical appointments.
After the hearing, Kvernland told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Tolman-Duran wasn’t primarily responsible for what happened.
Tolman-Duran chalked it up like this: “I was just chilling, drinking, and my friend did some stupid stuff.”
-- Aimee Green
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