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STATE OF OREGON V. MICHAEL EDGAR BIVINS
Bivins, a freelance journalist who contributed stories to WW, was arrested last May and charged with a series of hate crimes, including scrawling “Die Juden” in yellow paint on the wall of Congregation Beth Israel and lighting a fire at the Muslim Community Center of Portland. Police allege he told a reporter, “Jewish people deserve the hate that goes toward them; all religions are stupid.”
CASE HISTORY
Bivins underwent a profound change in personality the year before his arrest, people close to him told WW last year (“What Happened to Mike Bivins,” May 18, 2022). Although court records show Bivins had no reported history of mental illness, he underwent a mental health evaluation shortly after being booked in jail. His case went forward anyway after his defense attorney told the court that Bivins was capable of aiding in his own defense, court records show.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Over the past year, Bivins has sent Multnomah County Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo a series of meandering and increasingly indecipherable letters from jail. His trial date was repeatedly postponed until last week, when Judge Nan Waller found Bivins too mentally ill to stand trial and ordered him sent to Oregon State Hospital to be “restored to competency.” He’ll join the beleaguered hospital’s waitlist, whose length (46 people, as of April) has been the subject of extensive, ongoing civil rights litigation.
STATE OF OREGON V. PISEAT CHEY THOUEN
In response to that lengthening waitlist, a federal judge brokered a compromise with advocates in which Oregon State Hospital would begin releasing patients early. One of those patients was Thouen, who was arrested in early 2021 after he threatened a woman with a homemade spear. He would spend the next year and half in the state hospital before it forcibly ejected him in October, still too mentally ill to face trial.
CASE HISTORY
Over the past several decades, Thouen’s mental state has deteriorated, his sister told WW last year (“No Man’s Land,” Nov. 2, 2022). Thouen rejected mental health treatment, hoarded knives, and ultimately threatened his family before ending up on the street. In October, after OSH kicked him out, Washington County Circuit Judge Kathleen Proctor ordered Thouen sent to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center to be civilly committed. But community hospitals don’t want to warehouse patients like Thouen, and doctors typically won’t accept them unless they present an immediate danger. Thouen was soon thrown out.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Thouen’s charges weren’t forgotten, however. In December, prosecutors refiled them, and Thouen was arrested in February. This time, mental illness wasn’t an issue, says Thouen’s defense attorney, Tyler Beach. “I would talk to him in depth with open-ended questions,” Beach says, “and I had no concerns that he didn’t understand what we were doing.” Thouen took a plea deal, which amounted to two weeks behind bars at the Coffee Creek Intake Center after time served.
He’s now begun two years of probation and is required to routinely report to a probation officer and participate in mental health treatment. That treatment, however, likely won’t include a bed. The county said there weren’t any residential treatment beds available last October. What the county can offer people with severe mental illness, says Washington County probation and parole services manager Chris Chandler, “is an emphasis on close coordination with institutions and community mental health services to support progress in treatment, medication management, and to provide a prompt response to deteriorating stability.”