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Story: WHAT HAPPENED IN HOOVER JAIL
Date: March 6
What happened: Multnomah County’s jails were under a microscope following an unprecedented streak of inmate deaths last year. WW reported extensively on the various factors that contributed to the dire conditions behind bars, including short-staffing, gaps in corrections deputies’ training, and an exodus of skilled medical professionals. But the most explosive revelation concerned something that happened years earlier, which the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office was keeping a secret. For years, the office, and later Oregon State Police, had been investigating an explosive claim: In two units on the fifth floor of the downtown jail, guards had allegedly been colluding with Portland’s most violent gang, the Hoovers. WW spent a year pursuing the state’s report on the investigation, which outlined a string of violent assaults allegedly committed either by a group of guards or by Hoover gang members acting at the guards’ behest. Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell ultimately released the report to the public in February, and WW first revealed its contents. Prosecutors had already declined to press charges against three deputies, citing the difficulties in convincing a jury to believe the sometimes unreliable testimony from inmates and a lack of video evidence.
What’s happened since: Of those three deputies, one is dead and two remain on leave. Mirzet Sacirovic died in April, according to an office spokesperson. Gustavo Valdovinos and Jorge Troudt aren’t working, but remain on the county payroll. “The internal affairs investigation is ongoing,” a spokesperson says. Meanwhile, the jails are still in “crisis,” inspectors say, and the county is conducting a top-to-bottom review of a series of recommendations by local, state and federal inspectors. One of those recommendations: more security cameras.