The View From Here

A Saturday Morning

by Rob Raschio, OCDLA President

From the July/August 2010 Oregon Defense Attorney

A Saturday morning, two summers ago, my baby boy Vincent started screaming. He was four months old and in a mood. My wife Sena was working at the Migrant Head Start. I rolled out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a cap and swooped up my son. I changed him, fed him, consoled him, but he just kept screaming. So being ever resourceful, I put him in his stroller and started walking down the street. About three blocks in, he stopped crying, I stopped walking, and he started crying. Prodded by the infant’s roar, I started walking again. He fell back to sleep.

Many blocks into my consoling, I realized I was on a ridgeline just above the Old St. Peter’s Landmark church in The Dalles. A very pretty church, I thought I would take in the view for a few minutes. I stopped at the top of the ridge on a dead end street. As I was looking at the church, my eye was directed to some motion below. It was a deputy walking to his vehicle parked in a driveway. He was 200 yards away. He drove up to the top of the hill past me. Being newish to the community, I was interested in who the deputy was, so I looked in the window as he passed by. The glare from the summer sun (something we had back then), prevented me from seeing in. After he passed, I resumed my walk.

Vincent still being asleep lead me to want to walk. I headed down two blocks and turned up the hill on a cross street. About halfway through the block, I heard the roar of an engine on the street in front of us. Acceleration. The deputy’s vehicle came into view. He drove halfway through the intersection, burned his tires as he executed a turn right towards us and came to a screeching halt six feet from my baby’s stroller, blocking my forward progress. I got angry.

The deputy scurried out of his rig, adjusted his gun belt and walked quickly toward us. “I need to see some identification!” he demanded. Instantly, I knew who the deputy was, but he had not recognized me. I patted my pockets, realizing I had failed to carry and present a license while pushing a baby stroller. “My baby was crying this morning, I put him in the stroller and started to walk,” I said, “and I didn’t grab my wallet before I left.” “That is a serious problem.” “It is?” “Yes, because you’re not going anywhere until I see some identification,” the deputy declared authoritatively.

I bowed my head, livid—in part at myself, realizing that sometimes when I was feeling cynical and tired, a client would tell me this type of story and I would not believe. I, at times, could not find it in me to believe that cops would treat citizens in such an arm twisting manner, that a man pushing a baby stroller could pique reasonable suspicion to stop said stroller. Then, like the sun pushing through the clouds, I began to feel positively giddy that the principles I, and you, defend need us so badly in this day and age.

As I embark on this journey as president of OCDLA, I hope we can achieve fairness in the system for citizens. I want Oregonians to be outraged at conduct like that officer exhibited, not just when it happens to them, but when it happens at all. No excuses, no rationalizations, just outrage. However, being a fairly rational human being, I get it is unlikely to cause outrage in the current environment, so my agenda for the next year is to take baby steps in the direction of changing Oregonians’ often uninformed, knee-jerk reactions to crime and criminal justice.

First, OCDLA and its membership has a very strong lobbying effort developing in Salem. The board has hired two wonderful lobbyists in Gail Meyer and Jennifer Williamson. They are laying the groundwork for a successful legislative cycle in 2011. They are getting calls from legislators to be involved in the development of bills prior to session. We are no longer the “no” vote on any number of criminal procedure and law bills, but actually at the table as the bills are being developed. Being at the table improves our chances of sustaining a strong budget for the Public Defense Services Commission in difficult economic times. Where it counts, OCDLA is a strong voice for rationality in the system. Over the next year, your support will be needed. Please start considering now how you are going to help, and enlist.

Second, OCDLA is thirty-one years old. When I was thirty-one, I bought my first house in Burns for $47,000 (a benefit of living in rural Oregon). The time has come for OCDLA to spread its wings, leave the rental nest, and find a permanent home. Over the next year, it is a goal we need to achieve. Chris Hansen of Public Defense Services of Lane County has led the way with a $10,000 contribution and is spearheading our fund-raising effort. A home will add to our credibility as a permanent voice for fairness in Oregon.

Third, we will maintain the highest quality criminal defense continuing legal education seminars in the country. Ryan Scott and the education committee have done an outstanding job. As Ryan transitions out of the post of chair, we will ensure that the new chair, Liz Wakefield, has the support needed for continued excellence. We will continue to produce incredible publications like the newly revised Major Crimes and Defenses and Investigator’s Manual.

Finally, as the “Cabaret” song goes: “Money makes the World go round, World go round, World go round...It makes the World go round!!!” OCDLA is our home organization. OCDLA supports our growth as attorneys. OCDLA takes up the mantle of constitutional and procedural fairness in a legislature where the message is rarely trumpeted. OCDLA keeps food on our table by advocating strongly in support of the Public Defense Services Commission’s budget. Remember to support your OCDLA with money and time. Being lone wolves is not easy work. OCDLA creates the pack making the work less lonely.

So, I raised my head that sunny Saturday morning, pulled my ball cap back showing my face clearly and spoke coolly to the deputy. “Jason...you know me.” “Mr. Raschio?” “Yeah.” As the deputy scrambled back to his rig, his voice fading, I think I heard, “Well, uh, there’s lots of crime...” Imagine if I had not been Mr. Raschio, but just some frazzled guy without identification walking his baby trying to keep him asleep. Imagine the arm bar take down when he protested his detention at the side of the road starting to walk away without the officer’s “permission.” Imagine the DHS involvement since he was now in jail and his baby alone at the side of the road, the loss of work from the detention, the bail instead of rent, the fear, the trial.

Now imagine you being with him every step of the way, hearing his story, fighting for his right to push his baby in a stroller without interference from the state, demanding fairness and justice prevail, insisting our society is better than this petty tyranny and our Constitution will provide protection. Not hard to imagine because it is what you do every day.

Thank you for the honor of serving you as your president. Thank you for doing the hardest work in the law. You have my deepest gratitude. ◊

The View From Here

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