Bonham presses for Ezra's Law
Grandmother Tina Jorgensen of Madras held up a photo last week of her Grandson Ezra Thomas during a hearing at the Oregon Capitol on a crime bill that carries the boy’s name.
State Rep. Daniel Bonham, (R - The Dalles) was able to get a hearing for Ezra’s Law on “day one.”
By Tom Peterson
Rep. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) hit the ground running Tuesday, Jan. 26, on the first day of public hearings for Ezra’s Law or HB 2339.
Bonham has been advocating for the law for several years. It would create a path to 25-year prison sentences for abusers who permanently injure children.
He believes it has a good chance of becoming law this session.
“It’s amazing we got a hearing on day one,” Bonham said last week. “This is the first day to hear bills… It’s fantastic we have this timeline. We are going to push and work in this session to get a vote.”
At the Judicial Hearing, five-year-old Ezra Thomas of Madras showed up via live stream video. He was unable to speak.
He was in Doernbechers’s Hospital in Portland because his tracheostomy had filled with blood. He was having trouble with a respiratory infection, a minor cold to most - a deadly threat for Ezra who is immune deficient.
He needs the tube to breathe.
He has seizures hourly.
He can't walk.
He can’t talk.
He needs care “24/7,” his grandmother Tina Jorgensen said.
It’s a result of a beating he took on Nov. 19, 2017, at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend, Josue Jair Mendoza-Melo. Ezra was 2.
Jorgensen said it was a miracle that Ezra survived, noting his skull had to be opened to relieve the pressure from his brain swelling.
His brain was bleeding, forehead and chin bruised and chin scraped.
What happened to the man who assaulted and permanently injured the two-year-old in 2017 while babysitting? Mendoza-Melo will get out of prison in 2029.
It’s not enough, said Jorgensen.
“He is serving 12 years for giving my grandson a life sentence. In 12 years, he will get to live his life.”
“Ezra is not expected to make it to live into his teenage years.”
“That is why this bill is important to me and Ezra. Ezra did not receive justice.”
Bonham has been pushing for the bill since after Jorgensen reached out to him on Facebook. He attended the sentencing of Mendoza-Melo in Jefferson County Circuit Court in 2019.
He and Sen. Lynn P. Findley (R-Vale) are sponsoring the bill.
On January 26, several lawmakers asked for clarifications within the definitions of the law. They also wanted to know about how sentences would work in the event that permanent injury did not show up until years after the sentencing.
Within the bill, permanent physical injury was defined as
Permanent loss of a person’s vision or hearing;
Permanent loss of a person’s ability to walk, breathe, eat or move the person’s limbs;
or Permanent impairment of a person’s cognitive functioning.
Ezra Thomas, 5, of Madras, last week at Doernbecher’s Hospital in Portland. His mother’s boyfriend, Josue Jair Mendoza-Melo, now 24, assaulted and permanently injured Thomas while babysitting in 2017. Bonham and other lawmakers are asking for a new law that would allow for 25-year prison sentences for such harm.
Lawmakers suggested some fine-tuning of the bill’s language. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Portland) asked that the definitions of severe impairment of cognitive function be clarified.
Josue Jair Mendoza-Melo, 24, of Madras is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to attempted aggravated murder, a class-A felony, and first-degree criminal mistreatment a class-C felony.
“That will be hard to prove, otherwise,” she said. “Loss of vision and hearing and legal blindness… is that 50 percent loss?”
Dexter who is a pulmonary physician was invited to provide standards that could be incorporated into the bill.
“I am eager for these conversations,” Bonham said after the hearing. “We need to hear the objections and make clarifications - they’re fair, well thought out questions and practical. We need to approach the bill on its merits.
Sen. Lynn P. Findley (R-Vale) said the bill’s passage would require heavy lifting.
“There are some big hurdles,” he said, noting the state is set to close three prisons in the near future.”
Gov. Kate Brown is closing three Oregon prisons in a move to redirect $44 million toward early childhood education and other social programs.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the closure of three of the state’s 14 prisons will be staggered.
OPB reported, “The closure of three of the state’s 14 prisons will be staggered: First will be Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, which is scheduled to be closed by July of this year, next Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend by January 2022, and last will be Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, to be closed by July 2022.”
Currently, Oregon State Prisons house 12,020 inmates, according to its latest statistics. The Oregon Department of Corrections employs 4,613 and its two-year budget is $1.87 billion or a little more than 2 percent of the state’s 2-year budget of $85.8 billion, according to the agency’s quick facts.
