A 62-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for driving a woman to the Columbia River Gorge and attacking her in his car before she summoned help by kicking the horn when she saw the red and blue lights of a Multnomah County sheriff’s cruiser nearby.

Douglas Lawrence Braaten had offered a ride to a woman at a 7-Eleven near Northeast 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard about 7:30 p.m. on March 6, 2018.

It’s unclear why the woman would have accepted a ride from Braaten. Investigators say the two were strangers.

When the woman realized Braaten was no longer driving her to where she’d asked to go, she texted 911 that she was being kidnapped and was headed east on Interstate 84, the affidavit states.

She also called 911 -- and though she didn’t speak to dispatchers, a sheriff’s deputy used the signal on her cellphone to locate her in Braaten’s Dodge Durango SUV in the parking lot of the Bridal Veil Post Office, investigators say.

When the woman saw the emergency lights of the deputy’s car, she kicked the car’s horn, according to the affidavit.

Braaten was in the process of sexually assaulting the victim, the affidavit states. The deputy noted that the woman’s pants and underpants had been pulled down.

In March, Braaten pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and attempted first-degree kidnapping. On Wednesday, he declined to make a statement when Multnomah County Circuit Judge Leslie Bottomly gave him the opportunity.

Braaten’s defense attorney, Lynne Dickison, said her client has been “amenable to working this case out” since criminal charges were filed against him.

“He feels very badly about what occurred,” Dickison said.

Braaten, who has been jailed since his March 2018 arrest, was escorted by a deputy in and out of the courtroom in a wheelchair. Dickison said he’s suffered a stroke and has been in physical therapy and rehabilitation.

He’d previously been convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in Alaska in 1983. Deputy District Attorney Mike Botthof said although Braaten wasn’t prosecuted on a report of a 1994 rape, the alleged victim in that case was prepared to testify if Braaten’s 2018 case had gone to trial.

He had worked as a truck driver but was forced to retire because of health problems, according to court papers. At the time of his arrest, he was collecting Social Security disability payments and had been living in an RV on some property in La Center.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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