On a rainy, 45-degree day last February, someone stole defense attorney Stacey Reding’s coat from a hook near the door of a downtown Portland courtroom.

Reding figured out who did it — Jay Dee Dunshee, a 60-year-old homeless man -- after reviewing courtroom surveillance video, according to court papers.

Dunshee had been at the Multnomah County Justice Center to face a charge of methamphetamine possession. Another defense attorney was representing him on the charge. When Dunshee left, he swiped Reding’s $300 coat along with her keys in the pocket, according to court documents.

But Reding, a public defender in Oregon of 12 years, didn’t want Dunshee to rack up another conviction on his record.

Jay Dee Dunshee (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)

She told a judge she wanted him to dismiss the case in favor of a civil compromise agreement. Such agreements allow for defendants in lower level cases to offer some remedy — often money — to a victim as compensation in exchange for dropping the charges. A judge must approve the civil compromise.

Reding, who works at Multnomah Defenders, declined to comment for this story.

But court records indicate Dunshee is unemployed and didn’t have the money to repay Reding. And the jacket and keys were long gone on the streets of Portland. In order to satisfy the civil compromise deal, Dunshee sat down with Reding and listened to what losing her coat and keys meant to her. He apologized.

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office objected to the civil compromise, as it typically does with every civil compromise offer. But last week, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael Greenlick approved it and dismissed the case.

Dunshee, however, was convicted that same day of methamphetamine possession, from his earlier case. The judge ordered him to 1 ½ years of probation and drug treatment if necessary.

Court records show he’s lived a rough life, with 20 felony and misdemeanor convictions for mostly drug- and theft-related crimes in the past 40 years. He told jailers he’d been homeless for at least a decade and been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Last week, Dunshee was wearing a thick down men’s jacket and woolen gloves during his sentencing hearing. He told the judge that life on the streets was tough.

“I got frostbitten out there,” Dunshee said. “I nearly lost my foot.”

But he said he now has a place to live, he feels “safe and secure” and “I have a whole new way of looking at things.”

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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