Laura Fosmire

Statesman Journal

On a chilly night in February, Jessica Ojeda, 23, sat shivering in her car while police arrested her fiancé for drunken driving.

It was shortly after 1:30 a.m. and they were still a couple of miles from their Salem home. Her cellphone was dead; she didn't have money for a taxi. Police put her fiancé, William Helle, in the back of a police car and told Ojeda they were impounding the vehicle.

"I don't have any way to get home," Ojeda said to the deputy. "Wait a minute, you can't just pull me over and leave me here."

But a Marion County police report confirms that Ojeda was, indeed, left there — alone at 2 a.m., walking along Hawthorne Avenue NE to a nearby hotel to call for a ride.

Most law enforcement agencies don't have policies in place requiring officers to go out of their way to help people who wind up in situations like Ojeda's. There was no rule broken when the deputy didn't help her get home.

But rules or not, there is a general expectation that officers sworn to protect and serve the public do not put people in danger as they carry out their duties, citizen advocacy groups say.

Several members of the National Motorists Association, when asked about Ojeda's case, all agreed the officers had a duty to make sure she ended up in a safe place.

"Heck, even the DUI suspect was going to end up with a roof over his head," said John Bowman, communications director with the NMA. "Police have an obligation to protect and serve all citizens with whom they interact. And while abandoning a woman on the side of the road may technically not be illegal, it certainly doesn't live up to the public expectation of police officers being helpful and looking out for the well-being of citizens, no matter the circumstances."

Abandoned after a traffic stop

The incident started the night of Feb. 16, as Jessica Ojeda and William Helle left a Center Street bar and started heading to their home on Maple Avenue NE.

Their car was spotted by Marion County Deputy David Watkin, who wrote in a police report that he observed the couple's Chevy Cavalier speeding with broken tail lights. When the car didn't immediately yield, he called for backup; summoning more deputies and Salem police officers to the scene.

The Cavalier pulled over near the intersection of Hawthorne Avenue and Freeway Court NE. As he approached the driver's side door, he "smelled an overwhelming odor of an alcoholic beverage mixed with the smell of burnt marijuana," he wrote in the police report from that night.

Watkin detained Helle and ran a search on him because he didn't know if Helle had a warrant — but he did learn that Helle's driver's license had been suspended.

Throughout the traffic stop, Helle repeatedly said "his main concerns were his grandmother's vehicle and Ojeda not having to walk home alone at night."

Watkin left Helle in the back of his patrol car and went to speak with Ojeda, noticing that the smell of burnt marijuana persisted.

"She told me she has a medical marijuana card and showed me this current card," Watkin wrote in the report. "Ojeda said she had smoked marijuana earlier and this was the smell coming from her. Ojeda was noticeably irritated and wanted to be argumentative with me. She demanded to be arrested as well because she was not leaving."

In Ojeda's account of the conversation, she said she wanted to go to jail simply because she had no other place to go.

"I said, 'I don't have any way to get home, can you book me?' " Ojeda said. "I let him know that as calmly as possible. The Salem police officer looked at him and asked him, 'Is there a way we can work around this?' And (Watkin) immediately told him, 'We're not taking her home. It's not our obligation, it's not our job.' "

Police then informed Ojeda that they were arresting her fiance and towing the vehicle.

According to Marion County code, a police officer is allowed to order a vehicle impounded if there is probable cause to believe one of four circumstances: the driver is under the influence of intoxicants, driving with a suspended license, without driving privileges or if the vehicle is uninsured.

Watkin cited the DUI violation of this code in a form filed with the Marion County Sheriff's Office called a towed vehicle notice. Ojeda wasn't allowed to drive the car home herself, the sheriff's office confirmed, because of the marijuana.

Ojeda walked away from the scene and to the nearby Red Lion Hotel, where she begged an employee to allow her inside. According to the daily almanac from the National Weather Service, the low temperature that night was 40 degrees; the weather, raining.

"I must have looked haggard and ridiculous," Ojeda said. "I just had to do a walk of shame into a hotel and convince this girl I wasn't homeless. She kindly let me use her little charger port. I got lucky and had a friend come pick me up. I thank my lucky stars I didn't die on the side of the road."

Helle was taken to the Marion County jail on a DUI charge. In April, he pleaded guilty to one count of driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence; the DUI charge was dismissed as Helle agreed to undergo a diversion program.

For the most part, Deputy Watkin's written report and Ojeda's account of the facts of that night line up. But where the sheriff's office and Ojeda disagree is whether Deputy Watkin ever offered to call a cab.

According to Sgt. Chris Baldridge, spokesman for the sheriff's office, Watkin did offer to call a cab.

"Despite Ms. Ojeda cursing at Deputy Watkin and demanding he take her to jail, Deputy Watkin attempted to make arrangements for a cab to come and pick Ms. Ojeda up from the traffic stop," he said in an email. "This was witnessed and verified by a Salem officer and an additional Marion County deputy who were on scene and assisting Deputy Watkin with the traffic stop."

But according to Ojeda, he never said any such thing.

"He never offered to call me a taxi, even after knowing my stranded situation," she said.

Watkin's police report from that night makes no mention of any offer to call a cab. Ojeda disappears from the narrative in two sentences: "I explained she was not under arrest and needed to leave. Ojeda was not happy and made derogative statements before finally leaving the area."

A duty to protect and serve

Ojeda's story raises the question of what should happen to passengers when the driver of a car is arrested and the vehicle impounded?

According to Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings, each individual agency handles the question a little differently. There is no universal answer.

"If no safe location nearby is available for the passenger to walk to, we may offer a ride to a nearby location or help get a ride arranged," Hastings said. "If a location is nearby and the passenger can walk there safely, that may be an option to consider. There is no directive to do that in every case but we will try if able."

Deputy Chief Jeff Kuhns of the Keizer Police Department said officers are encouraged not to leave passengers in situations that could become dangerous. He couldn't comment specifically on Ojeda's case, but agreed to speak generally.

"What we would like to see our officers do is not to leave anybody with a vehicle alongside the road without trying to assist them in some shape or form," Kuhns said. "If the passenger or passengers are unlicensed or otherwise unable to drive, we would work with them using our cellphones to call a friend, mother, spouse, what have you, to try and make arrangements."

Of course, officers may take into consideration the time of day or the approximate location, he added.

"If this was in north Keizer out of city limits on a dark country road, that's different than leaving somebody in a vehicle in a 7-Eleven parking lot with a business that's open," he said. "You have to look at each occurrence on a case-by-case basis."

On the other end of the spectrum, however, police also may take personal and public safety into account.

"If the other person is a belligerent drunk or telling the officer to 'eff off' or whatever, we don't want to stick around and get into a confrontation," Kuhns said. "Especially if we're still trying to deal with the DUI driver, too."

In one incident in 1992, an Oregon State Police trooper in Klamath Falls agreed to give two passengers a ride at great personal cost.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 30, Trooper Bret Clodfelter had just arrested a suspected DUI driver in a suburban area of Klamath Falls. The two other passengers in the car asked Clodfelter for a ride to their nearby residence, so the trooper agreed and loaded all three into the back of the patrol vehicle.

He was later found, four blocks away, slumped against the steering wheel. He had been shot at least three times in the head.

Police located the shooter, Francisco Manzo-Hernandez, a few days later as he was hiding in a barn. A jury convicted him in 1994 of aggravated murder, for which he was sentenced to life in prison.

But even if there was no law or policy broken when police declined to help Jessica Ojeda that night, it did perhaps violate an unspoken agreement between police and the public they've sworn to protect.

Baldridge said it was "unfortunate" that Ojeda's actions made it difficult for the deputies to provide her assistance.

"In line with our agency's four core functions, our citizens are one of our top priorities," he said. "The sheriff's office knows that traffic stops can be very stressful times for passengers in a vehicle, especially when it involves the arrest of a loved one. That is why we ask those passengers to remain calm and allow the deputies time to complete their investigation and additional time to provide them with the assistance they may need, such as a cab ride home, calling a family member or friend."

Ojeda said she fully expected that police had an obligation to make sure someone would get home safely.

"It hurts when you vote for these people to support you and finding out what they're doing," she said. "I was walking, crying, because I felt so demoralized. I felt like I did something wrong, and I didn't understand why I was being punished for it."

lfosmire@StatesmanJournal .com, (503) 399-6709 or follow at Twitter.com/fosmirel