April 06 2021
Mirella Castaneda says she doesn t think Forest Grove Police Officer Steven Teets should keep his badge.
Until Forest Grove Police Officer Steven Teets accepts a plea deal or is convicted in court, it s unclear what consequences he will face for his drunken, violent attack on Mirella Castaneda s home last Oct. 31.
If Washington County offered an official Restorative Justice program for adult defendants, Castaneda might have felt more in control of the process. Restorative Justice empowers victims by letting them shape more creative and transformative consequences for their offenders than the regular criminal-justice system allows.
But it also often involves victim and perpetrator sitting down together to talk about what happened, which wouldn t work for Castaneda, who is still too afraid of Teets to face him in person.