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Oregon Lawmakers Punt on a Bill That Sought to Reduce Criminal Sentences for Survivors of Domestic Violence We’re not there today and we have a lot of work to do before we can get there. Cherry blossoms along the Portland waterfront. (Mick Hangland-Skill)
Chief sponsor: Rep. Anna Williams (D-Hood River).
What it would do: HB 2825 seeks to allow Oregon judges the discretion to reduce the sentence of a person convicted of a crime, if that person was subject to physical, psychological or sexual abuse by an intimate partner or family member. In order for the defendant to qualify for the sentence reduction, the abuse must have been a contributing factor to the criminal behavior, and the mandatory minimum sentence must be unduly harsh given the circumstances.
Klamath County Circuit Court Judge Alycia Kersey on Tuesday postponed a plea change hearing for Klamath Falls cremation business owner Maximillian Bodzin to February.
Bodzin was arrested Dec. 19, 2019 on seven counts of theft and abuse of a corpse and was held on $100,000 bail, prior to being released on his own recognizance in March.
Following investigations by Klamath Falls Police Department and Klamath County Medical Examiner John Dougherty, it was discovered that Bodzin stored seven bodies in a cooler in his business, located on East Main Street in 2019, instead of having them cremated, according to a previous
Herald & News story.
Bodzin’s attorney, Joshua Guest, asked the court for more time for Bodzin to fundraise to repay the seven families, after Bodzin allegedly failed to provide the cremation services for which they paid him as owner of Klamath Falls-based Affordable Cremation Care.