Asian American Council of Oregon praises DA Parosa in extradition case

Presenter: Jenny Jonak and Jensina Hawkins express their appreciation for Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa, Register-Guard reporter Haleigh Kochanski, and many more. For the Asian American Council of Oregon, Jenny Jonak:

Jenny Jonak: You know, back in, I think it was Dec. 2, right after Thanksgiving of last year, there was an article published in the Register-Guard that talked about a burglary crime ring that was targeting homes of Asian Americans locally. And at the time, I want to say, it was around seven burglaries that were reported.

[00:00:37] We were really surprised, several of us in the Asian American community, not to have heard anything about this.

[00:00:44] So this came as a real shock and we organized on behalf of the Asian American Council of Oregon, a safety forum that Springfield Police Department and the Eugene Police Department both attended. And we managed to get more information about what was happening, how these crimes were occurring, how people were being targeted, and, some steps that local Asian business owners and homeowners could take to try to protect themselves.

[00:01:15] So that was, we felt that was a really great step towards establishing more transparency and more open channels of communication between law enforcement and the Asian community with crimes that were directly impacting our community.

[00:01:34] And Jensina really took the lead in helping to follow up on this. She’s been instrumental, I think, in helping to strengthen our channels of communication with local law enforcement and also with our District Attorney’s Office.

[00:01:49] Presenter: Jensina Hawkins:

[00:01:50] Jensina Hawkins: It’s been a pleasure to develop the relationship with Eugene Police Department and Springfield Police Department. The outcome of the Public Safety Forum that we did on Jan. 16 really helped deepen and strengthen the communication between the law enforcement agencies and our community, and they’ve kept us abreast of developments in the investigations and things that we can be aware of, or ways that we can help protect our community, and we appreciate that communication.

[00:02:22] DA Parosa has been wonderfully transparent and responsive with questions that we’ve presented to him. He graciously met us (David Tam and myself) in person, and was wonderful about communicating his concern and his desire to protect the Asian Americans and all of the residents of Lane County.

[00:02:45] Presenter: The community got a second shock, learning that one of the suspects in the burglary ring was being held in Texas, but the governor’s office refused the request from DA Parosa to bring that suspect to Oregon for trial. Jenny Jonak:

[00:03:01] Jenny Jonak: Jensina has stayed regularly in touch with the local police departments and with DA (Chris) Parosa to keep abreast of what’s been happening. And we’ve learned recently that at least one suspect from this crime ring had a warrant and had been detained out of state.

[00:03:23] And I think this happened right around the same time as the Eugene Weekly matter, where we also learned that the governor’s office was declining to provide the funds for the extradition costs, both for this suspect and also for the Eugene Weekly embezzlement suspect.

[00:03:43] Presenter: Building a relationship with the District Attorney’s Office meant that the Asian American Council of Oregon first heard about the governor’s decision from DA Parosa. Jensina Hawkins:

[00:03:55] Jensina Hawkins: He was actually the first one to let me know that the governor had declined the extradition. It was very nice to learn something like that from the agency itself instead of from the news.

[00:04:07] And there was the frustration when the governor first declined the extradition and feeling, ‘Well, like, what was all of this effort really for then?’ ‘Cause everybody put so much work and time and expense into all of investigations, and for the DA to get to the point where he felt strongly enough to request extradition… It felt very pointless at the time.

[00:04:30] Presenter: Jenny Jonak:

[00:04:32] Jenny Jonak: My understanding is that originally, the governor’s office had said that because of the ICE hold, they suggested that there would have had to be extenuating circumstances identified by the DA in order to extradite that suspect back.

[00:04:46] DA Parosa might have provided more information on that had he seen that as instrumental to getting that suspect extradited.

[00:04:54] And when he learned that it was primarily, or at least in part, a cost issue, that he did follow up and really try to represent Lane County’s interest before the state.

[00:05:04] Presenter: Jenny also thanked the person who put in a lot of time to build those relationships:

[00:05:10] Jenny Jonak: I think Jensina deserves a massive amount of credit for all of that. She’s been instrumental, I think, in helping to strengthen our channels of communication with local law enforcement and also with our District Attorney’s Office.

[00:05:25] Presenter: Jensina Hawkins:

[00:05:26] Jensina Hawkins: Working with Jenny has been a huge pleasure. It’s been interesting teaming up with her. She’s very well known, very really well respected in the community, and so a lot of my effort has been shamelessly throwing her name around and she’s been gracious enough to let me do that.

[00:05:41] Presenter: Jensina said the Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa has been a leader in supporting the community.

[00:05:48] Jensina Hawkins: Even just what he’s done in the community by establishing the very first-ever public information officer for that particular office. And with that being Miles Pendleton, the past president of the NAACP, it’s been really great for DA Parosa to be able to leverage Miles’s position and contacts in the community to make these meaningful contacts and establish those relationships and to lay the foundation of trust in our judicial system.

[00:06:17] The NAACP was very supportive of our efforts. They’ve really helped us communicate with some of the folks that we wouldn’t otherwise have access to. And I would say, even with my husband (Demond Hawkins) being the president of the NAACP, Drae Charles has really done a lot of legwork behind the scenes to try to help us out and make us feel included as well.

[00:06:41] Haleigh Kochansky has done a wonderful job with the investigative reporting and uncovering a lot of the details that other folks have been unaware of. She’s followed the story very closely, and has been providing a lot of the details that so far have been obscured.

[00:06:58] So it’s wonderful that the governor has reversed her decision and that she is demonstrating how much that she really cares about the impact that something like this can have on an entire community of citizens.

[00:07:12] Presenter: Jenny Jonak:

[00:07:14] Jenny Jonak: So I think not just our Asian American community, but our entire community ought to be grateful for that because when something affects the safety of any one group, it really affects the entire community. So we are grateful to DA Parosa for that.

[00:07:28] I think anytime you have crimes that are targeting a particular demographic, it’s really helpful to involve that part of the community because they can help collaborate.

[00:07:38] They can also help inform the community in a way that can help them take steps to try to minimize their exposure to crime. So, I really see that as something that we can just continue building and I’m really pleased about that.

[00:07:52] And I know several different individuals in the community have commented to me that this makes them feel heard. And it makes them feel grateful that their presence in this community is supported and appreciated.

[00:08:00] We’re also very grateful for the incredibly hard work by local law enforcement that got us to this stage. I don’t think this was an easy thing to investigate. My understanding is that this is an international crime ring that involves, alleged involvement of people from overseas who’ve been helping to coordinate this crime.

[00:08:30] And in other different police files, I’ve read about burner phones and things like that, so I can’t imagine that this was an easy thing to put together. And so it’s gratifying that after all of that time and energy expended by our local law enforcement —and also law enforcement in other parts of the state, because Lane County was not the only community affected by these burglaries.

[00:08:53] So, that is good to see because the last thing you want to see is that we’ve spent all of this time and energy to follow through and try to bring some sense of security and justice to the victims of the crimes, only to find out that we can’t extradite a suspect back because of a few thousand dollars.

[00:09:11] Presenter: Knowing that they are being targeted, the Asian American community can take countermeasures. Jensina Hawkins:

[00:09:18] Jensina Hawkins: One of the lessons that I hope can be taken from this is pushing back on the stereotype of the Asians being the ‘model minority.’

[00:09:28] The criminals, the ones who have been apprehended here in the Pacific Northwest and even across the country, have specifically said that they have targeted Asian Americans because they feel that maybe we’re less likely to fight back or not have security systems or be armed or even report the crimes to the police.

[00:09:47] And so I hope that some part of this brings to the public awareness that we’re not quite as quiet and we’re not quite the wallflowers, apparently, that some people expect us to be.

[00:09:58] Presenter: The Asian American Council of Oregon praises local officials for going the extra mile and building trust.