Oregon’s largest county is going to have a new top prosecutor. Nathan Vasquez beat out one-term incumbent Mike Schmidt to become the new Multnomah County District Attorney. Vasquez has been a prosecutor in the office for almost 25 years, and is currently a senior deputy district attorney.
Multnomah County prosecutor Nathan Vasquez speaks to supporters at the election night party at The Hoxton Hotel in Portland, Ore., May 21, 2024.
Conrad Wilson / OPB
Vasquez spoke with OPB’s “Think Out Loud” two days after the election on May 21. Below are highlights of the conversation.
On whether he will hold himself accountable for conditions in downtown Portland:
“Well, I want to certainly look at: how do we best influence that? How do we best start to make some inroads and changes? Is it gonna happen overnight? It absolutely is not. But certainly I’m going to be looking at: what are my efforts, what things can I do? … My work will be directed towards really looking at: how do we end open air drug use and have we seen some progress there? How do we end open air drug dealing and have we seen progress there?”
A recent survey of staff at the DA’s office showed that 75% said their job is more stressful than it used to be. Here’s what Vasquez thinks could help remedy that:
“There are a few things that haven’t been done, and I think really need to be, and that’s going to the county Commission for some very specific asks, things such as paralegals. Our office, we have some senior legal assistants, but we haven’t really maximized our efficiency there, and with more paralegals, we’ll be able to really have our attorneys be more dedicated to the legal work as opposed to staff oriented work. … Also, when we talk about more cases, a lot of those end up being in the misdemeanor level. So they’re not the same heavy lifts that you get with, for example, a murder case, right? …And then my goal is to absolutely bring back the community court system and that is a way in which you can efficiently move cases through the system with a lower kind of impact.”
On the county’s efforts to open a sobering center:
“I think when we talk about deflection diversion, it starts with having that sobering center. Because we need people that have a safe place go, and it will alleviate a lot of burden on our first responders like firefighters, paramedics. So it’s a critical component and I’m very hopeful.”
When Mike Schmidt won overwhelmingly four years ago, then District Attorney Rod Underhill stepped down early. That paved the way for Governor Kate Brown at the time to appoint Mike Schmidt to take over early. Will Vasquez ask for the same thing?
“Just a day or two after the election, I am trying to absorb all of what has just transpired, and I’m trying to certainly to give DA Schmidt an opportunity for that as well. And then he and I can have conversations. At this point, he’s made it pretty clear that he intends to stay until the end of his term. And there’s pluses and minuses to that, right? I mean, yes, I want to get in there right now and do the work. But at the same time, it also allows for some real thoughtful planning, some thoughtful transition teams to be formed and for hopefully some good conversations where when we do this transition, that he and I can talk about them.
I have a regular docket of cases currently. I have three major homicide cases. I’m going to continue to work on those … and it’ll be something that I’ll need to work out with DA Schmidt - of how much during this time I can do transition work or will that be my evening/weekend job?”
Multnomah County DA-elect Nathan Vasquez spoke to “Think Out Loud.” To hear more of the conversation, click below: