‘Hush’ Episode 7 extra: The prosecutor’s statement

In September 2023, the Marion County District Attorney’s office ended its prosecution of Jesse Johnson, writing in a court motion that too many of the case’s key witnesses had died to continue.

It was the end of a 25-year effort by prosecutors to keep Johnson behind bars for the 1998 killing of Salem resident Harriet Thompson. The motion likely would have been the state’s final comment on the case, but OPB sought further explanation of the circumstances that led to Johnson’s release.

While former Salem Police Det. Mike Quakenbush did agree to an extended interview with OPB to provide his perspective on Johnson’s conviction, Marion County prosecutors – including District Attorney Paige Clarkson – declined several requests for an interview. The office also declined to answer specific questions provided by email. Instead, they sent a four-page statement.

In the interest of fairness, OPB is publishing that statement in full, as well as notes responding to specific aspects of the statement that require more context or are factually misleading.

The DA’s statement is in bold, and OPB’s annotations are italicized.

District Attorney statement: “In 2004, a jury unanimously found Jesse Johnson guilty of the March 1998 robbery and stabbing murder of Harriet Thompson. Twenty-three years later, the Oregon Court of Appeals determined that Mr. Johnson’s lawyers were ineffective, and the case was remanded for a new trial. Over that period, the evidence had deteriorated to the point where the case could no longer be proven in 2023.

“Does the state’s inability to prove a 23-year-old murder mean that Mr. Johnson did not kill Harriet Thompson? It does not.

“The 2004 jury convicted Mr. Johnson after considering Mr. Johnson’s confession, his provable lies, the physical evidence, and eyewitness testimony, all of which proved to the jury beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Johnson killed Harriet Thompson.”

OPB: At no time during Johnson’s 2004 trial was a direct confession from Johnson presented to the jury. Instead, prosecutors put forward a man named Donald “Shorty” Blocker, who told police Johnson had told him he “offed the bitch,” referring to Harriet Thompson, to steal her jewelry. Blocker retracted that statement eight months after he made it to police, saying Salem detectives coerced him to say it. Det. Mike Quakenbush then visited Blocker in jail about a month before Johnson’s trial, after which Blocker started again saying Johnson confessed to the crime. This vague “offed the bitch” statement is at the center of episode two of this season of Hush. Transcripts of Shorty’s initial claim to the police, and his assertion that he was forced to implicate Johnson by police have been published on our website.

Physical evidence, despite the DA’s statement, has not conclusively connected Johnson to the murder. The evidence against Johnson is circumstantial and proves he had been to Thompson’s apartment: a fingerprint on a beer bottle and a palm print on a $5 bill. Meanwhile, blood, semen and hair at the murder scene pointed away from Johnson, as outlined in Hush episode five.

No eyewitnesses have connected Johnson to the scene of the crime either. At the 2004 trial, Marion County prosecutors Darrin Tweedt and Stephen Dingle positioned John Shaw, a U.S. National Guard helicopter pilot, as an eyewitness after he claimed to have seen a Black man emerging from the bushes near Thompson’s home 90 minutes to two hours after the murder. This is false. Shaw was shown two photo line-ups of Black men, and on neither occasion picked Johnson.

DA: “That same jury then heard evidence of Mr. Johnson’s extensive and violent criminal history prior to his moving to Oregon, including his robberies of women at gunpoint, and raping a fellow inmate in Arkansas, whom Mr. Johnson threatened to kill if the victim disclosed. Mr. Johnson’s victims came from around the country to testify at trial about the trauma he caused them in previous decades.”

OPB: According to records obtained from the Arkansas State Police, Johnson served a few years in jail for charges related to robbery, theft, forgery and battery. His first charge was in 1977, when he was 16 years old.

There is a lack of documentation to back up the assertion that Johnson robbed women at gunpoint. When asked to provide records about these incidents, the Marion County District Attorney’s office sent one police record of a “purse snatching” in 1982. In that case, the victim described a Black male who “stuck something to her back and told her not to move, then took her purse.” Later, when police arrested Johnson, he had the purse and the $9 it contained, but was not found with any weapons.

During the penalty phase of Johnson’s Oregon case, an additional woman made a claim that Johnson took her purse at gunpoint, but said she did not report it to the police. Neither the Marion County District Attorney’s office nor the Arkansas State Police could provide documentation to OPB of her account.

Additionally, at Johnson’s sentencing, the state brought forth a man named Randall Waggoner, who claimed Johnson sexually assaulted him in 1986 when they were incarcerated together in Arkansas. Both men were held in a dormitory housing unit called Wrightsville. Waggoner, who died in 2012, told prosecutors that men held him down in the dormitory while Johnson raped him. Two men in that prison also testified in support of Waggoner’s allegation at Johnson’s sentencing phase, though it was eventually revealed one of the men had committed perjury by lying about his own drug use on the stand. Wrightsville prison officials said they did investigate Waggoner’s claim in 1986 and did not find evidence that the rape happened. A nurse examined Waggoner immediately after he reported the attack and found no signs of sexual abuse. Defense investigators also spoke to men who had been inside the same housing unit. They said they did not witness or hear about the attack. Waggoner’s own brother, Andrew Waggoner, also told investigators his brother had been incarcerated from a young age and he did not believe Randall “would submit to anything without a fight.” Andrew Waggoner said he never heard about the rape until he was contacted by investigators.

Records show Johnson was never charged with sexual assault during his incarceration, or anytime in his life. Sometime after the attack, prison officials placed Johnson and Waggoner in the same cell. They said that if Waggoner been attacked, he could have placed Johnson on his “enemy’s list” and they would have separated the men. A former supervisor at the Arkansas DOC said that “had the prison believed Johnson to be a sexual predator, it would have been reflected in his status and disciplinary reports.”

DA: “The jury then unanimously chose to give Mr. Johnson the death penalty. At his sentencing proceeding where death was imposed, the Honorable Jamese L. Rhoades, who presided over the pretrial hearings and trial in the matter, told Mr. Johnson, ‘I don’t think there’s anybody in the courtroom that believes that you’re innocent.’

“Twenty-three years later, Mr. Johnson was given a new trial because the defense, not the prosecution, erred in this matter. No appellate court has found any evidence, including DNA evidence, that pointed away from Mr. Johnson as the perpetrator of this murder.”

OPB: It is true that in 2021, Johnson was granted a new trial by the Oregon Court of Appeals because evidence that could have affected the outcome of the trial was not presented by his legal team. The appellate court took particular issue with Johnson’s defense counsel’s failure to interview Thompson’s neighbor Patricia Hubbard, who may have had eyewitness testimony that pointed away from Johnson.

Hubbard — whose story is the subject of episode four of Hush — claims to have been sitting on her porch smoking when she saw a white man in a black van pull up to Thompson’s apartment and go inside. Soon, she heard yelling and screaming and, according to Hubbard, the same white man went running from Thompson’s apartment. She also alleges that she saw a Black man later walking away from the apartment, and that she brought this information to Salem Police, who waved her away.

OPB located a second witness, Janelle Osborne, who also said she saw a white man flee the area on the night of the killing. Osborne’s account is documented in episode six of Hush.

DA: “Evidence does not improve over time. Key witnesses are no longer available for a new trial. Time has deteriorated the evidence against Mr. Johnson to the point where the Marion County District Attorney’s Office determined that it could no longer successfully prove the case beyond any reasonable doubt, the highest legal burden under the law.”

OPB: In its official motion to dismiss charges against Johnson in September 2023, prosecutors pointed to several people they described as “critical trial witnesses” who had died since Johnson was originally tried. They mentioned Donald “Shorty” Blocker, who was key to the case because of the alleged confession. But they also pointed to Willa Jean McDowell, who was Johnson’s girlfriend in 1998 and offered an alibi for Johnson to his appeals attorneys. She said on the night of the murder, they watched a movie – taping it on TV for her daughter – before they went to sleep in the same bed.

Prosecutors said Salem Police Officer Bruce Cheeley, who did not testify at the trial and merely responded to the initial call about Thompson’s death, was also key. They noted a deputy Marion County medical examiner named Darrell Britton had died, though he was never mentioned at trial or in the police investigation. Last, prosecutors listed Michael Griffith (Thompson’s landlord), Christopher Rodrigues (the son of Thompson’s roomate), Richard Blocker (Shorty’s brother), and Donald “Nazi Red” Sager (a local drug dealer) as other critical witnesses who had died. None of those people had ever met Johnson and did not present information at the 2004 trial that directly pointed to Johnson as a killer. In fact, Griffith and Sager did not testify at all.

DA: “The state’s inability to prove a 26-year-old murder after a reversal does not mean Jesse Johnson is innocent. Rather, it means he is ‘not guilty.’ Unbiased media coverage of this case would explain that difference and provide a full and accurate account of the evidence against Mr. Johnson.”

OPB: Prosecutors here are saying that even though they cannot now prove Johnson’s guilt to a jury, they do not view that as a sign of his innocence. Legally, Johnson is not considered guilty for Harriet Thompson’s murder because his conviction was overturned in 2021 and the Marion County District Attorney’s office has dropped the charges against him.

DA: “The state’s position on State v. Jesse Johnson has been repeatedly addressed in pretrial hearings, trial, and post-trial litigation. This information is public record and should be reviewed carefully by anyone who wants an accurate understanding of Mr. Johnson’s conduct. Further factual information regarding this case can be found at the Marion County District Attorney’s Office website.

“However, additional context is helpful.

“First, media reports of the dismissal have placed significant emphasis on other DNA found at the scene of the crime. To be clear, Jesse Johnson was not exonerated by DNA evidence. Any claim to the contrary is inaccurate.”

OPB: The state has continually resisted more testing of DNA that could potentially exonerate Johnson by identifying another suspect: namely the blood spot known as “spot 15” – which is the subject of episode five of Hush. Salem detectives who combed the scene of the murder for evidence developed an early theory that whoever killed Thompson in the brutal stabbing was covered in blood, and may have even been injured. The investigators said that after Thompson was dead, the killer — or killers — likely walked into the bathroom and washed up. On the white porcelain sink, a blood spot diluted with water was left behind. DNA testing has found that spot does not match DNA profiles for Thompson or Johnson.

Johnson’s defense team filed a motion to test this DNA again in May, but the local court said it no longer has jurisdiction to require the testing because Johnson’s case has been dropped by prosecutors. It is likely that only police or the Marion County prosecutors could request more testing of that DNA at this point.

DA: “The original trial jury was fully aware that unidentified male DNA that did not belong to Mr. Johnson was found on swabs taken from Ms. Thompson during her autopsy. The jury also knew of other identified DNA and fingerprint evidence located in Ms. Thompson’s residence.

“Both circumstances were never hidden from the jury, and they convicted Mr. Johnson despite knowing those facts. Ms. Thompson was an adult woman entitled to have people in her residence. The jury concluded that the other DNA and fingerprint evidence in Ms. Thompson’s residence was unrelated to her murder.”

OPB: During Johnson’s trial, a criminalist with the Oregon State Crime lab named Donna Scarpone told the jury that there were several pieces of DNA evidence that were tested during the course of the police investigation, including a towel in the bathroom. Blood on the towel matched to the son of Thompson’s former roommate, named Christopher Rodrigues (Rodrigues is now deceased). At the trial, Rodrigues admitted he had been an intravenous drug user at the time, and after using drugs in the bathroom on an earlier date, had swabbed his blood with the towel. They concluded this evidence was unrelated to Thompson’s murder.

On cross-examination, defense attorneys asked Scarpone about the semen found inside Thompson’s body. She told the jury that it “could not have come from any of the people I tested,” including Johnson. The person who left that semen was eventually identified and has a documented history of drug use, jewelry theft and domestic abuse, as reported in episode 8 of Hush.

DA: “Conversely, the jury never heard that Ms. Thompson’s earrings were found in Mr. Johnson’s pants pocket after he denied having ever been inside her residence. (The evidence was suppressed at trial due to Mr. Johnson’s clothing being mistakenly left off the search warrant.)”

OPB: The jury at Johnson’s trial heard throughout the trial about Thompson’s jewelry, including a pair of earrings with three black hearts. These are the earrings the DA’s office is referencing in its statement.

“Where was one of the earrings found? Do you remember?” prosecutor Stephen Dingle asked jurors during his closing statement in 2004. “It was with the defendant in his property at the house he was living at.”

It is true jurors never heard the earring was in Johnson’s pocket, however.

No items were “mistakenly left off a search warrant.” That warrant was obtained after police had already seized all of Johnson’s belongings, a violation of Fourth Amendment rights that a judge later admonished detectives over, as covered in episode 5 of Hush.

DA: “Second, the procedural history of this case is important. The Oregon Supreme Court reviewed the conviction and accompanying death sentence and affirmed both within approximately three years of Mr. Johnson’s conviction.

“In 2008, Mr. Johnson then pursued a post-conviction challenge (having lost his appeal regarding his guilt and punishment), challenging the competency of his trial attorneys. His claim remained pending until 2015, when he lost again. Mr. Johnson then appealed that post-conviction decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

“The Court of Appeals delayed an additional six and a half years before issuing a decision in Mr. Johnson’s favor in 2021- 14 years after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence, and 13 years after his initial post-conviction challenge. The Court of Appeals then remanded the case for a new trial 23 years after the death of Ms. Thompson.”

OPB: Courts did deny previous appeals by Johnson’s attorneys, but the 2021 Appeals Court decision is considered the final decision in the case. In that ruling, the panel of judges wrote, “the post-conviction court erred in concluding that the failure to reasonably investigate did not prejudice (Johnson’s) case,” meaning the court found error in the earlier decisions the DA’s office is citing here.

DA: “Evidence does not grow stronger with time. Understandably, individuals’ memories fade and time impacts recollection. Witnesses become unavailable. Here, between his 2004 conviction to the remand in 2021, key witnesses- including the witness to Mr. Johnson’s confession that he “off’d the bitch” (referring to Ms. Thompson)- have died. Evidence degrades over 23 years. Such degradation only favors the perpetrators who committed the crime.

“Even though Mr. Johnson’s conviction was upheld on appeal and his initial post conviction appeal was denied, law enforcement continued to document any evidence it received in this case. It did not hide evidence, withhold information, or refuse to investigate material evidence related to Ms. Thompson’s death. To date, no other suspect has been identified by any witness nor by any connection to physical evidence.”

OPB: Through a yearlong investigation and review of the original police investigation, OPB was able to identify three people with links to Thompson and histories of violence against women. Their stories are documented in episode 8 of Hush.

DA: “At no time was the Marion County District Attorney’s Office presented with evidence that investigators held a racial bias against Mr. Johnson or Ms. Thompson, who was also black. However, in 2022, a trial witness stated that years prior she heard a detective refer to Mr. Johnson using a racial slur. That accusation had never previously been communicated to law enforcement nor defense witnesses. Nevertheless, the prosecution informed Mr. Johnson’s defense team of that accusation. Again, this is an example of prosecutors meeting their high ethical standards regardless of how credible, when, or how the evidence became known. That accusation of racial bias further complicated any potential 2023 prosecution.”

OPB: The trial witness referred to in this section of the statement is named Sherry Sullivan. In 2022 as prosecutors were preparing to send Johnson back to trial, Salem police interviewed Sullivan again. Sullivan was using drugs in 1998 and sought some of the jewelry Johnson had traded that year. Unprompted in the 2022 discussion, Sullivan told police she thought Det. Mike Quakenbush “didn’t care for the Blacks.”

“When (Johnson) got sentenced, I’m pretty sure (Quakenbush) said, ‘He’s a n**** so, um, nobody’s gonna miss him,’” Sullivan said.

“And he said that to you?” Salem Det. Tom Johnson asked.

“I think I heard him say that,” Sullivan said.

Det. Johnson said Sullivan believed a white man in her social circle at that time had killed Thompson. When reached by OPB, Sullivan declined an on record interview request.

Prosecutors fail to mention here that Det. Tom Johnson would also go on to hear from a former Salem police detective that Quakenbush had been investigated for making racist remarks, which is covered in episode 7 of Hush.

DA: “Thus, the state had to ultimately decide whether it could prove a 23-year-old homicide case against Mr. Johnson, now with unavailable witnesses, degraded evidence, and a recent allegation of racial bias.

“Sometimes there is a difference between what happened and what prosecutors can prove happened. We must present evidence to meet our burden of proof. Additionally, ethical rules prohibit prosecutors from proceeding in cases if they do not believe they can obtain a conviction beyond any reasonable doubt. Due to the passage of time and the loss of evidence and witnesses, we came to the difficult conclusion that we could no longer meet our burden of proof.

“The state’s assessment of the evidence in this case has never changed. What changed was the availability of that evidence for a new trial. Citing plea negotiations to suggest that the state wasn’t confident that Mr. Johnson killed Ms. Thompson, or that he wasn’t a significant public safety risk is disingenuous. Pretrial negotiations, like trials, are driven by the strength of evidence balanced against the likelihood of trial success. Thus, this dismissal is not a concession that Mr. Johnson is innocent. Instead, he is legally not guilty of the crime of murder.

“That ultimate decision took time, further investigation, sleepless nights, and much anguish over two critical concerns: (1) the state’s belief that Mr. Johnson murdered Ms. Thompson in March of 1998, and (2) the acceptance of an injustice for Ms. Thompson and her family, which has always been our office’s biggest concern.

“Our hearts go out to Ms. Thompson’s parents, her five children, as well as the extended family she never had the chance to meet. The family simply wants this tortured ordeal to end. According to Paige Clarkson, Marion County District Attorney: ‘Failing to secure ultimate justice for Ms. Thompson’s family will forever be a disappointment to me.’”

Listen to all episodes of the “Hush” podcast here.