Oregon Supreme Court finds woman at Coffee Creek was illegally imprisoned 

The Oregon Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of a woman from state prison, finding she was illegally imprisoned after Gov. Tina Kotek ordered her return to prison without the legal authority to do so.

The court’s order frees Terri Lee Brown, 48, from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, the same women’s prison that Kotek has ordered to make reforms. It ends a three-month ordeal that started in February when Grants Pass police arrested her on a warrant and she found herself headed back to the same prison she had left more than three years ago. 

“Plaintiff’s imprisonment is unlawful,” the court order said. “Accordingly, we order that she immediately be discharged from custody.”

The Oregon Justice Resource Center, which advocates for prison reforms, took Brown’s case to the Oregon Supreme Court, petitioning for her release. The center argued that Kotek’s order in late 2023 to revoke Brown’s commuted sentence was unlawful in part because she had already finished her sentence when Kotek took action.

The center’s executive director, Bobbin Singh, praised the court’s ruling but said questions still need to be answered about the case – and whether there are any others like it. 

“We all need to figure out what happened and how the governor made this decision and what prompted her to make this decision,” Singh said in an interview with the Capital Chronicle.

Elisabeth Shepard, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said Kotek respects the ruling and will take it under advisement in the future. The office is not aware of any other similar cases under review, Shepard said.

Brown is among nearly 1,000 inmates whose sentences were commuted during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce pressures on prisons. Then-Gov. Kate Brown commuted the sentences in 2020 and 2021, allowing Brown and others to exit prison early and, in many cases, under post-prison supervision. Brown was released in December 2020, when she was eight months away from finishing a five-year sentence for two counts of mail theft in Josephine County. 

Then in February 2023, the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision issued Brown a certificate stating she had completed her supervised release and no longer needed supervision. But 10 months later, in December 2023, Kotek issued an order revoking Brown’s commutation, declaring she had violated the terms of her release. 

On Wednesday the Oregon Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Kotek’s action was unlawful because Brown had completed her sentence, including the post-prison supervision, when Kotek’s order came out. As a result, the governor lacked the authority to revoke the commuted sentence, making the imprisonment unlawful as well, the court found.

Oregon Department of Justice attorneys unsuccessfully argued in the court case against Brown’s release from prison. They insisted that Kotek had the right to revoke the commutation because Brown was arrested in May 2021 for assaulting someone who she accused of stealing marijuana. 

At the time, though, Brown had served 30 days in jail and pleaded no contest to violating the general condition of her supervision. And the state had said completed her sentence and supervision nearly two years later.

“I think it’s shameful that the attorney general and the governor defended this revocation in the way that they defended in court,” Singh said. “And I think it’s even more curious as to how this decision was made. And there still hasn’t been any clarity about this.”

Roy Kaufmann, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice, said the state respects the court’s ruling and appreciates the clarification about the governor’s clemency powers.

The prison started the process for Brown’s release on Wednesday, said Amber Campbell, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Unexpected arrest detailed

Court documents detail Brown’s arrest in February – and the anguish of her early days sitting in a jail with uncertainty about what lies ahead.

At the time of her arrest, Brown had been renting a house for two and a half years and lived with her boyfriend, teenage son and 20-year-old daughter there. She also worked as an in-home caregiver and an auditor in a hotel.

Kotek’s order on Dec. 15, 2023 was followed a week later by a warrant for her arrest.

Police arrested Brown at her home in front of her adult daughter on Feb. 17. An officer handcuffed and walked her to the police car, initially telling her she was under arrest for mail theft.

She protested and questioned him, asking her daughter to retrieve her certificate of completing her supervision, which was posted on a wall in her house.

In response, the officer said a warrant was out for her arrest for violating her post-prison supervision. 

During the arrest, Brown had a panic attack and pleaded for her inhaler. The officer drove her to a nearby gym’s parking lot, where she received an inhaler before an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital for an evaluation. After about an hour, police took her to the Josephine County Jail and told her she’d need to contact her parole officer.

Brown said she didn’t have one because her sentence is finished.

After nearly five days in jail, Brown finally learned that her commutation was revoked and the state put out a warrant for her arrest. She didn’t receive any documentation about the revocation, court records show. 

Brown’s initial reaction: This all had to be a “big mistake.”

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.

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