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	Child Sexual Abuse Charges Dropped for Killer By Karen McCowan The Register-Guard July 28, 2011 http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26616942-41/gonzales-charges-mort-abuse-murder.html.csp A judge has dismissed child sexual abuse charges against a Lowell man convicted this year of murdering his wife's ex-husband inside a Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall in May 2010. Robert Riley Gonzales, 35, must serve at least 25 years of a life prison term after pleading guilty in February to fatally shooting Ken Mort, 47, at the Kingdom Hall in Lowell. He also must serve an additional seven years before even being considered for parole after pleading guilty to four counts of kidnapping for forcing Mort and three other church elders back into the church at gunpoint before the murder. At Gonzales' sentencing hearing on Feb. 24, defense attorney William Ray said the murder arose from his client's frustration over what Ray called unfounded allegations that Gonzales had sexually abused a teenage girl. Lane County Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz also tied the abuse allegations to the murder at the sentencing hearing. He said Gonzales thought Mort was behind the accusations and went to the church to confront him in a "dastardly attempt" to shift blame onto Mort for the alleged sexual abuse. When that didn't work, Schwartz said, Gonzales shot Mort four times. Gonzales did not go to the church to kill Mort, as the state alleged, his defense lawyer said. Rather, Ray said, Gonzales went to the Kingdom Hall to talk to other elders about being falsely accused of molesting an adolescent girl, and he unexpectedly encountered Mort. A Lane County grand jury indicted Gonzales on Feb. 9 on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sodomy involving a different alleged victim, a child younger than 12. In March, prosecutors filed a document also accusing him of one misdemeanor count of sexually abusing the teen victim. The Lane County District Attorney's Office filed a motion last week with the court to dismiss all the abuse charges. Court records show that Lane County Circuit Judge Maurice Merten granted the motion Tuesday. "Our client has steadfastly maintained his innocence of these charges and is greatly relieved by the dismissal," said Greg Hazarabedian, who represented Gonzales in the case along with fellow public defender Robert Kaiser. Hazarabedian said a defense investigation in preparation for a scheduled trial next week turned up evidence "that cast serious doubt on the validity of the charges." The district attorney's office apparently found the same evidence, he said. "We are grateful that Mr. Schwartz did the right thing and dismissed the case once he realized the state of the evidence," Hazarabedian said. Schwartz agreed that the state's continued investigation of the felony charges revealed facts that cast the allegations in doubt. His motion listed "material element cannot be proven" as the reason for seeking dismissal of the felony charges, which under Oregon's version of "Jessica's Law" carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. Such laws, first passed in Florida after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was raped and murdered by a previously convicted sex offender, set a 25-year mandatory minimum for certain sexual offenses against children younger than 12. Schwartz said the state had a different reason for seeking dismissal of the misdemeanor charge against Gonzales. He said his office consulted with the person — now an adult — named as a victim in that charge. They "mutually agreed to no longer pursue that case," he said, due to "the hardship that a trial would present that victim," the length of Gonzales' sentence in the murder case and the minimal sentence that would result from a misdemeanor sexual abuse conviction. The state's motion to dismiss that charge listed a reason of "state no longer wishes to pursue prosecution." Gonzales was contrite at the sentencing and personally made no excuses for killing Mort. "I'm so sorry for everyone I've hurt," Gonzales said. "I would take that day back if I could, but I can't." Before his arrest for the murder, Gonzales had no criminal record in Oregon.
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