'Jogger rapist' survivors seek reclassification of sex offender status at Salem protest
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Survivors of the "jogger rapist" Richard Gilmore, who is 17 days from getting out of prison, spoke out at a protest in Salem Wednesday to reclassify his sex offender status to better protect people living near him.
Tiffany Edens, a survivor of Gilmore said that this is for the sake of women in Oregon, specifically in Portland’s Old Town, where Gilmore will live in a halfway house when he is released from state prison.
"There's so many vulnerable women and young women that are homeless and mentally ill," said Edens.
In December of 1986, Gilmore broke into Eden’s home and raped her. She was just 13 years old at the time. "I was a ballerina and a jazz dancer," Edens said. "My goal was to be on Broadway, not to survive a brutal rape at 13 in my own house."
Gilmore would stalk his victims as he jogged around neighborhoods in Portland and Gresham. Gilmore raped at least nine women in the 1970s and 1980s, but due to the statute of limitations, he was only convicted of one.
Gilmore will be released from prison and will be classified by the state as a level one sex offender, meaning his name will not be on a sex offender registry and people will not be notified when Gilmore moves into their neighborhood.
Edens, as well as other victims and their supporters, are pleading once again for Governor Kate Brown to intervene and increase Gilmore’s offender classification. Last month KOIN 6 News asked the governor's office if that is something she would be willing to do, and her office responded and said that Brown did not have the power to do so.
"I call BS on that, you do have the power to do something, “said Alisha Holland, a supporter and co-host of the Murder in the Rain podcast. "I’m all about second chances, I’m all about you serving your time, but this is a different situation, and this is really wrong."
Edens said she has no idea if Gilmore has changed, and she wants Brown to remember that fact.
"When Gilmore raped me he was on the shortlist to become a Gresham police officer," Edens said. "He knows how to behave. He's intelligent, he's calculating, he's very charismatic."
KOIN 6 News has been in contact with Multnomah County Corrections, which is supervising Gilmore’s release. He will reportedly be on heightened supervision and will have to wear a GPS monitor, but likely only for 30 days.
Edens said the state and county are not required to notify her or any other victims when he moves.