Medford, Ore. — Medford Police say it’s one of the most frustrating things they deal with, criminals who reoffend and compromise the safety of our community over and over.
One of those people is 51-year-old Michael Joseph Atwood. Local law enforcement know him well.
“It’s a problem if we actually know someone’s date of birth by heart and they’re not a family member,” MPD Lieutenant Mike Budreau said.
Atwood has been arrested nearly 70 times since 2011 for a laundry list of charges ranging from burglary to assault. The latest? Murder and first degree manslaughter.
Central Point Police said Atwood stabbed and killed 51-year-old Rickey Michael Lemich on the Bear Creek Greenway behind the Pilot Station in August.
“When we were kids back in school he was a great athlete, but he chose to let his life be run by drugs and alcohol,” David Bray said.
Bray is a clerk at Thrifty Nifty on West Jackson Street. He’s known Atwood more than 40 years. To hear he’s in jail again wasn’t a surprise.
“I told them straight up they needed to deal with him before he hurt someone or someone hurt him,” Bray said. “I knew it was coming long before it happened.”
Bray said Atwood used to hang out in the area and has been arrested multiple times outside the store. But he was never gone long.
“Sometimes not even two hours later there’s been times when they’ve took him down to the jail and what they call book and release,” he said.
Atwood is a convicted felon. Since 1992 he’s served jail time for possession of meth and delivery of a controlled substance. But court records show he’d been charged with multiple other felonies, some class A, the most serious kind, that can land the suspect in prison. Those were dismissed.
“You have to base your decision on what you know the evidence to be and what you hope the evidence turns out to be but sometimes it doesn’t turn out how you anticipated,” former Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston said.
Huddleston can’t speak directly to Atwood’s case since he’s awaiting trial for murder, but said charges can be dismissed against a suspect for any number of reasons from a change in evidence to witnesses deciding not to testify.
“If you lose your victim you don’t have a case anymore,” he said.
Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert said her deputies carry a heavy caseload, and about 90% of them end in plea deals. Huddleston said that’s not uncommon.
“I think that’s true statewide and nationwide, most cases don’t go to trial,” he said.
Tuesday on NBC5 News at 6 we’ll hear from Medford Police on how big a concern reoffenders are in our community, and a Jackson County judge explains why many convicted felons could be out of jail in just days.
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