Portland Police: Do Your Job and Stop Railroading Audrey Cannon

Railroad: Informal. to convict (a person) in a hasty manner by means of false charges or insufficient evidence: The prisoner insisted he had been railroaded. Dictionary.com


Audrey Cannon was accused and convicted of a felony and she is INNOCENT! Portland Police simply refused to actually investigate this burglary. And this could easily happen to you if we do not stop this practice. Audrey needs our help to get the attention of the Portland Police and Rod Underhill, the elected Multnomah County District Attorney who allowed this to go to court. They need to hear that you are concerned about this false conviction and that you are concerned how this puts you and the rest of the public at risk.

Ten years ago Audrey remembers holding a bottle of liquor that was offered to her by a friend. She did not want to drink it and gave it back unopened. A fingerprint found on this bottle is the only evidence used by the police to charge and eventually convict Audrey. Actually, they do not even have that evidence: they lost the bottle. They had to use a report of the fingerprint, making it impossible for her lawyer to investigate the age of the fingerprint. Who could imagine that a bottle touched ten years ago would show up in a home where a burglary took place!

It was a cold case due to lack of evidence for 7 months when the police decided to dust it off and arrest Audrey. Audrey had witnesses to show her whereabouts during the five days when the burglary occurred. The Police never contacted the witnesses! They never searched her home or storage or any place that she willing offered to see if she had the stolen items! (Of course, they wouldn’t have found any!)

A convicted felon was seen in the yard of the home during the 5 days in question and they didn’t question him! This felon has many arrests for trespassing, burglary, meth and more. A family member of the victims thought that the culprit might be an ex-husband with a revengeful attitude and they didn’t investigate him either.

They never looked for the missing items, talked to any of Audrey’s witnesses, or did anything else to solve this crime.

The police and the district attorney simply took this report of a finger print, arrested Audrey and took her to court for a class A felony. Add to this mix an over-zealous prosecuting attorney looking for another rung on her ladder to success, and an over worked defense attorney who admitted in front of witnesses that he had done a lousy job defending Audrey and you have a conviction. None of the documents that could support the testimony from Audrey’s witnesses ever showed up in court. The prosecuting attorney convinced the jury that the 8 people who came to testify to her whereabouts were simply not believable because they were friends and family who would obviously lie for her.

Audrey is a stay at home mom who is trying her best to keep her family from being homeless. Her youngest is less than 3 years of age and needs her at home. A felony charge will make it hard if not impossible to rent an apartment or get a job. The possible $90,000 in restitution she may have to pay for items she never took will certainly keep her and her family on the streets and unable to pay rent.

Sign the petition and tell the Portland Police, Prosecutors, and Public Defender that this is sloppy work! Ask them to review the facts... not only for Audrey, but for all of Portland’s citizens!