Keizer City Councilor Soraida Cross won’t be prosecuted for harassment after a woman was injured in a confrontation in Keizer in May.
Cross was cited for harassment by Salem police, who investigated instead of Keizer police because of her position on the council. In turn, Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson asked the Polk County prosecutor to handle the case to avoid any conflict.
In June, Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton said he was declining to prosecute.
“The totality of the evidence and viability of the case is not such that each of the elements of physical harassment could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Felton wrote in a June 12 letter to Clarkson.
The prosecutor said, however, that the Salem officer had “more than sufficient probable cause” to cite Cross.
Harassment is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
Cross initially declined comment and then provided a two-page statement, describing herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
Salem police reports recently released after a Keizertimes public records request depict a chaotic scene the night of May 14.
The reports and court files indicate that Soraida Cross and her husband Mark recently divorced but continue sharing a Keizer home. Soraida Cross is a hospitality industry executive until recently served on the board of the Family YMCA of Marion and Polk.
“While the divorce is legally concluded, the emotional and psychological entanglement is not so easily undone, especially when one party uses law enforcement as a tool of intimidation, control and manipulation,” Cross said in her statement to Keizertimes.
She accused her former husband of calling police to their home to undermine her.
“It’s not true,” her former husband said. “Each time there has been a reason.”
He said he has never been accused of domestic abuse by authorities.
He told the Keizertimes that Soraida Cross no longer lives in the house.
THE INCIDENT
Salem police reported they responded to a report of a disturbance at the Cross home on North Steven Court.
According to statements given to police, Soraida Cross arrived home to find her former husband and a woman coworker in a home-made bar in the garage. The coworker and Mark Cross told police they were friends.
The coworker “stated Soraida became increasingly angry about her being in the home and pushed her off a stool,” the police report said. The woman “landed on the ground on her left hip and arm” but declined medical attention.
Mark Cross described how Cross “shoved” the coworker to the ground, and said she may have hit her head on the concrete floor.
Soraida Cross “denied numerous times she had laid her hands” on the victim, the police report said.
The victim told police she wasn’t sure whether she wanted Cross arrested.
“She is scared of Soraida being a city council member,” the report said.
There is no indication in the reports that Cross declared or invoked her council position.
A Salem police sergeant reported interviewing the victim again about 10 days after the incident. The victim told him that for two days “her shoulder hurt pretty bad.”
The victim said in the later interview that after learning about Cross’s role with the city, she was scared “and she wondered what Soraida could do to her.”
The sergeant said that based on the persistent injury, he was recommending that Cross be charged with fourth-degree assault. That crime is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $6,250.
Salem police said they were called back to the Cross home not long after the original incident after Mark Cross reported that his former wife “was destroying the home.”
He told police that his former wife destroyed $2,000 worth of liquor bottles, drinking glasses and other items.
“Soraida poured honey on the cloth barstools and floor as well as poured walnuts all over,” the police report said.
Police advised the damage was a civil matter since both Crosses lived in the house.
Mark Cross complained later to police about “corruption” in the investigation and that “the case was being disregarded due to Soraida’s political position.” He said she had friendships with leaders in the Keizer Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the Marion County District Attorney’s Office.
Officer Jason Donner wrote that he explained to Cross that “I had no loyalties or attachments to anyone involved in the case.”
In her statement, Cross said her life was “extremely volatile under the same roof I once called home.”
She said such circumstances are common.
“Women who are emotionally cornered, constantly gaslighted and subjected to coercive control may reach the point where they will not tolerate the abuse any longer – not because they are unstable but because they are exhausted,” Cross said. “The bruises and scars of domestic violence are not always visible and often last much longer.”
She also said that “While it was not easy, I am blessed to have had support and counsel from people I trust and from the Center for Hope and Safety.”
Contact Editor Les Zaitz: [email protected]
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