Amber “Bunny” Dorsey heard the “click – click – click” at the front door of her Keizer home as she sat with her daughter, watching cartoons.

They had just finished lunch on Monday, July 28, and the day already had been rattling for the Dorseys.

A passer-by she had seen some weeks earlier was back in front of her home. He had come back on this Monday, making a lewd suggestion before running off.

In the next few hours, she would learn the man was a sex offender now living in Keizer. She would learn the limits of Marion County’s jail system. And she remains alarmed about the risks other Keizer women may be facing.

Weeks before the latest episode, Dorsey said a bedraggled man walking by asked if he could have a light for a cigarette. She gave him her lighter, he thanked her and went off.

Then, recently, he walked by the Dorsey home – not far from the Keizer Civic Center – as she was on the front porch. He started up the driveway. Dorsey walked down to him because, as she wrote in a later account, “I didn’t want a stranger on my porch. My daughter was in my living room watching TV.”

When the man made his obscene request, the U.S. Army veteran yelled at him and then yelled for her husband, Jack, also an Army veteran. He chased the man, confronted him and warned him to stay away.

Now, when she heard the front door noise, Dorsey pulled up a chair to peer out high windows.

No one was there.

‘That was the longest 30 seconds of my life.’

-Amber Dorsey, on finding the intruder in her yard

Out back, her two large dogs started barking.

Dorsey said she ran through the house, out the back, and around a corner.

“He was pinned up against the home, his back against the wall,” Dorsey said.

She started screaming.

“I’m an Army vet and I can scream loud,” she said.

She retreated to the house, holding firm against her rear door while yelling for her husband.

“That was the longest 30 seconds of my life,” she said.

Keizer police responded to their 911 call and searched the garage and yard and eventually located the man several blocks away.

James E. Campbell, 29, of Keizer, was arrested for first-degree burglary and second-degree trespass.

Dorsey didn’t know it at the time but Campbell was already facing earlier charges, including a pending case from 2024 for his failure to register as a sex offender. He also had been arrested just a month before the Keizer episode for second-degree theft in Salem.

The following day, Dorsey said a crime victim’s advocate from the Marion County District Attorney’s Office called. Would she be willing to testify before a judge about her experience as Campbell was arraigned?

Dorsey agreed but would have to do so by telephone. She never got the call.

She found out the next day with another call to the district attorney’s office that Campbell had been released from the Marion County Jail even before the court hearing. Booking records list Campbell as 6-foot-7 and 245 pounds.

“I cried a lot,” Dorsey said. “I was pretty upset, pretty scared.”

Her husband meantime posted himself on the front porch of their Keizer home, sitting for hours to guard against the man’s return.

Dorsey said she later learned that prosecutors decided to drop the burglary charge. That meant he faced only the misdemeanor trespassing charge.

“Individuals can be arrested for one crime under a probable cause standard, but our office cannot proceed with the same charges because we must be able to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to Brendan Murphy, Marion County chief deputy district attorney.

He explained that “we were prepared to object to his release and request bail on all cases – but he was released before we appeared in court.”

Sgt. Jeremy Schwab, Marion County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, didn’t address questions about the jail’s decision to release Campbell. Instead, he referred to state law and procedures governing when people will be held in jail and when they will be released.

The practices are intended to keep the most dangerous people in jail, where space is limited.

State law amended in 2021 required new guidelines for when defendants should be released from custody while awaiting trial.

According to the state court website, “persons charged with more serious offenses – including violent felonies, sex crimes, and domestic violence felonies or misdemeanors – as well as offenses that indicate a person may not comply with court-imposed conditions of release, be held.”

Court records show Campbell was charged in June 2024 for failing to register as a sex offender. Salem police said his underlying sex offense was from La Paz County in Arizona but they had no other details. The sheriff’s office in Arizona didn’t respond to requests for information on Campbell’s status.

Oregon court records show that Campbell at least twice was arrested for failing to appear in court for scheduled proceedings in his pending criminal cases.

Campbell is now scheduled to appear on the new Keizer charge on Monday, Aug. 25.

Dorsey said she’s speaking out to alert the community.

“I am in fear for the female population in my neighborhood,” she wrote in her account. “I feel as though the citizens have a right to know they are not safe at this time.”

She noted her interactions with the suspect.

“I was simply being kind to a human,” she wrote. “If this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone in Keizer.”

NEWS TIP? Send your suggestion or tip to [email protected].

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DIGITAL NEWS SERVICE: Get around-the-clock access to news about Keizer with a digital subscription to the Keizertimes. It’s secure, is available at $10 a month, and takes just a moment when you go HERE. Your support for local journalism is vital.