Oregon Serial ‘Jogger Rapist’ to Be Released from Prison as Low-Level Sex Offender

Serial rapist, Richard Gillmore, is set to be released from an Oregon prison in December and will be classified as a low-level sex offender, leaving some of his victims outraged.

Gillmore was dubbed the “jogger rapist” because he would prey on his victims while jogging by their homes in the Portland area during the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Associated Press. He was arrested in 1986 and admitted to raping nine girls but was only convicted of one crime due to a statute of limitations.

That conviction came in 1987 when he was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl at her home in Gresham, Oregon. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, but it was later cut in half by the Oregon Parole Board, KOIN 6 News reported.

In 2016, the parole board stopped giving Gillmore parole hearings and set a scheduled release for January 1, 2023.

Since Gillmore will be released on December 16 into transitional housing, the terms of his parole will require him to remain on post-prison supervision until December 2034, according to Dylan Arthur, executive director of the parole board via the Oregonian. He could be sent back to prison if he violates his supervision conditions.

Had he been released on his original scheduled date, he would not have been required to be supervised.

Despite his last psychological evaluation, conducted in 2016, deeming him a “danger to the health or safety of others,” he will only be required to register as a level one sex offender once released, considered the lowest risk of offending, Arthur noted.

This has left Gillmore’s victims furious that he was not classified as a level three high-risk sex offender, which would require any new area the convicted rapist moves into to be notified.

“He was designated as a dangerous offender at trial,” victim Danielle Tudor told the Oregonian. “I don’t understand how that puts him [as] a Level 1 sex offender. It’s something the community really needs to know.”

“I highly doubt that he’s given up jogging,” she added.

Tudor, who was raped by Gillmore in 1979 in her southeast Portland home, also expressed frustration that he had not been tried for more of the crimes he admitted, according to KOIN 6 News.

“If he had been able to have been charged for all the rapes he committed, he’d never be getting out,” Tudor told the outlet. “Richard Gillmore has probably had two dozen or more psych evaluations while he’s been incarcerated and he has never passed one of them. And in fact, they’ve always said that he is a very high percentage of actually re-offending.”

Colleen Kelly, another Gillmore victim who was also raped in her southeast Portland home in 1980, told the Oregonian that her attacker’s release “has increased my anxiety the past few days.” She also noted that she was “fearful” for his victims and all other women and girls.

Kelly, who has since moved away from the state, remarked, “I am thankful to be out of Oregon.”

Gillmore will be 63 when released. He will be required to register as a sex offender within ten days of leaving prison.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.