Convicted sex offender gets another trial

PENDLETON – Hussein Ibrahim Hassan, 68, is going to stand trial for two counts of first degree sex abuse of a child a second time. The first time, he was convicted by a 10 to 2 vote of the jury. Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Oregon’s practice of enforcing verdicts with which one or two jurors disagreed.

Umatilla County District Attorney Dan Primus said his office is ready to try Hassan again.

“Around the end of the month, we’ll have a status check,” Primus said. “At that point we will probably get trial dates set because when an individual comes back from DOC (Department of Corrections) they still have that 60-day trial right.”

Hassan was arrested by Pilot Rock police in August 2018 for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.

“She was interviewed forensically at the Guardian Care Center,” Pilot Rock Police Chief Bill Caldera said at that time. “Based on that interview and some other evidence that we found, we believe that the incident did happen, and we have probably cause to arrest Mr. Hassan.”

The trial had been set to start in October 2018 but was delayed so that an Egyptian Arabic translator could be located. He was convicted in January 2019.

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