Union County Man Sentenced to 56 Years for Sexual Abuse of Minors
By Joe Hathaway on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Release from the Union County District Attorney) On July 24, 2023, Travis Reed was sentenced to 56 years in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections. Union County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Thomas Powers found the defendant guilty of 21 counts of sexual abuse, and five counts of Contempt of Court on July 12, 2023. Judge Powers immediately remanded the defendant into custody upon his conviction. Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel tried the case and handled sentencing for the State.
The convictions in this case included Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, Using a Child in Display of Sexually Explicit Conduct, Rape in the Third Degree, Luring a Minor and Private Indecency.
The State charged Reed with the above counts based on the disclosures of the two minor victims. The defendant was in a long-term relationship with the victims’ mother, and the girls looked to him as a father figure. The evidence presented at trial showed that the defendant exploited that relationship, and over the period of several years, sexually abused both girls beginning around the time each girl was approximately 12 years old. Both of the victims in this case testified against the defendant and described the horrific and repeated abuse they endured.
In 2020, one of the victims reported the abuse to her mother, at which time, her sister also disclosed she had been abused as well. While both sisters were unaware of the abuse the other was subjected to, the evidence showed that much of what the defendant did was remarkably similar. When the defendant was arrested, he continued to try to communicate with the mother of the victims, which was the basis for the Contempt of Court charges.
DA McDaniel argued to the court that the defendant needed to be incarcerated as long as possible, not just for justice in this case, but also for the protection of the public and any future potential young women the defendant may pray upon. The defendant was already a registered sex offender with a previous conviction for Rape in the Third Degree from 2002. DA McDaniel said that the defendant is a clear predator who is dangerous and will continue to be a predator when he is eventually released from prison.
One of the minor victims made a statement at sentencing to Judge Powers, saying, “One word that I would use to describe how the crime has left me feeling, because it is rather difficult both
mentally and emotionally to put it into words, is powerless. He made me feel like a piece of
meat. Like a helpless little lamb caught in barbed wire. I was blamed for tearing my family apart,
called multiple name’s multiple times, and was in fear of what may happen to me if I were to
walk out of my house.”
The mother of the victims also made a statement at sentencing saying that she hoped her family
would find peace knowing that the defendant could no longer reach them, “and that he will not be able to make other young women endure what these ladies have been through.”
District Attorney McDaniel would like to thank former La Grande Police Department Detective
Erica Rush, and Oregon State Police (Klamath Falls) for their outstanding investigation of this
matter.
