First car forfeited in Portland under new street racing law is a busted Mustang (2024)

Portland police are now the proud owners of a 2006 green Ford Mustang.

Sure, it has a busted front end and burned out rear wheel. But police and prosecutors say the muscle car — and its current parking spot in the Police Bureau’s storage facility — may be the deterrent Portland needs to curb rampant street racing and takeovers.

The Mustang, valued between $10,000 and $15,000, used to belong to 28-year-old Raul Herrera of Portland. Police arrested Herrera on April 14 after officers spotted him doing donuts at a large street racing takeover event at Northeast 60th Avenue and Cully Boulevard, and on Aug. 15 his Mustang became the first car in Multnomah County to be forfeited under the state rules that went into effect in September.

The prosecutor who handled the case says criminal forfeiture takes aim at the very thing street racers love — “the heart of this, the cars themselves,” said Deputy District Attorney Channa Newell. And more forfeitures could be on the way. In Portland’s latest police mission to crack down on street takeovers in August, officers seized several cars and authorities are pursuing the forfeiture of seven of them.

Getting to this point wasn’t as simple as towing the car after Herrera’s arrest, however. It took four months to jump through all the legal hoops meant to ensure owners and anyone who holds a claim to the car isn’t robbed of their property unfairly.

After police spotted the street takeover in the Cully neighborhood in April, the police Air Support Unit tracked the green Mustang away from the crowd of about 100 people to a 7-Eleven.

While Herrera tried to change a tire, Newell said officers moved in, and Herrera jumped back in his car and fled.

The driver sped to the 5600 block of Columbia Boulevard but, unbeknownst to him, the police airplane was tracking him. Authorities believed it was the right car as he was driving on at least one rim, Newell said.

Police arrested Herrera and towed his Mustang, which has a V8 engine. Herrera’s attorney, Blake Dore, did not respond to a request for comment.

Newell got the police reports and the footage from the airplane the next day and decided then to pursue forfeiture. As the muscle car sat in storage, the prosecutor’s office fired off a notice to Herrera that he might not get his Mustang back.

From that point, prosecutors had to move quickly. Within 30 days, they had to find out if anyone else or a bank claimed a financial interest in the car. In two recent cases where banks showed they had liens on vehicles, it made more sense to walk away, Newell said.

In the case of the Mustang, no other entity claimed partial ownership, and on May 21 a grand jury charged Herrera with reckless driving, making his car subject to criminal forfeiture.

Herrera had several speeding tickets but no criminal history. At 28, he was slightly older than the typical participant in street racing; Newell said most of the criminal defendants she sees in these cases are men and boys under 26.

Herrera pleaded guilty Aug. 15, and as part of the agreement he surrendered the right, title and interest to his Mustang.

His agreement noted he must complete 18 months of probation and 80 hours of community service. He must not attend, even as a spectator, any unpermitted event where “cars are doing donuts, racing, stunts, slideshows, burnouts or taking over roads or bridges.” If he complies with the agreement, prosecutors will dismiss the felony charge of fleeing a police officer and the misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

Portland police, who applauded the judge’s ruling, now have the rights to the car. Police officials have not said what they plan to do with it. State law gives them the option to sell the car and keep part of the money. They can also lease the vehicle to another agency.

‘Think twice’

Portland had a chance to use the new forfeiture law with several additional cars in January, but lost the opportunity.

That’s because prosecutors were still coordinating with the city and police to figure out how to implement Senate Bill 615, which increased penalties for street racing and put the criminal forfeiture provisions into place. Thirty-day windows had lapsed to notify the interested parties and take the cases to grand juries.

So instead, many of the individuals arrested at that time were given 18-month set over agreements, meaning their charges would be dismissed if in that period they took a driving class, performed community service and avoided other street racing and takeover events.

“A lot of these are very young people who this is a form of activity and they’re not thinking through the consequences,” Newell said. “We don’t want to disrupt their life. We just want the behavior to stop, and so giving them an opportunity to make it right and to learn from the experience, I think, is really important, and that’s one of our goals.”

A second test case could come as soon as October, when another person whose car was taken in a separate street racing event in April has a court hearing. The attorney for the man, 21-year-old Prince-Amahzya Hudson, is challenging the criminal forfeiture.

Newell said she’s interested to see what kind of message this month’s successful forfeiture sends to other street racers and whether it will be an effective deterrent.

“If folks think they’re going to lose their car, maybe they’ll think twice before engaging in the behavior,” she said.

— Zaeem Shaikh covers the Portland Police Bureau and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-221-4323, zshaikh@oregonian.com or @zaeemshake.

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