When Lauren Williams Deits was a legal assistant for the United States Attorney's Office (USAO) in Portland, Oregon she assisted in the prosecution of Jason Paul Schaefer even though Schaefer is a former client of hers that she personally worked with at the Washington County Jail. In 2017 she was a legal assistant for the Metropolitan Public Defender (MPD) in Washington County and Jason Schaefer was an inmate facing a new criminal charge. Deits' job was to interview inmates about their cases within 24 hours of their arraignment and one of the inmates she interviewed was Schaefer.
At the time of Schaefer's interview he was charged with being a felon in possession of body armor. Evidence in that case included body cam footage from arresting officers. That footage was later used by prosecutors in his federal case. Despite overwhelming evidence that would jog the memory of any normal person that had interviewed Schaefer in the capacity that Deits interviewed him, she claims that at no point when she was working on his federal case did she ever remember meeting Schaefer. The judge overseeing the case, Marco Hernandez, has stated in court that he does not believe her. This author personally dislikes Hernandez, has a very rocky history with him, and despite that fully supports his position that Deits is not credible.
Diets' prior work with Schaefer did not come to light until someone at MPD noticed a Facebook post written by Diets about the guilty verdict in which she referred to the case as what she had lost her mind working on for months. The MPD lawyer reading the post remembered that Diets had worked with Shaefer's MPD defense team and notified Schaefer's lawyer.
A criminal background check of Deitz revealed a dismissed speeding violation. The information from that case was listed as follows:
12/05/2017
VIOLATING A SPEED LIMIT
Case Number 17VI208971
Crime Type TRAFFIC
Degree Of Offense VIOLATION CLASS C
Grade Of Offense CR
Offense Code 811.111
Offense Date 11/26/2017
Offense Description VIOLATING A SPEED LIMIT
Charges Filed Date 12/05/2017
Plea 2217
Disposition DIS
Disposition Date 02/09/2018
Status STATE OF OREGON VS LAUREN WILLIAMS DEITS
More information: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/09/was-case-against-cigarette-pack-bomber-tainted-by-prosecution-federal-judge-orders-inquiry.html
Possible Lauren Deits Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.deits
DISCLOSURE:
In the spirit of disclosure this author remembers living next to Schaefer at the Columbia County Jail in 2018. During that time Schaefer a.k.a. "Fingers" made my time better. At one point he stuck up for me after a guard used excessive force. Fingers helped me eat better when the jail would not sell me commissary. I believe that my opinion of Ms. Deits has been tainted by my positive experiences with Fingers kind of like how her experience with him surely tainted her work on his trial.