Rape Kit Backlog Clearance Results In 180=Month Prison Sentence

PORTLAND, OR – Sometimes it's all about the timing. On October 31 – there were two notable piece of news concerning the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. First, there was the news that after years of testing, the state of Oregon had finally cleared the backlog of more than 5,000 sexual assault forensic evidence (SAFE) kits, commonly referred to as "rape kits."

Many of those kits were from Multnomah County.

Later in the day, the district attorney's office announced that a person who had been arrested as a result of one the SAFE kits being tested, had been convicted of rape and sodomy.

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On Friday, Dec. 14, 67-year-old Jihad Eldeen Moore, Jr. was sentenced to 180 months in prison.

"I’m happy to have closure and to help others have the confidence to report rapes and/or sexual abuse," Moore's victim said in a prepared statement.

Moore had attacked the victim in a stranger on stranger attack in Tom McCall Waterfront Park on June 14, 1996.

At Moore's trial, the victim testified to the trauma that she had suffered – and, to some degree, had overcome.

"You broke me down and made me question my trust and faith in people and the world, but I made a decision that day: I would not let you win," she testified. "I would not let you break me. I would not let you change me. I would not let you ruin me and you know what, you didn’t. I am still a nice, trusting, happy person who is not scared of the world.

"I chose not to let you have any more power over my life and my future,” the victim said in court."

After the conviction, the Portland Police Bureau released a statement reminding survivors of sexual assaults "that even after a significant time has passed that the Portland Police Bureau is dedicated to providing the best possible service to victims of sexual assault.

"The team assembled to review and investigate these cases are determined to seek justice where it is possible and anticipate more resolutions in the future."

Photo via Multnomah County Sherif's Office.