Law Office of William Bruce Shepley

Criminal Defense Attorney

Criminal defense attorney William Bruce Shepley defends the rights of those accused of a crime. He takes cases in the areas of Multnomah and Clackamas counties. Put his years of experience on your side. You deserve an aggressive defense.

Ballot Measure 11 Crimes:
A number of years ago, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure authorizing mandatory minimum prison sentences for persons convicted of certain person-to-person crimes. These crimes include certain homicides, robberies, kidnappings, serious assaults and a number of sexual offenses. The work that must be undertaken to overturn these charges is proportionately greater than many other criminal cases.

Drug Offenses:
Drug offenses can range from misdemeanors with light sentences to felonies that carry a life sentence. In some situations, a conviction could result in deportation. Drug offenses also include a wide variety of drug-related activities, including possession, distribution, cultivation, manufacturing and delivery. The State of Oregon has passed a law called the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, which allows marijuana use to treat certain medical conditions but carries criminal penalties for those who violate the rules.

In recent years, the criminal justice system has focused on what is termed "domestic violence." Verbal threats and physical contact between spouses, significant others and family members are now prosecuted with great vigor. The initial phases of these types of cases cause great trauma to families because of the arrest, "no contact" provisions of release orders and the delay in final disposition of these matters. "No contact" orders must be modified as quickly as possible to accommodate the realities of families including minor children and, often, economic relationships that would be compromised when people cannot communicate with each other.

Driving Under the Influence (DUI):
People often wrongly assume that the DUI law only covers drunk driving. It includes controlled substances, including certain drugs, alcohol or a combination of both. Under Oregon law, the prosecutor need only show that you were affected to some perceptible degree by the intoxicant you consumed. Thus, you can be convicted of DUI, if your mental and physical faculties were affected to a noticeable degree by a combination of intoxicants plus, for example, fatigue, even though you consumed an amount of intoxicants that was less than what would normally affect you. In other words, the state does not have to prove you that were drunk or severely impaired by drugs as long as it can prove that the intoxicants affected your driving to a noticeable degree.

Also, it’s important to remember that a DUI may be committed not just on a public highway but also on any premises open to the public. Thus, the law applies to parking lots, transit station parking facilities and schoolyards. It does not apply to driving on private land not open to the public.