STEPHEN NICHOLS appeared in person at a bail hearing at the Hood River County Courthouse, as seen in this picture taken of a monitor used by CBS video crews. At left is Nichols’ attorney’s legal counsel, Emilia Gardener of Eugene-based Arnold Law.
STEPHEN NICHOLS appeared in person at a bail hearing at the Hood River County Courthouse, as seen in this picture taken of a monitor used by CBS video crews. At left is Nichols’ attorney’s legal counsel, Emilia Gardener of Eugene-based Arnold Law.
A man charged with killing his girlfriend at Eagle Creek Trail in 2009 bailed out of jail in April only to be rearrested after prosecutors said he violated his release agreement.
Stephen Wagner Nichols, 41, was booked Wednesday in Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility on a contempt of court charge for allegedly making contact with a friend of the murder victim through another person he knew, according to court records. Nichols is accused of pushing 23-year-old Rhonda Casto, of Portland, off a high cliff to her death in 2009 at the popular trail west of Cascade Locks. He was arrested in February 2015.
Nichols bailed out of NORCOR on April 8, 2016, posting $25,000 plus fees. He then lived in Portland with a friend under multiple conditions, such as no contact with certain friends and family of Casto, and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. Last Friday, Deputy District Attorney Carrie Rasmussen issued a warrant for Nichols’ arrest.
The warrant asserted that Nichols had broken the rules of his release agreement when somebody he knew approached a friend of Casto’s in a courtroom and asked for her email address. It was during a recess at a juvenile court hearing regarding Nichols’ daughter, according to an email from a witness to Rasmussen.
The warrant further claimed that Nichols had allowed the batteries to shut down in his court-ordered GPS bracelet, which allowed several hours in which he wasn’t monitored by the contracted company Vigilnet.
Nichols was booked back in NORCOR Wednesday and arraigned at the Hood River County Courthouse Thursday on the new charge. He appeared in court before Judge John A. Olson via video feed from NORCOR. Nichols’ attorney, Michael Arnold, called in from a phone and said he wouldn’t be representing Nichols on the contempt charge. Thus, Nichols was appointed the local contracted defense firm Morris, Starns and Sullivan.
Nichols was scheduled to appear again on the contempt charge Tuesday, May 24. The dense murder case has inched forward since Nichols’ original arrest in 2015. It has since drawn national media attention, including a CBS 48 Hours special, “Trail of Tears.”
Arnold is a prominent Eugene attorney who represented occupier Ammon Bundy in the aftermath of the Malheur National Wildlife Reserve standoff during early 2016.
Last summer, Arnold made strides in Hood River Circuit Court when Olson lifted the “no-bail hold” preventing Nichols from posting bail to be released from custody.
In February, however, Olson dismissed several key motions filed by Arnold. Those legal actions strived to dismiss the murder charge on the grounds of destroyed evidence and the roughly five-year delay between Casto’s death and Nichols’ indictment.
Arnold argued a Hood River County Sheriff ’s Office official deleted important photos and other evidence in the case, violating Nichols’ right to due process. Olson acknowledged in his written opinion, “it is entirely possible that Detective Tiffany acted in bad faith and intentionally … failed to preserve (Nichols’) investigative materials,” but Olson said he couldn’t conclude given the evidence that Tiffany “actually did so” or that there was any “animus” on the state’s part toward Nichols.
The murder trial was scheduled for May but it was cancelled due to a pending appeal in Oregon Supreme Court, according to court officials. The date for a new trial hasn’t yet been set.
The Hood River County case isn’t Nichols’ only current court battle — he’s also facing severe criminal charges in the Portland metro area. In February 2016, he was formally accused in Washington County Court of raping an underage girl sometime between July 2005 and January 2006. Nichols pled not guilty to two counts of rape and three counts of sodomy.
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