State panel OKs Bend-area killer’s release from Oregon State Hospital to secure treatment facility near Portland

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A woman who shot and killed a neighbor walking her dogs in a neighborhood north of Bend in 2019 will be conditionally released from the Oregon State Hospital to a secure residential treatment facility near Portland, the victim’s family was informed this week.

Oregon’s Psychiatric Security Review Board held a hearing in June involving Joanna Kasner and a proposal to allow her to be released to the facility in Clackamas County. It delayed a decision pending answers to some follow-up questions and requests for more information.

The family of Kasner's victim, Valerie Peterson, received word of their decision in an email on Tuesday from a victim advocate with the Oregon Department of Justice:

"The Board found Ms. Kasner appropriate for conditional release to Johnson Creek pursuant to the proposed plan contained in Exhibit 101, with the following additional conditions:

• The treatment team shall be familiar with the recommendations contained in Dr. Sethi’s note dated July 7, 2023, as found in Exhibit 113, with respect to the potential recurrence of psychotic symptoms Ms. Kasner may experience and shall immediately report this change in mental status to the Board.
• Ms. Kasner shall not enter Crook, Jefferson, Washington, and Deschutes counties.
• The Board denied the State’s request prohibiting Ms. Kasner from entering Clackamas County.
• Ms. Kasner may enter Multnomah County with staff supervision for the purpose of accessing medical or mental health treatment-related appointments.
• The Board notes that Ms. Kasner’s conditional release order requires that she be under direct staff supervision whenever Ms. Kasner is outside of the secure facility and that any request to expand Ms. Kasner’s pass privileges will require, at minimum, an administrative hearing before the Board.
• The Board found the State’s request to prohibit out-of-state travel to Oregon’s bordering states of California, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada to be premature at this time.  Ms. Kasner is presently under staff-supervision at all times she is out of the facility.  The Board is open to re-reviewing this request if and when Ms. Kasner’s conditions would otherwise permit out-or-state travel in the future.

Johnson Creek has indicated an anticipated move-in date of August 7."

"I am sorry that you have to continue to go through this," Oregon DOJ Victim Advocate Jennifer Braaten told the family members in relaying news of the decision. "I cannot imagine how difficult and painful this has to be for all of you."

Peterson's family told NewsChannel 21's Bola Gbadebo before the hearing they are afraid Kasner will do something heinous to someone else's family member, if released from the State Hospital.