Charges only filed against one man in Bend kidnap, assault

Police said two young Bend men stopped an acquaintance’s car and kidnapped him at gunpoint Thursday afternoon, then forced him to arrange a meeting with two other acquaintances who they assaulted at a ball field near Trinity Lutheran School.

But prosecutors said Monday they did not charge one man, finding no evidence he took part in the crimes.

Officers announced two arrests Friday in revealing details of the incident that led to a brief lockdown at Mountain View High School.

All five of the men involved were Bend residents, 18 and 19 years old, and there were no serious injuries or trips to the hospital as a result of the attack, Lt. Clint Burleigh said.

“To have an incident like this is very rare,” Burleigh said. “This is taking it to the next level. This is a situation where someone puts someone’s, multiple people’s lives in danger.”

The lieutenant said they were investigating reports the incident arose over a reported theft of the suspects by one victim. He said he announced some, but not all details of the sequence of events because there are no outstanding suspects.

An 18-year-old was driving east on Northeast Wells Acres Road near 27 th Street when a gray Jeep Cherokee driven by Travis Michael Seaton, 19, pulled in front of him, causing him to stop suddenly, Burleigh said.

“Seaton forced (the victim) out of his vehicle by pointing a shotgun at him,” Burleigh said, adding that all of the teens were “acquaintances.”

The victim was taken in Seaton’s car to Seaton’s home at 1712 Northeast Sonya Court, he said. He forced the victim to set up a meeting with two other young men, 18 and 19, with the intent of assaulting them, Burleigh said.

Police said Seaton and Mugel Angel Moreno, 19, made plans to assault the other two victims at the baseball field just east of Trinity Lutheran School. The suspects then met and reportedly assaulted the two men. A victim or family member called police soon after the assault.

Seaton and Moreno left the area in Seaton’s Jeep, which they parked in the 1800 block of Northeast Jackson Street, Burleigh said. The two men fled the Jeep, which was found by patrol officers.

Detectives and officers continued their investigation, which led to the arrest of both men without incident at an undisclosed Bend residence shortly after midnight Friday.

Detectives also served a search warrant at the Sonya Court home and Seaton’s Jeep Cherokee. They recovered the shotgun and several other pieces of evidence connecting the suspects to what took place, Burleigh said.

Both men were lodged at the Deschutes County Jail. Seaton was charged with second-degree kidnapping, third-degree assault, first-degree menacing and unlawful use of a weapon. Bail was set at $75,000; a jail officer said Seaton posted 10 percent bail and was released on Friday

Moreno originally was held on $20,000 bail on charges of third-degree assault and second-degree criminal conspiracy. However, he later was released, a jail officer said, as the district attorney’s office did not file charges.

Deschutes County DA John Hummel told NewsChannel 21 on Monday that charges were not filed against Moreno, explaining: “Our assessment of the evidence indicates that Moreno did not commit a crime.”

However, he adeed, “This is a fluid investigation, though, and if in the course of the investigation we discover new evidence we will reassess whether to charge Moreno.”

Burleigh said Bend police wanted to “thank the community and the staffs at both Trinity Lutheran and Mountain View High School for taking the appropriate actions to keep our youth safe from the dangerous criminal behaviors that took place adjacent to their schools.”