Bend PD: 3 adults charged after girls’ fight video goes viral
(Update: DA brings charges)
A cellphone video of a mid-April fight between two girls at Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater as two adults apparently urged them on went viral on Facebook this week, prompting police on Tuesday to detail their investigation and initial charges brought against three adults, one arrested last Friday after a related fight.
Shortly after 4 p.m. on Friday, April 12, Bend police got a call about the fight, but everyone involved had left the scene before officers arrived, Lt. Clint Burleigh said.
Around 8 p.m. that night, Jesse Joe Gomez, 34, the father of a 13-year-old girl involved in the fight, called police to file a report.
Police determined two girls, 13 and 12, had engaged in the fight, during which the 12-year-old’s mother, Sierra Whitney Brown, 32, and Charles James Durand , 27, encouraged her to fight, Burleigh said. The 13-year-old suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The next day, Brown was contacted at her home, interviewed and arrested by citation on charges of menacing, second-degree disorderly conduct and harassment. “Based on the circumstances surrounding (her) living situation,” the woman was cited to appear in court in lieu of being taken to jail, Burleigh said in a news release.
On Sunday, April 14, police contacted Durand at his Bend home. He was interviewed, arrested and booked into the Deschutes County Jail on charges of menacing, disorderly conduct and harassment. He was released later on his own recognizance.
On Tuesday, the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office filed a formal charging document, called an information, against both Brown and Durand , listed as co-defendants, accusing them of menacing, a Class A misdemeanor, and harassment and second-degree disorderly conduct, both Class B misdemeanors.
Last Friday night, shortly before 9 p.m., police responded to a reported fight in the 21100 block of Southeast Desert Skies Place, where Brown and Durand live, Burleigh said. The initial report mentioned one of the people involved had a baseball bat.
Police arrived and took Gomez into custody on charges of second-degree disorderly conduct, fourth-degree disorderly conduct and harassment. An investigation determined the fight was related to the April 12 incident, Burleigh said.
