White Shoe Service
The deferential handling of Lori Deveny and Megan Moeller
It’s hard to ignore the incomparable treatment that wealthy, well-connected, white lady lawyer slash convicted felons Lori Deveny and Megan Moeller have been receiving in Oregon’s courts.
Meanwhile, others — who injured far fewer, who aren’t attorneys, or who are simply Black and/or male — were shot out of cannons directly into jail cells, Covid be damned.
Most recently, Deveny’s state and federal sentencing hearings were delayed yet again (for unknown reasons) just weeks after her ankle monitor restrictions were removed (for preposterous reasons).
Her sentencing in both cases is now set for January, just shy of the four-year anniversary of both indictments, and almost a year after she agreed to plead guilty in the federal case. It is a disgrace that Deveny has remained free this whole time, and was never asked to make bail.
Moeller, on the other hand, was prematurely released from her grueling 70-day incarceration, without any order permitting such an early release. She was freed from prison a week before Thanksgiving, rather than the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Home for the holidays.
This is remarkably offensive because so many of her victims continue to suffer the appalling damage that Moeller caused to their families, and some have not seen their children in years.
The U.S. Attorney’s office at first gave Moeller’s victims an incorrect reason for the early release, but the second notice did not provide much clarity, because Moeller had not in fact served her sentence in its entirety:
“The prior notice stated an incorrect reason for her release. The reason for the release of Ms. Moeller is that she has served the prison portion of her sentence. She is now serving her time of supervised release.”
Further, Moeller served her time in one of Multnomah County’s jails, instead of a federal institution, which caused the Multnomah Sheriff’s website to report that she had no court case or District Attorney case, and other erroneous information.
It’s almost like Moeller was never even in jail. How long before she manages to pretend none of this even happened?
I’m continuing to watch both of these women’s cases, because of the singular handling they are enjoying — for whatever reason.
