Bias crime assault suspect Rackley appears in court, judge reassigns case to track with co-defendants’ court dates

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In suspect Kyle Rackley’s first personal court appearance, parties provided case updates, and Judge Joan Demarest of the Benton County Circuit Court assigned Rackley’s case to Judge Locke Williams’ docket.

Rackley, along with two other suspects, Dylan Guido and Riley Westbrooks, allegedly assaulted a 7-11 employee in Corvallis, Ore. while using homophobic and transphobic slurs on Oct. 24. The three suspects were arrested by the Corvallis Police Department on Nov. 4, and all posted bail that same day. They were all arraigned on Nov. 5.

At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 9, Rackley’s attorney Matthew Watkins and Jay Hall, a special prosecutor with the Oregon Department of Justice, appeared in court virtually alongside Rackley. 

Hall said the requested reports from the CPD were just received by the ODJ on Monday, Dec. 6. Currently, Hall said he only has written documents in his possession and is waiting on video evidence from the time leading up to the alleged incident.

In addition, Hall said he wanted to alert the court that there are three co-defendants in total who are part of this case and not indicted together, the two other co-defendants being Guido and Westbrooks.

Demarest said they will set another personal appearance date for about six weeks out, closer to the sign-out date of Feb. 11, to give all three defense attorneys the opportunity to review documents. 

After Hall noted the three defendants have two different court dates, Demarest reassigned Rackley’s case to be on Williams’ docket—the list of cases—as Williams was the judge assigned to Guido and Westbrook’s case. Now the three suspects will appear together in court virtually next week on Dec. 14 at 8:30 a.m.

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