Maxine Bernstein reports today that Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton and District Attorney Michael Schrunk will appear before the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on Thursday to ask for more money to support the ongoing Kyron Horman investigation.

Staton is asking for $242,609 to hire a full-time investigative technician for a calendar year, and to cover overtime costs through October.

The DA’s office, which pays less overtime but has a number of prosecutors working on the case, is asking for $196,034 for a deputy district attorney and an investigator through the end of this fiscal year (September). This person won’t work full-time on the case, but will rather pick up some of the slack left by other staffers who have been pulled away from their usual jobs by the unusually demanding case.

“There’s never been an investigation like this before in the county,” says Scott Marcy with the DA’s office, explaining that the prosecutors’ work begins long before a case goes to trial. “In an investigation like this, when we’re trying to put together a potential prosecution, we not only look at who may have committed a crime, but we have to eliminate all the folks who didn’t,” says Marcy.

Marissa Madrigal, the spokeswoman for County Chair Jeff Cogen, says she’s pretty sure the commissioners will be supportive of the request for funding. “Jeff is committed to giving them the resources they need” to continue, she says.

The money will come out of the county’s contingency budget, which is set aside for unforeseen expenses. This year’s contingency budget totals around $6 million.

6 replies on “Sheriff, DA to Ask County to Spend Another $438,000 on Kyron Horman Investigation”

  1. The loss of any child is a difficult cost to endure. However, why hasn’t the DA ever made such an effort to locate funds for other missing children?

    Does this case have time sensitive evidence that suggests the extra funds would find the child? If so, than wouldn’t that same evidence mean the DA has at least one person of interest or suspect in the case?

    If this case does not have time sensitive evidence that could return the child, than why out of all the missing and endangered children in Portland has the DA decided this one gets presidential treatment?

    I think the DA should focus on the safe return all missing children, not just the ones that get the DA national news coverage.

  2. I second Marcus.

    Say we took that half a million dollars and spent is on making sure that more children got 3 full meals a day? I mean, finding one kidnapper is great, but making sure that 1000+ aren’t going to bed hungry sure sounds like a better use of the money to me…

  5. If the kid is found within a year, does the technician still get paid? And can the DA’s office levy civil penalties on any guilty parties to recover the funds of the investigation?

    Also, I just quit my job and am applying for investigative technician school. Sounds like a sweet gig.

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