City Council rethinks whether putting convicted murderer on Police Review Board is a good idea

The story of Kyle Hedquist is a good example of how complicated it can be to decide what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to the American justice system. Which needs a lot of improving, since the United States has a much higher percentage of the population in prison than other high-income countries, and we do a crappy job of rehabilitating prisoners, given our focus on “lock em’ up” punishment.

The Marion County District Attorney described Hedquist’s crimes after his life sentence was commuted by Governor Kate Brown in 2022 after he served 28 years in prison. The boldfacing is in the original document, which strenuously objected to the commutation.

Hedquist was convicted of the Aggravated Murder of a teenage foster child, Nikki Thrasher, in Douglas County in 1995. Following the burglary of his aunt’s home, Hedquist possessed numerous stolen items including electronics and firearms and hid them in the home of a co-defendant. While visiting that same home, victim Thrasher innocently asked about the property, having no knowledge that they were the evidence of Hedquist’s prior crime. In a pre-meditated plan to protect himself from possible reports to law enforcement, Hedquist tricked the victim into driving him to a rural Douglas County location where he shot the victim execution-style in the back of the head and dumped her body along the road. Hedquist admitted killing her to eliminate a witness in hope of preventing his own capture. Hedquist was convicted of the Aggravated Murder of Nikki Thrasher and sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole.

Hedquist was also sentenced to Robbery in the First Degree and 3 Counts of Kidnapping in the Second Degree for a separate incident in which he robbed a local Pizza Hut at gunpoint, taking approximately $3000. For those crimes he received 60 months and 20 months respectively in prison.

Surprisingly, in 2024 the Salem City Council unanimously appointed Hedquist to the Community Police Review Board without knowing about his murder conviction. A Statesman Journal story by Whitney Woodworth says:

City officials said they recently realized they hadn’t done background checks on members, meaning Hedquist’s background could make him ineligible for reappointment, because of the city’s rules around considering members’ criminal history.

Yet on a split vote the City Council voted to reappoint Hedquist to the Police Review Board after his murder conviction came to light. A Salem Reporter story by Joe Siess and Madeleine Moore says:

Councilors voted 5-4 to reappoint Hedquist to the police review board and the Civil Service Commission, going against the recommendation of the city boards and commissions appointments committee. Hoy and Councilors Shane Matthews, Deanna Gwyn and Paul Tigan voted against the reappointment while Council President Linda Nishioka, [Vanessa] Nordyke and Councilors Micki Varney, Irvin Brown and Mai Vang voted in favor of reappointing Hedquist.

That caused an uproar by the Salem Police Employees Union, which created a web site urging the city council to reverse its decision and “support our public safety professionals.” The story gained national attention when Fox News published “Convicted killer kept in police oversight role as city council dismisses concerns over public safety.”

Councilor Nordyke, who is running for mayor in the May 2026 election against incumbent Julie Hoy, decided to reverse course on the appointment of Hedquist, issuing a statement that started with:

Before joining Council, I served on the Community Police Review Board myself. From that experience, I learned firsthand that the CPRB didn’t have the power to discipline officers or decide their compensation. Officers weren’t even required to attend our CPRB hearings, and during my time there, none did. I left feeling like the board didn’t have real teeth.

Our City Council voted unanimously to appoint Kyle Hedquist to the Community Police Review Board on May 13, 2024. I didn’t know his criminal record at the time and staff failed to conduct a background check for him. Mr. Hedquist proceeded to serve on the CPRB without any concerns, until city staff later ran the background check and discovered his prior convictions.

Here’s the context I was working with at the time of my vote: City staff told me that Hedquist had a conviction for Aggravated Murder and Burglary from 1995. He was released in 2022 after a sentence commutation and has since testified before the Oregon legislature, earning respect from legislators by sharing his experience. We had a legislator and others who wrote letters of support urging his reappointment. By all accounts, he’s been a productive, contributing member of our community with no new criminal history in decades. He’s now a college graduate and a strong example of successful rehabilitation. The fact that he served on CPRB already and even completed a police ridealong without incident made a positive impression on me.

At the December 8, 2025 Council meeting, the Mayor and Council unanimously appointed him to the Citizen Traffic Advisory Commission. There was consensus about the power of second chances. But the vote was split over whether to also appoint him to CPRB and Civil Service Commission.

After our vote to reappoint Mr. Hedquist on December 8, our police and fire unions emailed me to express their concerns and ask Council to reconsider the appointments. The police and firefighter unions each raised legitimate concerns that I hadn’t fully considered. After weighing this new information, I realized I should have sought broader input before the vote. He should be removed from the public safety boards.

I’ve instructed city staff to draft the motion to reconsider Mr. Hedquist’s appointments to public safety boards. This will be brought to Council when we reconvene in 2026.

This was a wise political move on Nordyke’s part. The Salem Reporter story says that after hearing from the police union, she was moved by how victims of crime would react to the appointment of Hedquist. That’s a valid concern. There’s room for debate about whether Governor Brown did the right thing in commuting Hedquist’s life sentence. Senator Ron Wyden opposed this, calling it “grossly irresponsible”.

But given that Brown made Hedquist a free man, it also seems irresponsible to demonize Hedquist for the rest of his life for committing a murder when he was only 18 years old. Rehabilitation should be pursued by our justice system along with punishment. Hedquist spent 28 years in prison. He appears to have been a model inmate. So it makes sense to keep Hedquist off the Community Police Review Board and Civil Service Commission while letting him serve on the Citizen Traffic Advisory Commission.

Even so, Mayor Julie Hoy probably will use Councilor Nordyke’s initial vote to reappoint Hedquist to the Police Review Board in campaign ads next year. That would be a good political move on Hoy’s part. All Nordyke can do is keep the political damage to a minimum, which she has done by admitting her initial vote was wrong in the light of new information.