‘TriMet Barber’ with fetish for women’s hair gets another 180 days in jail
Jared Weston Walter’s obsession with women’s hair keeps landing him in jail and law enforcement officials say that’s the best place for him.
Walter has been deemed incorrigible by judges, prosecutors and probation officers. On Monday, he was hit with another 180-day sentence in Clackamas County Circuit Court, this time for violating terms of probation.
Walter, 28, earned a nickname — the TriMet Barber — and made national headlines for his bizarre behavior that included cutting and masturbating in fetish for women’s hair while riding on TriMet buses.
Despite repeated arrests and incarceration, Walter continues to stalk and assault women. Hismost recent conviction occurred in December at a Dollar Tree store in Oregon City. Walter stalked a female customer and was caught trying to cut her hair while she waited in a checkout line.
Walter has 17 convictions over the last decade, many of them linked to his obsession with hair, prosecutor Bill Stewart said in March when Walter was sentenced to 180 days for the Oregon City attack.
The arrest and conviction violated terms of Walter’s probation. He was nearing the end of his sentence and out on work release at the time. The county’s corrections department subsequently sought an extra 180 days in jail for Walter.
His attorney, Ron Gray, cried foul. The time to seek any additional jail time was in March, Gray said.
The probation department “filed at the last possible minute to get as much time as they could,” Gray said.
Malcolm McDonald, Clackamas County corrections department supervisor, agreed that the probation violation should have been addressed in March when Walter was sentenced. McDonald blamed the oversight on an administrative error.
But McDonald didn’t disagree with Gray.
“Our goal is to keep him in custody as long as possible,” McDonald said. “There’s no way to contain him,” he said.
Circuit Judge Thomas Rastetter told Walter that he had little choice. “You get out and you reoffend and reoffend,” the judge said. “You’re probably going to reoffend when you get out again. All I can do is protect the community from you for as long as I can.”
Walter was released from jail three weeks before the Dollar Tree incident. He was living at a work-release center and was supposed to be looking for work when he committed the crime. On the day of the attack, the probation department had given a bicycle to Walter, who was prohibited from using public transportation, to make it easier to conduct a job search.
Clackamas County has no alternative programs for someone such as Walter, who was convicted of a misdemeanor. There would be treatment options had Walter been convicted of a felony or if he were a registered sex offender, Stewart said.
At recent court hearings Walter hasn’t shown remorse, offered an explanation or taken responsibility for his actions.
At a 2013 sentencing in Multnomah County, Walter acknowledged that he needed help. “I’m sorry that I hurt a lot of people — the victims, my family, myself,” Walter said. “… I want help. I just don’t know how to get it.”
Walter has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. A doctor who evaluated Walter in 2010 suspected that a traumatic brain injury that Walter suffered when he tumbled down some stairs in a stroller as a young child led to his mentalhealth problems and inability to control his impulses.
Walter is likely to face more time behind bars when he finishes his Clackamas County sentence.
He is on post-prison supervision for convictions in 2011 and on bench probation for similarcrimes in Multnomah County.
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