Ex-Portland cop: Stress led to sex crimes

KENNEWICK — A former Portland, Ore., police officer says stress from an on-duty shooting prompted him to start committing sex crimes. Ryan Graichen served as a Portland Officer from 1998 to 2006. In 2000, a 71-year-old lawyer suffering from dementia pointed a shotgun at him, and his partner shot the man dead. The Tri-City Herald reports that in a 49-page, handwritten letter to the Washington state Department of Corrections, Graichen said he couldn’t get the shooting out of his mind, and he became addicted to pornography as he tried to deal with the stress. He wrote that the shooting was the “root cause” of his legal problems. Graichen is facing a likely 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex crimes in Benton County Superior Court. He admitted paying a teenage girl for sex and offering alcohol, marijuana and money to other girls or young couples for sex acts.