In novel DUII defense, tourist says he drove drunk to get away from gun-toting Oregonian

A Washington man who was charged with drunken driving while on an Oregon road trip offered a highly unusual defense during trial: He only got behind the wheel to flee from an angry, gun-toting Oregonian who wanted the man off his rural property.

Michael Robert Ray Jackson, then 60, testified he had parked his van on a pullout by the side of a Grant County road, had a few beers because he’d planned to camp there for the night and then abruptly left when confronted by the armed man who lived there and had used expletives to demand that he leave. In other words, Jackson’s defense attorney argued, Jackson was faced with a nearly impossible dilemma: stay and face the wrath of the man or drive off.

Grant County Circuit Judge Robert Raschio, however, brushed aside that “choice of evils” defense by declining to instruct jurors during a December 2023 trial that it was a legitimate defense that they could consider. And jurors ended up finding Jackson guilty.

The Oregon Court of Appeals, however, overturned Jackson’s conviction this week by ruling the judge erred.

Among the 14,000 to 15,000 people cited for DUII in Oregon each year, Jackson and the circumstances leading up to his conviction stand out. Some defendants contest their charges by claiming someone else was driving. Others contend police had no lawful reason to stop them. And some argue the prosecution can’t prove they were intoxicated because they refused to submit to a breath or drug tests and they only failed field sobriety tests due to balance problems or other pre-existing medical issues.

But none of that was at play in Jackson’s case.

Jackson, a 60-year-old retiree from Gig Harbor, testified he was traveling the rural roads of Oregon solo in June 2022. Because he was on a budget and wanted to avoid campground fees, he said that he slept in his van on U.S. Forest Service roads or roadside pullouts that were on public land. He said on the night that he parked along U.S. 395 in Grant County, near Canyon City and about 400 miles from home, he checked for “No Trespassing” signs. Having seen none, he said he settled in for the night. He said by 8 p.m. he’d downed just over two beers when a “much younger” man who announced he lived on the property “zoomed up” next to him in a truck, exclaimed “Who the hell are you?” and “You need to F-ing leave now.”

Jackson testified that he has back problems, he was aware that many rural residents own guns and he didn’t want to get hurt. He said he felt “OK” to drive. So he left.

For his part, the man who confronted Jackson testified that he indeed did have a gun, which he walked back to his truck and retrieved.

But Jackson didn’t stick around to see what might have happened next. He said he drove off and kept driving, fearing that a vehicle he spotted traveling behind him was the angry man. Jackson said he saw no other places to pull over. And even if he did, he was afraid the man might pull up beside him and hurt him.

It was about five minutes into his “panicked” drive, Jackson said, that the speed dropped to 30 mph. An Oregon State Police trooper pulled him over going 40 mph.

His blood alcohol registered 0.11%, which is above the legal limit of 0.08%. He was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Now that the Court of Appeals has thrown out Jackson’s conviction, he could be retried. But whether he will be is unclear because District Attorney Jim Carpenter didn’t respond to a question from The Oregonian/OregonLive about whether he’ll pursue a new trial.

Jackson already has completed most or parts of his sentence, which included a one-year driver license suspension, listening to a panel of victims talk about how intoxicated driving has devastated their lives, a $1,000 fine and 18 months of probation, during which he is forbidden from drinking alcohol and entering bars.