2012 sexual assault kit leads to conviction — A man has been sentenced to more than two years in Oregon prison after a recently tested sexual assault kit linked him to the rape of a 14-year-old Portland girl. Chanh Van Tran, 49, was sentenced Tuesday after he pleaded guilty last week to third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy in connection with the September 2012 assault. Tran was already incarcerated on a burglary conviction after breaking into a northeast Portland home in 2016. The 14-year-old victim had reported the assault to police immediately. She was taken to a hospital for a forensic exam on the same day. The sexual assault kit that matched DNA evidence to Tran wasn’t tested until last year. Portland police have not said why the kit wasn’t sent for testing in 2012.

Portland City Council rejects protest restrictions— The Portland City Council on Wednesday rejected an ordinance that would have given Mayor Ted Wheeler new powers to regulate protests. The mayor’s proposal failed 2-3 when Commissioner Nick Fish cast the deciding vote against it. Fish, an attorney, said his decision was “a close call” and that he was wary of any restrictions on free speech that may not pass legal muster. “I’m not convinced that we’ve done everything we can with the tools already at our disposal,” Fish said. Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Chloe Eudaly also voted “no.” Wheeler and Commissioner Dan Saltzman voted “yes.” Wheeler’s ordinance would have given him the power to dictate the conditions of rallies, such as where and when they may be held, if demonstrators have a history of violence and if public safety was jeopardized. The mayor said he and Police Chief Danielle Outlaw developed the idea in response to a growing number of violent demonstrations in Portland since 2016, where right-wing and left-wing protesters clash. Outlaw has said those protests are difficult to police. She and the mayor contend new so-called “time, place and manner” restrictions on public gatherings would keep the public safer. Eudaly said she believes Wheeler and Outlaw are well-intentioned and want to curtail political extremism. Yet Eudaly said she cannot “vote to expand their powers” in light of her view that significant police reforms are necessary. Wheeler on Wednesday called his proposal legal, reasonable and necessary and criticized news coverage that called into question whether his proposal was constitutional. The mayor said he tried unsuccessfully to keep right-wing agitators away from Portland by making public pleas. And he noted that the federal government declined his request to deny the right-wing Patriot Prayer group a protest permit, a request that drew condemnation of Wheeler because it was seen as an effort to curtail free expression.