Serial rapist, kidnapper sentenced to 30 years with 25 to serve

Washington County, OR Judge Gayle A. Nachtigal sentenced "serial, sadistic" sex offender James Worley, 47, to 30 years in prison July 10. Under Oregon's dangerous offender law, Worley must serve almost 25 years of that sentence before being considered for parole. In March, a jury found him guilty of 1st degree kidnapping and attempted 1st degree rape and sexual assault, among other charges. Jurors acquitted Worley of attempted 1st degree sodomy and deadlocked on an attempted murder charge.

Worley has a lengthy criminal record for attacking women, having served a total of 25 years in prison for various incidents. In 1983, he raped and kidnapped an Oklahoma woman, and in 1998, he was convicted of harassing a Bend, OR woman. Worley was on post-prison supervision for robbing and kidnapping a Clackamas County woman at the time of the latest crime.

During the trial, [Heather]Struznik riveted the courtroom with harrowing testimony about the night of Oct. 20, 2007. Approaching Struznik outside a Gaston bar, Worley said he was about out of gas and didn't know the area. She said she'd lead him into Forest Grove, but he pulled over on Oregon 47, near the turnoff to Hagg Lake.

Thinking he had run out of gas, Struznik stopped. Worley jumped into her Jeep and punched her in the head three times. During a savage struggle, a profanity-spewing Worley slammed her head into the dash, pulled her face, yanked at her belt and dragged her outside. She scratched, kicked and bit her attacker, gripping the door frame until her hands bled.

On Friday, Struznik, 37, told a smiling Worley that she wasn't his victim and she no longer was afraid of the dark or going out alone. She said she still has a bulging disc in her neck, healing bones in her face and fingers so sore she can't even open a jar.

"Every time it happens, I think 'You got beat by a girl. You picked the wrong girl.' "

Frank P. Colistro, a forensic psychologist for Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, said that community safety was the only consideration and that "this type of individual we can't fix." Colistro, a Portland man, also said that Worley, a misogynist who thinks women look down on him, attacks them from nowhere to inflict terror, humiliation, and sadistic power over them.