Washington County, OR. — The Washington County District Attorney’s Office issued a statement addressing the community’s response to the term of sentence in an overdose homicide case in Tigard. On April 11, 2025, Timothy Ryan Donovan pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for the drug-related death of Ryan Hackett, receiving a 29-month prison sentence after giving fentanyl to the victim. The statement reads as follows:
We’ve noticed many of our followers have raised concerns about the length of the sentence in this overdose death case. Unfortunately, Oregon does not have a state law equivalent to the federal Len Bias law. This law is named after the NBA player Len Bias, who died of an overdose in 1986. It imposes a minimum prison term of 20 years for drug distribution offenses resulting in an overdose death.
We have repeatedly lobbied the Oregon legislature to enact a similar measure, called Taylor’s Law. The proposal is named in honor of Taylor Martinek, an area man who died at age 24 after unknowingly buying counterfeit oxycodone and Xanax containing fentanyl from a local drug dealer. The proposal would put drug sellers in prison for at least five years if the delivery of a controlled substance results in death. Despite the efforts of many, lawmakers have not passed this bill. We encourage you to contact your state representatives and senators to urge them to pass this bill.
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