Josiah Telles Acquitted of Felonies

By Edward Snook
Investigative Journalist

Josiah Telles

Marion County, Oregon – In September of 2009, Josiah Telles was arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail on numerous Assault and Sex Abuse Charges, Sodomy, Kidnapping and a myriad of lessor charges. Josiah had been held in custody for about 1 year and 9 months before his trial. He was released from custody about 3 months before trial.
On September 8, 2011, a jury acquitted Telles of Salem, Oregon. A juror reported that it took them only 5 minutes to find Josiah not guilty of all the serious sex and violence counts.

“I am Innocent”

On September 2, 2009, stripper Guadalupe Pacheco Saenz lied to law enforcement about her boyfriend Josiah Telles. She told Marion County Sheriffs Deputies that he had tortured and sodomized her for 4 hours.
Saenz was a Mexican national living here illegally and she had a strong motive to lie – She was facing deportation unless she could convince law enforcement she was a crime victim. All Saenz had to do was use government’s U-Visa system to document herself as a crime victim and receive public assistance, etc., in return for her accusing and then assisting in the prosecution of an innocent man. Many female illegals have successfully used the U-Visa program to remain in the U.S.
To convince law enforcement, she burned herself with cigarettes and cut her leg. Then she invited her boyfriend Josiah Telles to her home on the day after they had gotten a marriage license. She had him come to her so that she could spring her trap and make him look like a monster.
The deputies, seeing her burns and the cuts, believed her. Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies and Josiah’s appointed public defender failed to investigate Saenz’s story even though Telles repeatedly declared his innocence. It was business as usual – receive an accusation, file false criminal charges, and force the innocent into a coerced plea-bargain.

Lawyer Jim Leuenberger

After his public defender told him he could not win a trial, Josiah’s parents hired Portland Attorney James E. Leuenberger.
Leuenberger learned that Pacheco Saenz had attempted the same scheme she was pulling on Josiah on another man. That man had won his trial in Washington County, because he and his attorney proved that Pacheco Saenz was a liar.
Armed with her history, Leuenberger demanded discovery from the state about her. The more he learned about her the more his client’s story checked out and her story didn’t.
First, her burns were not fresh when she was found on September 2, 2009. Second, the sperm in her vagina was not Josiah’s sperm. Third, her cut could not have been inflicted as she said it had been, because her bed’s sheets had no blood on them.
After an eight day trial, a Marion County jury needed only 5 minutes to find Josiah not guilty on all of the serious sex and violence charges against him. Had Mr. Telles followed the advice of his court appointed attorney he would be headed to prison for many years and would have remained a registered sex-offender for life.
Telles should thank God that he had Leuenberger to investigate, due to the fact that neither law enforcement, nor the prosecution conducted any investigation whatsoever, before deciding to strip Josiah of his freedom and any future semblance of a normal life.
The US~Observer commends Attorney Jim Leuenberger for his hard and successful work on this case – for setting an innocent man free…