Michael D. Schrunk (1942 – January 30, 2023) was an American attorney who served as district attorney of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States from 1981 until 2012. He is believed to have been the longest-serving district attorney in the state of Oregon.
In 1981, after eight narcotics officers of the Portland Police Bureau were implicated for misconduct, Schrunk, sought pardons from the governor for 58 people convicted.
In 1985, a Portland police officer killed Lloyd Stevenson, a black man, using a chokehold. It was ruled a homicide while under Schrunk's investigation, but a grand jury convened by Schrunk declined to indict either of the officers involved, citing the wording used in the homicide ruling as insufficiently definitive. Simultaneous with Stevenson's funeral, two officers sold T-shirts to fellow officers that read "Don't Choke Em, Smoke Em". The two officers were fired, but later reinstated by a union arbitrator.
Schrunk's office prosecuted three men for beating and killing Ethiopian national Mulugeta Seraw in Southeast Portland in 1988. Schrunk described them as members of East Side White Pride, which he stated was the largest skinhead group in the state.
In 1989, Schrunk called on Multnomah county to devote more funds to drug use and gangs.
Programs championed by Schrunk have been replicated across the country. He played a part in launching the nation's second drug court; twenty years later, there were 2500 such courts in the United States.
In 2002, Willamette Week searched through the trash of Schrunk, then-mayor of Portland Vera Katz and then-chief of Portland police Mark Kroeker, for a story in response to a controversial police decision endorsing the search of citizens' trash during investigations. Of the three targets, only Schrunk responded with grace and good humor. A 2019 Oregon Supreme Court ruling which referenced the story established that privacy rights do in fact extend to an individual's trash. In 2003, a star witness of Schrunk's ended up imprisoned himself, in a bizarre and complex case that is regarded as a blemish on Schrunk's record.
By 2009, Schrunk was regarded as the most influential politician in Multnomah county. That power was exemplified by his open refusal to try cases before a specific judge he believed was too sympathetic to suspects. In 2010, due to budget constraints, he made a controversial decision to treat a number of illegal acts as crimes.
Schrunk never sought higher office. Upon his retirement in 2012, Schrunk endorsed Rod Underhill, who was elected to the office unopposed in 2012 and 2016.
Early life
Mike Schrunk was born into a politically active family in Portland in 1942. Schrunk's father, Terry Schrunk, was elected Sheriff of Multnomah County in 1949. Subsequently, he was elected mayor of Portland four times, from 1957 to 1972.
Mike Schrunk attended Roosevelt High School, where he was a star athlete, ultimately being inducted into the Portland Interscholastic League Hall of Fame for football, basketball, and baseball. After high school he continued to play basketball and football at Portland State College. Schrunk was named as an Oregon Collegiate Conference all-league football player in 1963. He was the starting quarterback on the Portland State's conference champion team that year.
While at Portland State he also excelled at basketball. Today at Portland State University there is a scholarship given in his name called “The Mike Schrunk Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
After graduating from Portland State College in 1964, Schrunk attended the University of Oregon Law School. He graduated in 1967. He excelled in school and was on the school's law review.
Following law school, Schrunk was commissioned in the United States Marine Corps and served in Vietnam at the height of the war. He was discharged as a captain in 1970.
Early legal career
Following his time in the Marine Corps, Schrunk became a deputy district attorney in the MCDA's office from 1970 to 1977. He was assigned largely to felony prosecutions and eventually responsible for administering all the homicide cases in the office. Among his most significant cases was his 1975 conviction of Colin Hockings for the widely publicized bludgeoning murder of a married couple and two children.
In 1977, Schrunk went into private practice representing clients in civil litigation and criminal defense. In 1980, while still in private practice, he was appointed as a special prosecutor by Oregon Attorney General's Office to investigate and prosecute corruption charges against Gary Gortmaker, the District Attorney of Marion County, Oregon. Schrunk obtained indictments and convictions against Gortmaker.