Deputies arrest Waldport man after months of bias crimes against neighbors

WALDPORT – A 46-year-old Waldport man is in the Lincoln County jail on charges of intimidation, stalking and disorderly conduct after his arrest Wednesday following more than a year of actions against two neighbors on Southeast Salmon Street.

Israel Bynum is being held on $100,000 bail after his arrest by Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies.

Bynum’s arrest came after incidents involving two neighbors dating back to August 2023, according to a probable cause affidavit in Lincoln County circuit court by Deputy Doug Honse. One of the neighbors is gay; the other a racial minority.

The affidavit detailed issues including playing loud, racially explicit music directed at one neighbor and shining a red laser into another neighbor’s windows at night. After the September 2023 laser incident, the neighbor got a temporary court-ordered stalking order against Bynum, but it did not become permanent, according to Honse’s affidavit.

The latest incident came last November after one of the neighbors confronted Bynum for playing an anti-gay song loudly in his driveway. The neighbor said Bynum called her a slur and that she should kill herself, Honse wrote, referring to the police shooting death four days earlier of a gay, Waldport woman who was also a military veteran. A neighbor’s video showed Bynum pacing in front of the woman’s house at 10:20 p.m.

In a news release Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said Honse’s investigation established a pattern in Bynum’s actions and statements “that demonstrated a clear connection between his bias against his victim’s protected classes and his criminal behavior.”

In Oregon, intimidation statutes encompass the bias charges, more commonly referred to as “hate crimes,” the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Bynum has a criminal history of assault, harassment, menacing and driving under the influence dating back to 2001, probation violations involving some of those charges, and referral to several mental health, counseling or drug treatment programs.

The sheriff’s office said during Bynum’s arrest Wednesday, deputies found methamphetamine in his possession and was referred to the county’s new drug deflection program.