Editor’s note: This story describes a sexual assault and may not be suitable for all readers.
A Multnomah County jury convicted Gabriel Forest Weiss of first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse stemming from a 2011 assault in Portland.
The verdict was reached Monday, Oct. 5, following a retrial after an earlier jury was unable to reach a verdict, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. Weiss is in custody, and a sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
The case involved a woman identified as “L.B.,” who was 22 when she responded to a Craigslist ad seeking nude models for an art project. Weiss arranged to meet her at his studio in inner Southeast Portland in June 2011, according to prosecutors.
During the modeling session, Weiss kissed L.B. without her consent, then restrained her with ropes and gagged her, according to prosecutors. He sexually abused and raped her, including biting her breasts, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
L.B. did not report the assault at the time.
She told prosecutors she felt ashamed and feared she would not be believed.
In 2015, she wrote about the incident in a private Facebook group, where other women described similar experiences with Weiss, according to her statement released by prosecutors.
She came forward in 2023 after receiving a notice from someone in the group about a Portland police request for information related to Weiss. She contacted the detective listed in the notice and said she had evidence related to the assault, according to her statement.
L.B. said she photographed her injuries after the assault in 2011 and later provided the images as evidence.
“When I heard the word ‘guilty’ yesterday after a three-and-a-half year criminal process, I felt free,” L.B. said in a statement released by the District Attorney’s Office.
She said the case required years of investigation and litigation, including turning over private communications and testifying before a grand jury and at trial.
“I cannot change the fact that I did not report in 2011,” she said. “But I can finally say that when I was given another opportunity, I did everything I could.”
The conviction follows a separate ruling in which Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Souede found Weiss guilty of first-degree sexual abuse on July 2, 2025, in a case involving a different woman, identified as “T.S.”
According to prosecutors, T.S. responded to a Craigslist ad seeking models in January 2014. During a subsequent modeling session, Weiss forcefully kissed her despite her attempts to push him away and stop him. He also bit her breasts repeatedly, causing heavy bruising, prosecutors said.
T.S. photographed her injuries and later confronted Weiss about them.
L.B. said she hoped the verdict would encourage others with information about Weiss to come forward.
“The fact that years have passed does not make what happened to you meaningless, and it does not mean that it is too late for someone to listen,” she said in her statement.
The following is L.B.’s full statement as provided by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office:
“When I heard the word “guilty” yesterday after a three-and-a-half year criminal process, I felt free.
In 2011, when I was 22 years old, I did not report what Gabriel Forest Weiss did to me. I felt stupid and blamed myself. I thought no one would believe me. I imagined being asked questions like what I was wearing or why I had put myself into a situation where I met up with a man at 10pm. At that age, I did not understand the criminal justice system, and I did not believe it was a place that would help and protect me.
In 2015, I wrote about what happened to me in a private Facebook group. Other women responded that they experienced similar things with the same man.
For years afterward, I carried an enormous amount of guilt. I wondered whether, if I had gone to the police in 2011, it would have prevented him from hurting someone else. I considered reporting on more than one occasion, including as the national conversation around sexual assault began to change with the Me Too movement, but I believed I was outside of the statute of limitations and had no idea where I would even begin.
Then, in 2023, someone from that old Facebook group sent me a notice from the Portland police asking anyone with additional information about Gabriel Weiss to come forward. Within minutes, I emailed the detective listed and told him that Gabriel Wiess had raped me and that I believed I might still have evidence.
Less than 24 hours later, before I even had time to find and review that evidence, I was speaking with Detective Wollstein. Days later, I testified before a grand jury.
I had no idea what I was signing up for.
Coming forward did not mean telling my story once or twice and moving on. It meant years of investigation and litigation. It meant turning over private conversations with friends. It meant giving the State access to my entire digital camera, including photos from my late teens and early twenties. It meant having memories from more than a decade earlier examined word by word in court. It meant preparing for a trial that ended with a hung jury and then deciding to come back and do it all again.
I cannot change the fact that I did not report in 2011. But I can finally say that when I was given another opportunity, I did everything I could. I told the truth. I provided the evidence I had. I testified again and again. And I stayed with this process until a jury held him accountable.
At a moment when the Cornell case is prompting a national conversation about how institutions respond to reports of sexual assault, I think it is important to say what happened when I finally came forward in Portland.
I was listened to.
Detective Wolstein allowed me to tell my story and treated me with kindness. He continued looking at the evidence even though the case was older. Ryan Solomon and Aileen Santoyo from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office invested extraordinary time and resources into a difficult case. And when the first jury could not reach a verdict, they did not abandon the case and persisted in their prosecution.
That mattered.
In 2011 I photographed some of my injuries I had after the assault. At the time, I wanted a record for myself that what had happened to me was real. Fifteen years later, I am profoundly grateful that my 22-year old self took those photographs.
I would tell anyone in a similar position: you do not have to know today what you will eventually choose to do. If you safely can, preserve what you can. Save the messages. Take the photographs. Write down what you can remember. You are allowed to preserve options for your future self even if you are nowhere near ready to speak publicly or go to the police.
There is no perfect way to be a person who has survived something like this. There is no perfect memory, perfect reaction, or perfect timeline that will prevent someone from questioning you.
The fact that years have passed does not make what happened to you meaningless, and it does not mean that it is too late for someone to listen.
I want this case to be visible because I do not believe the women who came forward are the only people with information about Gabriel Weiss. If someone recognizes their own experience in this story, I hope they know that they can still speak.
And I want people carrying experiences like mine in silence to know that there are investigators, prosecutors, advocates, attorneys, witnesses, friends, and family members who will stand beside them.
This case took a village. People I had not seen in more than a decade came back to Portland and testified. My attorney, Amity Girt, went far beyond her pro bono obligations and answered what felt like an endless number of questions as I tried to understand the legal process. Allison Miller, my victim advocate, helped guide me through each stage and was consistently kind and grounding throughout the process. My work gave me the time and flexibility I needed to participate fully in this case. My husband shouldered an enormous amount of this burden alongside me. And I am deeply grateful to the jurors who took this evidence seriously and did the difficult work asked of them.
For years, I believed I had waited too long.
Last week, I learned that I had not.
Thank you.”
Source: portlandtribune.com
