FENTANYL DEALERS MUST SEE JUDGE: A document quietly published on Multnomah County Circuit Court’s website Friday outlines significant changes to how the court decides whether to hold criminal defendants in jail pending trial, a process known as “pretrial release.” The most notable change: Anyone charged with dealing fentanyl will be held in jail until “first appearance” in court, when a judge can set bail. “It is the intent of this Presiding Judge…that offenses involving the manufacture or delivery of fentanyl should be held for appearance in court and not released,” the document, signed by Multnomah County Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo, reads. The change is intended to address a glaring problem first identified by WW a year ago: The Multnomah County criminal justice system has struggled to ensure criminal defendants show up in court. In Multnomah County, fentanyl dealers are booked and immediately released from jail only to return to the activity on downtown Portland street corners that got them arrested in the first place, as WW first reported last summer (“License to Deal,” June 28, 2023). Matarazzo’s order goes into effect Aug. 1.