Fox

PENDLETON — A Pendleton man is facing felony charges for sexually abusing a child after he was arrested by Pendleton police earlier this month while allegedly trying to drive a 9-year-old girl to Portland.

A Umatilla County Grand Jury indicted Steven Lee Fox, 54, on April 20 for one count of first-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle. All of the charges are felonies.

Fox pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Pendleton Police Department arrested Fox on April 11 on Interstate 84 after a woman initially reported he had taken her vehicle and her 9-year-old daughter and was driving to Portland.

Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said his officers “pinged” Fox’s phone in order to locate him. Roberts said officers then interviewed the child and conducted an investigation into suspected abuse by Fox.

According to court records, Fox has faced dozens of criminal charges through the years, ranging from burglary to forgery and dating back to 1984 in Multnomah County.

Records also show Fox was previously accused of sex crimes in Multnomah County in 1993, when charges for first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse were all dismissed.

According to the East Oregonian archive, Fox ignited an all-night search after walking away from a prison work crew in February 2015, while serving time for burglary and robbery convictions at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.

Fox is scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference May 11 and his trial is currently set for June 8. He is lodged at the Umatilla County Jail in Pendleton on $120,000 bail.