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| Officials Set to Discipline Inmate Artist |
| By The Oregonian |
| Published: 11/25/2002 |
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The Happy Face Killer's art business is in trouble. Oregon Department of Corrections officials say they intend to discipline Keith Hunter Jesperson, 47, a convicted serial killer, who had been hawking his wildlife drawings over the Internet for $25 a piece. Initially, spokeswoman Perrin Damon said the department was allowing the art sales to continue because hobbies are a positive outlet for inmates. But Damon now says she was unaware that Oregon State Penitentiary officials had been building a case on Jesperson's activities since last summer. On November 19, after an article on Jesperson's art appeared in The Oregonian, an investigator returned from vacation and searched Jesperson's cell. He found part of an author's manuscript on Jesperson's life, which another inmate smuggled into the prison. The book was off-limits because it depicts criminal violence. Damon said the book, plus the fact that Jesperson failed to get the prison superintendent's written permission to sell his art by mail, led penitentiary officials to act. A disciplinary hearing is expected for this week. Punishment could include fines against Jesperson's prison trust account -- he says he has netted about $1,000 from art sales over the years -- as well as loss of inmate privileges, such as access to the prison canteen where he buys his colored pencils. And there are other problems for Jesperson, who earned his nickname for a smiley doodle that appeared on his anonymous confession to a newspaper. In Idaho, a wildlife painter is accusing Jesperson of duplicating his work. Terry Lee of Coeur D'Alene said he remembers answering Jesperson's request for a catalog by sending a series of photographs. Lee saw Jesperson's drawings on the Internet and said they are exact replicas. Lee said he doesn't mind an inmate imitating his unique style, a common learning tool for budding art students, but he said Jesperson crossed the line when he started selling the copies. Lee has sent a letter to the prison superintendent saying Jesperson is violating a copyright, and will send similar letters to the Web sites displaying Jesperson's drawings. But Lee said he recognizes his leverage is limited over a man serving the equivalent of a life sentence behind bars. |
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