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Jury’s finding against Priscilla Martin is
'blow against AIDS terrorism’ ’
‘
BY
A N N D E E
H O C H M A N
im Shuck does not have AIDS, and
Priscilla Martin will have to pay for saying
that he does, a Multnomah County Circuit
Court decided July 26.
Martin, a well-known anti-abortion activist
and vocal foe of the gay community, taunted
Shuck during protests at the Lovejoy Surgicenter
in northwest Portland on several occasions,
shouting that he had AIDS and that people
would be infected if they entered the clinic. The
jury, after two hours of deliberation, determined
that those statements were slanderous, inflicted
intentional emotional harm on Shuck and would
cost Martin $175.000.
Shuck, 39. has worked at Lovejoy for 14
years and is presently director of the clinic’s
counseling department. In December 1985 he
tested positive for the HIV antibody. In October
1986 he appeared on an Oregon Public Broad
casting program called “ AIDS: Out of the
Closet” and was identified as being infected
with HIV. He filed suit against Martin in March
1987.
On the witness stand. Shuck recounted the
day Martin’s harassment of him began, the last
Saturday in October 1986.
“ As I was getting out of my car, she was
screaming, ‘Here comes Tim Shuck. He has
AIDS. If you get near him, you’ll get AIDS.’ I
went up to her and said, I don’t have AIDS —
you have to stop saying that.’ . . . I was stunned;
I couldn’t believe that she could be saying that.”
Shuck’s attorney. Ronald H. Hoevet,
described the jury's finding as “ a blow against
AIDS terrorism. [Martin] was hoping that
hatred and bigotry and fear would prevail.”
For the jury, a major question in the case
hinged on a point of medicine rather than law.
Martin agreed that she said Shuck had AIDS on
several occasions, both outside Lovejoy and
outside the Portland Feminist Women’s Health
Center. But she said the statements were not
slanderous because she believes they are true.
Two physicians, including Mark O. Love
less, assistant professor of medicine at Oregon
Health Sciences University and chairman of the
Oregon AIDS Task Force, testified that Shuck
does not have AIDS.
“ AIDS is not HIV-disease. AIDS is a
complication of HIV-disease,” Loveless said
on the trial’s second day. From a medical stand
point. the proceeding might have stopped there.
But for three more days, Martin’s attorney,
Henry S. Kane, contended that the definition of
AIDS is debatable and that, furthermore,
Martin was just trying to protect the public.
“ I was trying to warn people so that they
wouldn’t become infected with the virus should
they go inside those facilities.” she said in court.
Kane described the jury’s finding as a slap to
Martin's well-intentioned whistle-blowing.
“ Apparently the jury told Mrs. Martin: what
you learn in Sunday School, leave in Sunday
School If you have a choice of telling people to
protect themselves, keep your trap shut.”
T
Police break Doney
case, suspect
indicted
7819 SE Stark
Teleflora
fust oui
• 6 • August I'tXH
256-2920
nformation received by Portland police from
a Roseburg informant has led to the arrest
and indictment of a suspect in the February 13
murder of Eugene Doney.
I
Martin persisted in her contention that Shuck
has AIDS, even after hearing Loveless testify
for one-and-a-half hours that he does not have
the disease. During a hallway interview with a
reporter for KINK radio, Martin said, “ When I
think of this person oozing AIDS, hugging,
kissing, walking around, doing whatever to
those people, I — it just made me revolted.”
During the five-day proceeding, the jury
observed two dramatically different pictures of
Priscilla Martin. On the witness stand, Martin
was mild and calm, dressed in pastel colors with
ribbons in her hair, hands laced in front of her,
answering questions in a voice soft as a
reference librarian’s. Then jurors watched a
videotape of a 1987 protest at the Portland
Feminist Women’s Health Center in which
Martin, hoisting a large white cross, followed a
patient and her male partner, shouting,
“ Shame on you, murderer! You wicked, evil
murderer! Wicked! Evil!. . . Shame, shame,
shame! ’ ’ over the rumble of traffic on Southeast
Foster Road.
On that day, Martin said in court, “ I was all
pumped up — I was worked up to where I could
scream and yell.”
Some of the trial’s most dramatic moments
happened in the jury’s absence. During the jury
selection procedure, Kane asked for permission
to question a prospective juror about his sexual
orientation. TJie response of Judge Robert W.
Redding was unequivocal: “ People aren’t
going to be bullied out of jury service by being
intimidated regarding their sexual orientation.
It’s just not going to happen in this courtroom.”
Later, at the conclusion of testimony, Kane
spent one hour arguing for a mistrial on grounds
that the courtroom deputy had smiled at some
witnesses’ testimony and rolled her eyes at
others’ in a way that could prejudice the jury.
Three observers, all connected with anti
abortion groups, were called from the
spectators' gallery and testified that the deputy,
Joan Peterson, appeared disdainful of Martin’s
witnesses and sympathetic toward Shuck’s side.
To counter the motion, Hoevet called two
journalists from Channel 6 and Oregon Public
Broadcasting away from their notebooks and to
the witness stand, where both said they had not
noticed any improper smiles or gestures from
Peterson.
Redding concluded that “ this motion was
frivolous; it was brought without any good
foundation.”
In closing arguments, Kane continued to
claim that Martin was acting in the interest of
the public’s health. “ What is the high crime that
Mrs. Martin has done? She has warned
people,” he said.
Hoevet saw it differently. “ Tim Shuck was
just a pawn in her effort to achieve her anti
abortion aims. What I hope is that [this finding]
sends a signal that people can’t engage in that
kind of unlawful behavior, in that kind of
terrorism and bigotry.”
At press time, Kane said he and Martin had
not decided whether to file an appeal.
•
Darrell Blame Monical, 19, of Roseburg
was taken into custody by Detective Tom
Nelson on July 13. five months to the day after
the brutal killing of Doney in northwest
Portland's Couch Park.
Monical was indicted by the Multnomah
County Grand Jury on July 21 and will face trial
in the fall on the charge of murder. According to
Nelson, information about the case will not be
released until the trial.
—
Harold Moore