Lon Mabon
Free at last
Judge dismisses contempt
order against Lon Mabon
by J im
R adosta
A
They might be straight, but these allies
always have been on our side
s expected, Lon Mabon won’t have to
return to jail after finally agreeing to
participate in a deposition April 5. The
Oregon Citizens Alliance chairman was
jailed Feb. 20 for contempt of court after fail
ing to appear at several hearings seeking a
10-year-old settlement he has yet to pay off.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge
Ronald Cinniger ruled April 8 that Mabon
complied by answering the questions posed by
attorneys for Catherine Stauffer, a lesbian
photojournalist who was assaulted in 1991.
The next court date in the lengthy case is
April 22.
Mabon scored a small victory April 5 when
the Oregon Court of Appeals granted a stay of
the contempt order while it considers his chal
lenge of Cinniger’s ruling. Stauffers attorney
Brent Foster said the issue is moot, however,
because the anti-gay leader complied with the
deposition.
After the hearing ended, Just Out had a rare
opportunity to ask a few questions of Mabon,
who normally does not grant interviews to this
publication. First off: Why did he wait until he
had exhausted all other legal options before
arguing that Oregon judges have taken the
wrong oath?
“We didn’t know it,” Mabon said as his wife,
Bonnie, stood by him. “We became aware of the
fact that the oath was not proper last summer,
and as soon as we became aware we put it in our
pleadings to Judge Cinniger, because we went
down and checked his oath.
“He then said, basically, ‘My oath is good
enough’ and then some months later actually
took a different oath even though he had said
it was good enough before. We maintain that
because he did correct the oath— because
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