500
Police Cleared in James Death
gJC lyu
bU kedfOr haVi”8 dinner ,Oge,her
H u n g e r D e fe n s e
Sta* sees dramatic
increase in food stamps
See story, Metro section
‘City of Roses’
^ n rtía n h ©íiseruer
Volume XXXIV • Number 31
T, Week in
TheReview
Bill Pays Iraq War Costs
President Bush signed a $417.5
billion wartime defense bill pro
viding an additional $25 billion
for Iraq and Afghanistan, body
armor for troops and reinforced
Humvee vehicles.
Possible Cult Victims
Discovered
Police in eastern Nigeria discov
ered body parts, skulls and more
than 50 corpses, some partly
mummified, in shrines where a
secretive cult was believed to
have carried out ritual killings,
officers said. Some victims may
have died after swallowing poi
son to prove their innocence.
Bush Defends Terror Alerts
President Bush defended the!
decision to issue terrorism warn-1
ings and tighten security in New
York and W ashington, saying
“the threats w e’re dealing with
are real” even though some of
the intelligence on which the [
government acted was as much
as four years old.
Koko Uses Sign Language
When Koko the gorilla used the |
American Sign Language ges
ture for pain and pointed to her
mouth, 12 specialists, including!
three dentists, sprang into ac
tion. The result? Her first full I
medical examination in about 20
years, an extracted tooth and a |
clean bill o f health.
Nichols Asks for Forgiveness
Oklahom a City bombing con-
spiratorTerry Nichols addressed
a court for the first time, asking
for forgiveness and offering to
help victims’ families with the
healing process as he was sen-1
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • August II. 2004
COMPa
Not I
Revenge I
Survivors of
violence forgive
attackers
by Liz W allace
T he P ortland O bserver
While supporters o f the criminal justice
system maintain that hard time for violent
offenders is beneficial to victims and com
munities, many real crime survivors disagree.
“Everyone knows that in prison you are
likely to get raped, molested, abused and
assaulted,” said Theresa Huggins, a rape
survivor and participant in Survivors Advo
cating For an Effective System (SAFES). “I
would never wish that on anyone, not even
the man who raped me.”
The rape occurred when she was 12, after
a night o f bowling. A man offered her a ride
home, but instead drove her out to the coun
try and raped her.
"I told my dad I was late, hoping h e’d be
mad at me and ask why. He just said, ‘D on’t
do it again. ’ I wanted so badly to tell him what
had happened, but I couldn’t.”
For years, Huggins remained silent about
the sexual assault. She started drinking
heavily and doing drugs, sinking so low she
became a violent offender herself, repri
manded for assault throughout her youth.
When Huggins married her high school
sweetheart, her life did not improve.
Together, they pulled robberies, got in
scrapes, did dope, and were generally “run
ning amok.”
She tried to look beyond his criminal his
tory to see his gentler side, as he cared o f an
aging grandmother.
Eventually, her husband wound up in jail.
With no support and the knowledge that he
was at great risk physically, mentally and
emotionally, Hugginscontinually visited him
behind bars. She started cleaning up her life
Theresa Huggins, a crime survivor’s advocate, tells her story.
photo by
* In a system that heals no one,
where will the violence end?
- Arwen Bird, founding member and executive director of Survivors
Advocatlngfor an Effective System (SAFES)
by taking classes at Chemeketa Community
College in Salem. But when he was freed
from lockup, the system hadn’t changed
him and together they spiraled back down
into crim e and drug addiction.
A year and a half after he was freed from
jail, Huggins hit bottom. She left him and
made a commitment to clean up once and for
all. Through writing classes taught by an
inspiring professor, Huggins learned how
to tell her story.
The writing finally allowed her to start
healing from her childhood rape. It was then
that she discovered SAFES, an organiza
tion that resonated with her own views and
experiences with violence and the criminal
justice system.
Huggins thinks that the criminal justice
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserve
system needs to do a better job of healing t
victim, the offender and the community. T
current system, she feels, heals no one, h
only perpetuates the physical, mental a,
sexual abuse in prison.
“In a system that heals no one, where w
the violence end?” asks Arwen Bird, foun
ing member and executive directorof SAFE
Bird was paralyzed by a drunk driver. /
punishment, she only wanted him to help pj
her medical bills, but instead he went I
prison and she received no financial help.
“When they (offenders) get sent to prise
and their victims receive little say in senteni
ing and little financial orem otional support,
she asks, “what are we offering survivors’!
continued
on page A6
tenced to life without the possi
bility o f parole on 161 state)
charges.
Reporter Held In Contempt
Time magazine is appealing a
ju d g e’s ruling that one o f its re
porters is i n contempt o f court for
refusing to testify before a grand
jury investigating the leak o f the |
Local Judge Leaves Legacy
Services Friday for Roosevelt Robinson
Roosevelt Robinson, 62, a
local African-American leader,
judge and former minister will
King Kong Actress Honored be remembered during a public
The Empire State Building - the |
memorial service at 11 a.m. Fri
skyscraper that King Kong scaled
day, Aug. 13 at Mallory Church
while holding tight to Fay Wray
o f Christ, 3908 N.E. Mallory.
- will dim its lights for 15 minutes
Robinson was bom in De
Tuesday in honor o f the actress
cember 1941 in Valdosta, Ga.
who died Sunday, a building
His great-grandm other raised
spokesman said.
him after his mother was mur
dered when he was a child. He
later became valedictorian of
his high school graduating
class in 1959.
He earned a theology de
gree from Southwestern Chris
tian College in Texas before
heading for Oregon in 1962.
He got a jo b at a Nabisco
bakery in northeast Portland,
working his way up from ja n i
c
tor to foreman. He also served
o >ri
0Í) O
as minister at a north Portland
1» C)
church and earned a sociology
degree from the University of
O ©
Portland in 1970.
In 1976, Robinson gradu
o e <U Û&
ated from Northwestern School
o f Law at Lewis & Clark Col
1>
lege. He spent a few years in
c
> OD ©
private practice before joining
3
□ ¿
the M ultnomah County dis- Roosevelt Robinson was honored to serve as a judge.
UJ
identity o f a covert CIA officer.
> o
trict attorney’s office in 1978.
In 1987, he was appointed to
the Oregon Parole Board. In
1990, he was appointed as a
M ultnom ah County C ircuit
Court Judge, later winning elec
tion to that seat.
R obinson p resid ed o v er
the law suit against cigarette-
m aker P hilip M orris that re
sulted in a $150 m illion ju ry
aw ard. R obinson criticized
com pany officials, but he re
duced the aw ard to $50 m il
lion in 2002.
R obinson resigned from
the bench last year, as his
health began to decline. But
after entering hospice care,
he surprised many by living
nearly a year longer than ex
pected, in spite o f failing k id
neys. He credited his rebound
to ad v a n c e d th e ra p y and
prayer.
“He loved what he did," said
Jan Wyers, also a circuit judge.
“He felt so honored to be a
judge.”
Last year, Lewis and Clark
L aw S ch o o l s ta rte d th e
Roosevelt Robinson Minority
Scholarship in his honor.
photo by M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
/wceS/nwr
.foo/w „ //((’«</
r
Maur'elle Amaunni Lampkin
earns a state trophy and
queen's crown as Miss Oregon
Sweetheart. She will compete
for the American Coed National
Sweetheart title this fall in
Orlando, Fla. See s.
on
page B6