Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, October 16, 2019, Page 3, Image 3

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    October 16, 2019
The
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
Week in Review
M ETRO
page 2
Two images show missing University of Portland student Owen Klinger who hasn’t been seen in more
than a week.
page 6
University of Portland student still missing
Searches for
Owen Klinger
come up empty
It’s been more than a week since
anyone last saw University of
Portland freshman Owen Klinger,
18, despite massive search efforts
by hundreds of volunteers.
The school in north Portland
conducted searches with fami-
ly and friends immediately after
news of his disappearance, and
later held a special service and
candlelight vigil for Klinger. This
past weekend, teams of students
and neighbors fanned out looking
for any sign of him at four near-
by parks, but there have been no
clues since he disappeared after
leaving his dorm in Christie Hall
at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
According to KPTV, Klinger
told his roommates he was head-
ing to lacrosse practice, but didn’t
take his gear and never showed
up for practice. A video showed
Klinger withdrawing money from
a campus ATM, after which his
phone went dead. He was also seen
briefly on a Trimet video showing
him walking on North Portsmouth
Street, heading toward Lombard
Street, Klinger’s father, Dustin
Klinger, told the television station.
When he was last seen, Klinger
was wearing a light-blue hooded
sweatshirt, jeans and a drawstring
backpack. He is 6’1”, 165 pounds.
Anyone with information on his
whereabouts is asked to call Port-
land Police Bureau at 503-823-
3333 or University of Portland
campus police at 503-943-7161.
Klinger was doing well in
school and had no apparent prob-
lems, either mentally or emotion-
ally, his mother, Mary Klinger was
quoted as saying.
“That makes us even more con-
cerned, if there’s something we
didn’t know about him and that he
doesn’t want us to know, it doesn’t
matter, we just love him and want
him back,” she said.
Hotel Suit Widens Claims
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
Guest kicked
out says chain
tolerates
discrimination
page 7-8
pages 9
A hotel guest whose lawyers
say he was ousted from the Dou-
bleTree hotel at Lloyd Center for
“calling his mother while black”
from his cellphone in the hotel
lobby is seeking $10 million in a
lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed last week
in Multnomah County Circuit
Court by Jermaine Massey claims
there’s a systemic problem of rac-
ism within the Hilton hotel chain,
which owns 17 brands including
the DoubleTree, Hampton Inn,
Embassy Suites, Waldorf-Astoria
and over 5,800 properties world-
wide. The lawsuit says the chain
has failed to institute adequate
policies and training that would
prevent racial profiling.
Massey, a 35-year-old from the
Seattle area, was staying at the
DoubleTree in Portland’s Lloyd
District Dec. 22 when he said a
security guard asked him if he was
a guest and to state his room num-
ber.
Massey used his cellphone to
capture what happened next in
video that was posted to the Inter-
net, racking up millions of views.
After Massey said he was a
guest, the guard told Massey he
was “loitering” and the police
were on the way to escort him off
the property. He was eventually
accompanied to his room so he
could pack his belongings and he
was forced at about midnight to
find another hotel, according to
the lawsuit.
“Mr. Massey hopes to learn
what policies of Hilton have led
to these events, what Hilton has
done in response to such events,
and will ask the jury to punish Hil-
ton as an example to other hotels
who may be tempted to encourage
or tolerate discrimination at their
places of business,” said Portland
Jermaine Massey
attorney Jason Kafoury.
In a series of statements in the
week following Massey’s ouster,
the hotel “sincerely apologized,”
announced it had placed the guard
and the manager on leave and then
later said they were fired.
Hilton said in a Wednesday
statement that it accelerated
scheduled training for all franchise
properties globally and worked
with the DoubleTree by Hilton
Portland, an independently owned
and operated property, to ensure
their employees have completed
C ontinued on p age 4