NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
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Saturday, October 20, 2018
Avakian wants legislative leaders held in contempt
ment Friday that its motion
for the contempt order was
“unprecedented.”
This summer, Avakian, a
Democrat whose term ends
in January, accused leg-
islative leaders of allow-
ing a hostile work environ-
ment to fester at the Capitol
and reacting too slowly to
various reports of sexual
harassment.
Avakian filed what’s
called a commissioner’s
complaint with the Bureau
of Labor and Industries,
and the subpoenas, in early
August. Avakian believed
the Legislature wouldn’t
cooperate or be “reliable,”
court documents show, and
feared the records would be
destroyed.
Avakian now wants a
judge to order Senate Pres-
ident
Peter
Courtney,
Speaker Tina Kotek and
Sen. Jackie Winters, along
with other legislative staff,
to comply with the subpoe-
nas, and to level $1,000 fines
against them for every day
that they have not done so
since Aug. 20.
“State respondents are not
above the law and their con-
duct is not beyond all scru-
tiny,” an attorney for the
Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries wrote in the motion,
filed Wednesday in Mult-
nomah County Circuit Court.
“This case is about inves-
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
and AUBREY WIEBER
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Outgoing
Oregon Labor Commis-
sioner Brad Avakian is again
taking the Legislature to task
over sexual harassment, this
time in Multnomah County
Circuit Court.
Avakian wants a state
judge to find legislators and
staff in contempt for failing
to comply with subpoenas in
the administrative case he’s
brought against them over
their handling of harassment
allegations.
He’s seeking a massive
trove of documents, includ-
ing all documents pertain-
ing to reports or allegations
of harassment involving leg-
islators, employees, student
interns or lobbyists since
Jan. 1, 2011.
Avakian also wants cop-
ies of the Legislature’s per-
sonnel rules, any draft per-
sonnel rules proposed since
2011, policies and proce-
dures for placing student
interns at the Capitol, as well
as documents that could
identify any student interns
working at the Legislature
since 2011.
A hearing on the motion
is scheduled for Nov. 19.
While the bureau com-
monly subpoenas docu-
ments, it said in a state-
Pamplin Media Group
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian has asked a judge to hold legislators and
staff in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas in the administrative case
he’s brought against them over their handling of harassment allegations.
tigating allegations from
women who were harmed in
the Capitol, and the Legisla-
ture’s failure to address their
experiences,” the bureau
said in a written statement
Friday. “Now, after pro-
fessing cooperation with
the investigation, the Ore-
gon Legislature is continu-
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ing to ignore the experiences
of these women and refuses
to provide information nec-
essary in order to uncover
the truth and, if the law has
been broken, find redress for
those who were harmed.”
Legislative leaders are
contesting Avakian’s moves.
“I think it’s very sur-
prising and I think it’s very
unfortunate and frankly
sad, because the commis-
sioner knows that the Con-
stitution of Oregon doesn’t
give him the authority to
either impose or apply rem-
edies,” said Edwin Harnden,
an attorney representing the
Legislature.
The Legislature has
already provided several
hundred pages of docu-
ments outlining its response
to sexual harassment in the
Capitol.
Avakian filed the admin-
istrative complaint Aug. 1,
nearly a year after the rise of
the #MeToo movement and
an investigation into sex-
ual harassment allegations
against a state senator from
Roseburg.
Avakian’s
complaint
alleges that on multiple
occasions, legislative staff,
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
including attorneys and
human resource officials,
failed to properly handle
reports of sexual harassment.
Avakian said the com-
plaint was requested by two
employees and two student
interns who sought redress
for “the harm they suffered
and to remedy the intolera-
ble conditions that respon-
dents have failed to correct.”
In Avakian’s complaint,
he details a history of sex-
ual misconduct in the Capi-
tol going back years.
In 2015, a legislative
employee reported that
a man who had sexually
assaulted her had since been
hired as a legislative intern,
according to the complaint.
She had recently found
out that the intern had also
assaulted a friend of hers.
The
employee
also
reported that since being
hired, the intern had asked
her about her sexual rela-
tionship with someone else.
The employee reported
the conduct, and legislative
attorney Dexter Johnson
and employee services man-
ager Lore Christopher told
her that the harasser is not to
contact her again, the com-
BRIEFLY
Man awaiting trial on sex
abuse charges disappears
REDMOND (AP) — A Redmond man
who was awaiting trial on several sex
abuse charges has removed his GPS moni-
toring ankle bracelet and is missing.
The Bulletin reports Friday that Michael
Tallman, the former director of a Redmond
charter school, was supposed to go to trial
Tuesday but police found his ankle brace-
let in the Bend area and believe he is plan-
ning to flee the state.
The 45-year-old Tallman changed his
name from Michael Bremont last year.
He has already served prison time for
sexually abusing two female students
under the age of 18 at Redmond Profi-
ciency Academy and at Central Linn High
School in Halsey, where he worked as a
principal until 2006.
Another academy student came forward
after his release in 2014 and he was await-
ing trial in that case.
Two students sickened after
eating marijuana-infused
Oreos
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MEDFORD (AP) — Two students at
South Medford High School were taken to
a hospital by ambulance after eating Oreo
cookies drizzled with marijuana-infused
oil.
The Mail Tribune reports Friday that
the students were conscious and able to
talk while they were being transported on
Thursday afternoon.
District spokeswoman Natalie Hurd tells
the newspaper that a third student got sick
on Tuesday and may have also ingested
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plaint recounted. His intern-
ship was nearly finished,
and the employee was told
that she would be notified
if her alleged assailant was
hired again, according to the
complaint.
Christopher and Johnson
also warned the employee
about speaking publicly
about the issues, saying it
could be seen as retaliatory
or defamatory, according to
the complaint.
Also in 2015, a legislative
employee reported to John-
son and Courtney’s chief
of staff, Betsy Imholt, that
Courtney’s communications
director had inappropriate
contact with her at a bar, and
then sent her lewd song lyr-
ics over Facebook. Johnson
told the employee he was
working out an informal
settlement between her and
the communications direc-
tor, and that she was not to
contact him or talk about the
allegations, according to the
complaint.
In March, 2016, state
Sens. Sara Gelser and
Elizabeth Steiner Hay-
ward reported inappropri-
ate touching by state Sen.
Jeff Kruse of Roseburg. A
student intern working in
Kruse’s office also reported
Kruse was inappropri-
ate toward her, calling her
“sexy,” “little girl,” touch-
ing her thighs despite being
asked to stop and saying her
husband was lucky, accord-
ing to the complaint.
In early 2017, a different
legislative intern in Kruse’s
office reported experienc-
ing unwanted touching by
Kruse, including touching
her breasts and hips while
he hugged her, according to
the complaint. The woman
told other legislative staff-
ers about the conduct, who
responded they had heard
similar things before.
Harnden, of the Port-
land law firm Barran Lieb-
man, said prior to the com-
plaint, the labor bureau and
the Legislature were work-
ing well together to fix the
issues. Taking legal action,
he said, “lacks common
sense.”
“To politicize it and legal-
ize it, I think it’s just frankly
horrible,” he said.
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marijuana, but the evidence isn’t as clear.
The district says it is seeing an increase
in the use of marijuana edibles among
students.
Medford police and the school district
are still investigating the cause of the first
reported overdose on Tuesday.
Man accused of killing wife
with drug-laced ice cream
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A Washing-
ton man faces charges of killing his wife by
lacing her ice cream with a lethal dose of
pain medication.
The Spokesman-Review reports David
Pettis of Cheney appeared in Spokane
County District Court on Thursday after
he was arrested Wednesday by Spokane
County sheriff’s deputies.
Judge Patti Walker set Pettis’ bond at $1
million, which his defense attorney, Robert
Sargent, says is unreasonable because Pet-
tis earned significantly less than indicated
in the pretrial findings, which estimated his
monthly income at $5,000 to $7,000.
Sargent says Pettis’ income was closer
to $2,500 a month, and because that
income came from a logging business, it’s
not always consistent.
Sargent says Pettis maintains his inno-
cence and plans to enter a not guilty plea at
the next hearing.
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