A4 • Friday, January 21, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Seaside man sues state hospital, alleging sexual abuse
Abuse allegedly occurred
in the late 1990s
By ARDESHIR TABRIZIAN
Salem Reporter
SALEM — A Seaside man is suing Ore-
gon State Hospital, claiming he was sexu-
ally abused as a patient in the late 1990s by
a psychiatric aide who was later convicted
of sexually abusing three underage boys
and attempting to kill one of his victims.
The man sued the hospital, former
employee Frank James Milligan and the
Oregon Department of Human Services in
late December in Marion County Circuit
Court, seeking $3 million in damages.
The complaint alleges Milligan was
allowed access to the man when he was 16
as a psychiatric aide and used his position
of authority to abuse him and other young
boys.
Milligan has been in the custody of the
state Department of Corrections for over
21 years, having been convicted of abus-
ing boys in three separate criminal cases in
2000, 2001 and 2015.
He is incarcerated at Oregon State Cor-
rectional Institution in Salem, with his ear-
liest release being in September 2071,
according to the state’s website.
The complaint said Milligan was hired in
1994 as a psychiatric aide at the state hos-
pital in Salem. At an unspecified time, the
man — then 16 — had significant health
issues that required his admission to the
state hospital, which cares for Oregonians
with mental illnesses who are court-or-
dered to get treatment.
At the time, the state hospital operated
under the state human services depart-
ment’s direction before a 2009 law split off
some programs to form the Oregon Health
Authority. The health authority has been the
hospital’s parent agency since July 2011.
Representatives for the state hospital
and the Department of Human Services
declined to comment on the allegations in
the suit. Matthew Sweeney, the attorney
representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit,
could not be reached for comment Friday.
According to the complaint, Milligan
sexually abused the patient when he was at
the hospital.
The victim is identified in public court
documents, but Salem Reporter does not
identify victims of sexual abuse.
Due to Milligan’s threats of punish-
ment and his authority to inflict it, the com-
A $3 million lawsuit has been filed against the Oregon State Hospital alleging sex abuse.
plaint said, the man was reasonably afraid
Milligan would physically retaliate or kill
him. He did not report Milligan’s abuse to
anyone at the state hospital and repressed
all thoughts of the abuse he had suffered,
according to the complaint.
The man returned home to Seaside after
his release from the state hospital. The
complaint said Milligan went to Seaside
and threatened to kill him if he ever told
anyone what happened, the complaint said.
After Milligan threatened him, the man
repressed memories of the abuse, the com-
plaint said. Unable to mentally process
what he’d endured at the state hospital, he
suffered many setbacks in life and had trou-
ble finding his place in the world.
The man struggled to find housing and
provide for himself and eventually became
homeless. “Living on the streets aggra-
vated his already delicate mental state and
(he) had many encounters with the criminal
justice system,” the complaint said.
The complaint said he and many others
fell victim to a pattern of abuse of children
under the state hospital’s supervision and
care.
It went on to say the abuse was a result
of state hospital and Department of Human
Services leadership lacking oversight of
employees, their facilities lacking proper
security and monitoring, the hospital fail-
ing to report suspected abuse to the Depart-
ment of Human Services, and “the culture
in which the abuse of juveniles was not
taken seriously.”
The complaint also said the state hos-
pital and Department of Human Services
didn’t put in place effective policies and
procedures to prevent abuse as new cases of
abuse by employees came to light, and that
they didn’t terminate Milligan’s employ-
ment when the Department of Human Ser-
vices knew or should’ve known the threat
he posed.
As a direct result of the state hospital’s
and Milligan’s abuse, negligence and vio-
lation of rights, the complaint said, the man
has suffered “severe and debilitating emo-
tional injury, pain and suffering, emotional
trauma, and permanent psychological dam-
age.” He will also incur costs for counsel-
ing, psychiatric and psychological medi-
cal treatment, and reduced ability to earn
income due to the abuse, the complaint
said.
Milligan previously pleaded guilty
in July 2000 in Clatsop County to two
counts of attempted first-degree sodomy
and first-degree sexual abuse, admitting
to abusing a boy under 12 in August 1997,
according court documents. He was sen-
tenced to six years and three months in
prison.
Milligan was indicted in August 2000
on charges of attempted aggravated mur-
der, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of
first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual
abuse. The charges alleged he abused and
tried to kill a different boy under 12 in July
2000. He pleaded guilty to all charges in
August 2001 and was sentenced to 30 years
in prison.
In September 2015, a jury in Marion
County found Milligan guilty of two counts
of first-degree sexual abuse and first-de-
gree unlawful sexual penetration, court
records showed. The Dec. 30 complaint
said the victim was a minor in his custody
at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in
Woodburn.
A Marion County Circuit Court judge
sentenced him to 35 years in prison on
those charges.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
New Zealander’s novel inspired by Oregon Coast
Contact local agencies for latest meeting infor-
mation and attendance guidelines.
MONDAY, JAN. 24
By BARBARA LLOYD McMICHAEL
Coast Weekend
New Zealander Christopher Parker has
plenty of shoreline in his own country, but
he decided to use the Oregon coastline as
the setting for his debut novel because, as he
said in a recent interview, he felt his main
characters, a rancher and a college student
on a swimming scholarship, sounded “quint-
essentially American.”
And it may be only coincidence that he
borrows the name of a Washington coastal
community, Seabrook, for the name of his
fictional Oregon town that, he says he built
from scratch — in his imagination, at least.
Nonetheless, Parker notes that his
beachside hometown of Takapuna, and the
lighthouse there, were the inspiration for his
story.
This tale, tinged with mystical elements,
begins with the relationship between Kevin
Tucker and his 18-year-old daughter, Amy.
Separately, each is grieving the loss of Helen
— Amy’s mom and Kevin’s wife — who
recently died in a traffic accident. Since then,
Amy hasn’t been eating, and she’s been suf-
fering from insomnia.
Kevin, a Portland cop, had always
deferred to Helen as the primary parent, and
now he doesn’t know how to reach out to his
daughter. But when he receives an assign-
ment that will take him a couple of hundred
miles down the coast to Seabrook to update a
“The Lighthouse” is by Christopher Parker.
family about a missing person’s case involv-
ing their son, he invites Amy along, hoping
a change of scenery will do her some good.
Amy goes along reluctantly. When they
arrive in Seabrook and check in at the hotel,
the lady at the front desk tells them that the
town’s annual Lighthouse Festival will take
place the next day. Amy goes for a walk
down the beach to check out the landmark,
and discovers that the lighthouse is dilapi-
dated, boarded up and out of commission.
Some townsfolk even say it is haunted.
This doesn’t do anything to pick up
Amy’s spirits. In fact, she has never felt so
low.
Meanwhile, on a dude ranch just outside
of town, Ryan Porter also is grappling with
bad news and unwanted changes. Scarcely
into adulthood, he’s been caring for his wid-
owed, convalescent father for years, while
trying to keep the ranch running. Now the
local bank manager wants Ryan to give him
a call.
The first encounter between Amy and
Ryan couldn’t be more awkward or less aus-
picious, but once any misunderstandings
are cleared up, they wind up spending the
next day together at the festival. Over just a
matter of hours, they find themselves shar-
ing some deeply guarded secrets with one
another that they haven’t told anyone else.
But even as their relationship intensifies,
they are drawn into some off-kilter events
that are happening around town in conjunc-
tion with the festival. As the plot unfolds, it
involves not only familial connections and
teen romance, but also supernatural ele-
ments a la the “Twilight Zone.”
The explication may seem overlong to
some readers, but the gist of the story is
affirming.
And that abandoned old lighthouse? It
may yet shed the light needed to ensure safe
passage.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacific Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com
Seaside City Council, special meeting, camp-
ing ordinance, 5 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
MONDAY, JAN. 25
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District
Board of Directors, 5:15 p.m., 1225 Ave. A.
Seaside Airport Advisory Committee,
6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, FEB. 1
Seaside Community Center Commission,
10 a.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 2
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., www.cityof-
gearhart.com.
THURSDAY, FEB. 3
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
MONDAY, FEB. 7
Seaside Housing Task Force, 6 p.m. 989
Broadway.
THURSDAY, FEB. 10
Seaside Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave., Seaside.
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m.,
cityofgearhart.com.
MONDAY, FEB. 14
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Judge refuses to declare state forest logging unlawfully harms coho salmon
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
PORTLAND — A federal judge has
refused to declare that logging activities in
the Clatsop and Tillamook state forests have
unlawfully harmed threatened coho salmon.
Though U.S. District Judge Michael
Mosman has rejected a motion by environ-
mental groups to declare that timber sales
in those state forests violate the Endangered
Species Act, his ruling doesn’t put an end to
the litigation.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
The Center for Biological Diversity, Cas-
cadia Wildlands and the Native Fish Soci-
ety have a strong case they’ll succeed on
the merits, but at this point, their evidence
of illegal take isn’t beyond dispute, Mosman
said.
The plaintiffs must prove that logging
road construction caused landslides that
harmed streams enough to kill or injure coho
salmon, he said.
“You just can’t get there from here with-
out something more,” Mosman said at the
conclusion of oral arguments in December.
However, the judge has agreed to revisit
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
the issue after hearing expert testimony next
year from the environmental nonprofits and
the state, as well as Tillamook County and
the Oregon Forest & Industries Council,
which have intervened in the lawsuit.
Amy Atwood, an attorney for the envi-
ronmental nonprofits, argued that findings
from the National Marine Fisheries Service,
numerous studies and documentary evidence
all prove that landslides from logging roads
adversely affect coho salmon.
“It’s apparent from our photography that
sediment was delivered,” Atwood said. “Our
contention is that fine sediment is always
harmful.”
If the environmental nonprofits convince
the judge that the Oregon Department of
Forestry’s management resulted in unlawful
take, it could have implications beyond state
forestland. Similar logging activities on pri-
vate forestland could then also be vulnerable
to lawsuits.
Attorneys for the defendants and interve-
nors countered that the environmental plain-
tiffs have not established a sufficient causal
link between the Department of Forestry’s
logging authorizations and the alleged take
of coho salmon.
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