‘Our Work In the News’ Section

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A Multnomah County judge has ruled against a Portland couple in a land-use case that could be a taste of things to come in Oregon’s long-running struggle with the issue.

In a rare decision that may be one of the last salvos of the Measure 37 property-rights battle, a Multnomah County judge ruled Wednesday that county and state land-use laws had restricted the use of a couple’s rural Northwest Portland property and reduced its value by $750,000.

Attorneys representing Larry and Laura Luethe, who sought to build a nine-lot subdivision off Northwest Skyline Boulevard, said the county and state must either pay the damage amount or waive the zoning that kept the Luethes from developing the property. The state and county must pay the couple’s attorney fees and court costs in either case, attorneys Stephen Crew and Kristian Roggendorf said.

Larry Luethe, 63, a retired excavator, said battling the land- use system for the past couple of years has been extremely frustrating. He and his wife, who had not spent time in a courtroom before the weeklong trial, welcomed the decision by Judge Jerry Hodson.

(more…)

Posted by The Oregonian

November 15, 2007

In a rare decision that may be one of the last salvos of the Measure 37 property rights battle, a Multnomah County judge ruled Wednesday that county and state land use laws restricted a couple’s use of their rural Northwest Portland property and reduced its value by $750,000.

Attorneys representing Larry and Laura Luethe, who wanted to build a nine-lot subdivision off Northwest Skyline Boulevard, said the county and state must pay the damage amount or waive the zoning regulation that kept the Luethes from developing the property.

The case is significant because it emerged from the murky legal ground separating Measure 37, the 2004 property rights measure, and Measure 49, the revision approved by voters in the Nov. 6 election. Measure 49 drastically rolled back development rights, prohibiting the large subdivisions and industrial and commercial development that many property owners had sought to build under Measure 37.

Under Measure 49, claimants will be limited to three homesites, or four to 10 if they can prove by appraisal that land use laws sufficiently devalued their property.
-- Eric Mortenson
ericmortenson@news.oregonian.com

The Oregonian

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The Portland Archdiocese has lost its mind.

As if determined to prove it has learned nothing from past sins, and those of its priests, the archdiocese is demanding that a new group claiming to be victims of clergy abuse should be compelled to abandon their pseudonyms and go public with their identities.

Only last June, Catholic Archbishop John Vlazny apologized for the burdens carried by "the victims of sexual abuse" and conceded, "By our reluctance to bring light to this great darkness, we as a people have sinned."

The time for penance and reconciliation, apparently, has ended. This legal maneuver is an exasperating move to bully these plaintiffs and intimidate future ones.

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By WILLIAM McCALL
The Associated Press
10/25/2007, 4:20 p.m. PDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Six months after a historic bankruptcy settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland and plaintiffs who said priests abused them, the legal battle has taken a new twist — whether a new plaintiff should be publicly identified.

The archdiocese has challenged a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by a man identified as "John Doe 120," arguing the release of copies of the complaint to journalists in advance of the filing undermines his argument for privacy.

"This calculated, public disclosure, timed to maximize its effectiveness in generating a news story before the Archdiocese could respond to a lawsuit filing, deprives plaintiff of any valid claim about a need for privacy," the archdiocese argued.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ASHBEL S. GREEN

Lawsuit - The Portland archdiocese wants new accusers to reveal their names after alerting the media

A historic bankruptcy settlement reached six months ago did not end the bitterness between the Archdiocese of Portland and those who say they were the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Federal court documents filed by the archdiocese say that a new group of priest accusers have no right to file lawsuits under pseudonyms after providing the media with advance copies of their claims to try to seek wide exposure of their accusations.

"This calculated, public disclosure, timed to maximize its effectiveness in generating a news story before the archdiocese could respond to a lawsuit filing, deprives plaintiff of any valid claim about a need for privacy," the papers say.

(more…)

From KPTV - FOX 12 NEWS - 10/4/2007

The lawsuit claims both organizations knew the danger of having Timur Dykes, 51, as a scout leader and did not take steps to protect the boys. Dykes is a convicted child sex offender

From katu.com

Salem-News.com (Oct-03-2007 11:36)
Tim King Salem-News.com

In February, two brothers files suit against the Mormon Church claiming that the Church knew for several years about the dangerous tendencies of Timur Dykes, who was first convicted for childhood sexual abuse in the 1980s.

Salem-News.com

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Four more men will file suit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salem today. The organization is also known as the “LDS” or “Mormon” Church. This brings the total number of victims to six, for abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a person at the facility named Timur Dykes.

This information was released by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who frequently handles such cases on behalf of adult victims of child abuse.

In February, two brothers files suit against the Mormon Church claiming that the Church knew for several years about the dangerous tendencies of Timur Dykes, who was first convicted for childhood sexual abuse in the 1980s and has since been several times convicted for additional child abuse.

Dykes was a Sunday School teacher and an Elder in the Mormon Church and a Boy Scout Leader as well. The previous suit named the Boy Scouts of American and the Cascade Pacific Counsel of the Boys Scouts as well as the Mormon Church as defendants.

Clark says the new suit will also name both institutions as defendants. The case will be filed in the Circuit Court for the State of Oregon in the County of Multnomah at 1:00 PM Wednesday.

From dailymotion.com