Media

  I thought I would provide a status update on my first week in my month long “sabbatical” in the Jury Trial Experience Project.  As a participant in the Project, I am serving as a Special Prosecutor with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office during the month of May.

Over the weekend, Dean Fowell, a high school soccer coach in Hillsboro, Oregon, was arrested on charges that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl on the team. The girl apparently reported to police on Saturday that the coach had engaged her in repeated sexual contact spanning over the past two years.  Dean Fowell is charged with rape, sex abuse and furnishing alcohol to a minor. According to reports, Fowell had been “grooming” the girl, having met her when she was 9 years old.

            We recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of an Oregon man for the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a Boy Scout leader in the 1960's, one of Oregon’s most notorious pedophiles.  The abuser – then-Scoutmaster Ed Dyer – would eventually admit to abusing at least 15 boys over 28 years, including while serving as a Scoutmaster in Eugene and Central Oregon between the mid-1960's and the mid-1980's.  Although the Boy Scouts of America and local and federal government agencies

The Oregonian article reported yesterday on how quickly the expansion of the farm-to-table movement is developing here in Portland. The article discusses how the farm-to-table movement has gone from a niche concept used by Portland’s dining elite in to a commonly-embraced mantra of more casual and even fast food restaurateurs and diners alike.

Well, the federal government continues its protection of the American people through its War on Food. Reader’s will remember last month’s “daring” raid on the Amish farmers’ raw milk cartel. (See “War Against Terror. War Against Drugs. War Against Raw Milk?”) Now that we are safe from the cows’ raw milk, the feds have moved on to addressing the danger posed by the bovine itself.

Once again, Google is attempting to break into a “new” market – this time, it’s social media. In the wake of Facebook and Twitter, Google has for some time now offered its own social networking service: “Google Buzz.” However, Buzz has generated relatively little, well … buzz.

The most recent news that may have a negative affect on business in Portland isn’t related to instability in the housing market or the price of crude. It’s news about instability in another – more local – institution: Blazer’s basketball.

On May 5th, oil prices dropped suddenly by nearly 10% -- allowing U.S. crude to break below $100 for the first time since March. The drop cut year-to-date gains on oil by more than 50%.

The Founding Fathers called the right to a jury a: “A sacred right” . . .. "the most important privilege which freemen can enjoy” Yet, today, there is increasing debate over the value of our jury system. And what we rarely consider in that debate is a historical perspective on the civil jury. Did you know: • The right to a civil jury was proclaimed in the Magna Carta in 1215.

Recently, we filed a lawsuit against Avamere (a residential care provider) on behalf of some courageous clients who are outraged by the mistreatment of their father. The suit alleges that Gerald Matlock, 74, fell at least 27 times over a five month period at the Avamere Newberg care facility.