County agrees to $18,000 payment to settle lawsuit filed by inmate who said he was molested by other prisoners

Douglas County officials agreed Wednesday to pay $18,000 to an incarcerated former Myrtle Creek resident who claimed he was molested by two male prisoners while in custody in the county jail. The man, now 20, was 16 at the time.

The Board of Commissioners agreed to the payment to settle a lawsuit filed against the county in U.S. District Court in Eugene. The agreement came following negotiations between the attorneys representing the county and the man, who is serving nearly six years in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton.

Because he was a minor when he was allegedly victimized, The News-Review has chosen to not publish his name.

The youth was awaiting trial on robbery, assault and conspiracy charges in April 2003 when he was placed in a cell with two convicted sex offenders. He was being tried as an adult and had been moved to the jail after originally being housed at the county Juvenile Detention Center.

For a time, he had been held in a segregation unit. Later, he was moved to C Tank, where sexual offenders and suspects needing medical attention were held because of its location next to an observation post.

Two of the men in C Tank had criminal records as sex offenders. One had been declared a predatory sexual offender by the Oregon Board of Parole and Post Prison Supervision.

The man who said he was victimized, who has a slight build, claimed that man once tried to join him in the shower. On other occasions, he said that man tried to rub his crotch. He said he awoke one day to find the second man on his bunk molesting him.

In his complaint, the victim said he informed three different jailers that he was being accosted and "messed with" by the sexual offenders. He said he was told he would have to deal with the problem himself, according to the complaint.

The youth's father complained to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. By that time, complainant had been convicted of robbery and taken to the McLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.

Both adult suspects were charged with third-degree sexual abuse. However, a grand jury failed to bring indictments against either man and the charges were dismissed.

Jens Schmidt, a Eugene attorney who represented the county in the lawsuit, said the complainant never told jail officials he was being sexually molested. Schmidt said the man told him during questioning for a deposition that at most he told jailers he was being "messed with" and asked to be moved.

"There was no evidence developed in the case that jail staff ignored complaints of sexual advances ... ," Schmidt said.

The youth and five other defendants were convicted of breaking into a Myrtle Creek man's mobile home, beating him and stealing his medical marijuana. He is scheduled to be released in January 2009.



* You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.