Oregon

Death Row Inmate Challenges Oregon Gov’s Order Giving Him an Execution Reprieve

Sentenced to death but given a reprieve by a state governor who says there will be no executions on his watch, an Oregon inmate is challenging the suspension of his death sentence. Gary Haugen, through his legal counsel, is challenging as unconstitutional Gov. John Kitzhaber’s reprieve order, contending that it…

Mar 14, 2012 9:08 PM CDT

City of Portland, Ore., Sues Insurer to Recover In-House Defense Costs of $1.5M

Saying that the use of its own in-house city attorneys to fight employment-related claims conferred a benefit to its insurance carrier, the city of Portland, Ore., has filed suit against its former liability insurer. Filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the suit seeks reimbursement of nearly $1.5 million Portland…

Mar 6, 2012 9:37 PM CST

Oregon Appeals Court Opinion Includes Cartoon Doodle that Helped Convict Holdup Suspect

The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a man whose cartoon doodle of a holdup was used as evidence against him. The appeals court opinion (PDF) included the picture, found on a school paper in the backpack of burglary and robbery defendant Ariel Jasso. Police responding to…

Mar 6, 2012 4:25 PM CST

Phone Messages for Gov’t Lawyers Create New Trouble for Indicted Researcher Who Refused to Wear Wire

Held in a Portland, Ore., jail after being arrested last week in a Manhattan insider-trading case, a research analyst who previously made headlines by publicly refusing to wear a government wire while he was under investigation is in hot water again. John Kinnucan, 54, is having trouble winning his release…

Feb 23, 2012 6:08 PM CST

Research Analyst Who Publicly Refused to Wear FBI Wire Is Arrested in Insider Trading Case

A research analyst who made headlines in 2010 when he emailed clients to say he’d refused to wear a wire after being requested to do so by FBI agents for a national insider-trading probe was arrested yesterday at his Portland, Ore., home. John Kinnucan, 54, who founded Broadband Research LLC,…

Feb 17, 2012 9:20 PM CST

After Receiving 19 Complaints, Ore. Bar Gains Control of Law Firm

The Oregon State Bar has assumed control of a personal injury law firm after receiving 19 complaints against the lawyer who runs it. A Deschutes County judge gave the bar control of the Bend-based law firm operated by Bryan Gruetter after reviewing client complaints, OPB News reports. The clients had…

Feb 9, 2012 5:23 PM CST

Lawyer Faces Ethics Case Over His Claimed Role in Dividing $1.6M Settlement Among Clients

Successful in obtaining $1.6 million in out-of-court settlements on behalf of 15 men who said they were sexually abused as teenagers by a Catholic priest serving as a prison chaplain at an Oregon reform school in the 1970s, a Salem lawyer now faces a legal ethics case over the manner…

Feb 7, 2012 4:30 PM CST

Advocacy Group Sues Oregon Officials Over Sheltered Workshops, Hopes for National Change

Hoping that the case will help spur national change, an advocacy group for the disabled yesterday filed a class action suit (PDF) in federal court in Portland against top state officials in Oregon. The United Cerebral Palsy Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington is seeking to shift the state’s focus…

Jan 26, 2012 10:37 PM CST

Wanting a Better Way to Hold an Apple iPad, 2 Lawyers Invent the Clutch, Seek Crowd-Funding

Updated: The Apple iPad is a great legal tool. But as Portland, Ore., attorneys Bryan Churchill and Jamie Daigle worked on a case last year, “We said, there’s got to be a better way to hold this,” Churchill tells the Oregonian. The same day the thought struck them, Churchill created…

Jan 9, 2012 9:17 PM CST

Ore. Governor Halts Executions; Death Row Inmate Likely Disappointed, Lawyer Says

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has imposed a moratorium on executions in the state two weeks before an inmate was scheduled to die for killing a man in prison. In a press conference, Kitzhaber said the death-penalty scheme is “an expensive and unworkable system that fails to meet basic standards of…

Nov 23, 2011 12:34 PM CST

Elderly Man Is ‘Surprised as Hell’ When Passengers in His Stolen Car Sue over Crash

A 91-year-old Oregon man says he was “surprised as hell” to learn he is the defendant in a lawsuit filed by two passengers injured in his stolen car. George Hinnenkamp of Lorane Valley reported his Thunderbird stolen in June 2009, the Register-Guard reported last month. Later he learned that the…

Nov 21, 2011 4:42 PM CST

Can Citizens Use Cellphones to Record Cops? Joining 1st Circuit, Oregon Appeals Court Says Yes

Arrests of individuals who record police as they are being questioned have been much in the news lately. Among the latest to be criminally charged is a Florida man is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $4,500 bail for allegedly recording officers on his iPhone…

Nov 2, 2011 1:24 AM CDT

Latest Partners to Join Bullivant Exodus Must Wait Longer for Full Capital Repayment

Over the past years, after merger talks with LeClairRyan collapsed, the attorney roster at Bullivant Houser Bailey plummeted from 236 to 58. Now, after losing half of its remaining partners in 2011, the Portland, Ore.-based law firm says it will need more time to reimburse them for their capital contribution,…

Oct 27, 2011 4:37 PM CDT

Land Use Group Exits Davis Wright’s Office in Portland, Ore., to Form New Boutique

The entire land use practice group in the Portland, Ore., office of Davis Wright Tremaine has reportedly exited the Seattle-based law firm to form a new boutique. Former DWT partners Greg Hathaway, Chris Koback and Mike Connors are now practicing as Hathaway Koback Connors, reports the Portland Business Journal. The…

Oct 7, 2011 9:12 PM CDT

Banned from Her Home for 3 Years for Feeding Bears, Ore. Woman Loses Appeal

Despite the help of an animal law attorney, Geordie Duckler, who handled her appeal pro bono, a former resident of an Oregon Coast town has lost a legal fight over her conviction for feeding local black bears. Karen Noyes, 63, lost an appeal and the Oregon Supreme Court recently declined…

Sep 1, 2011 6:00 PM CDT