Update on the Oregon Public Defense Commission's Retaliation Investigation

 

About six weeks ago, we wrote about a situation in which the Oregon Public Defense Commission's General Counsel (a top ranking position) was found to have retaliated against female public defenders for their criticism of him and the state agency. He was issued a letter of "expectations" and required to attend a few online courses rather than face actual discipline.

I criticized that decision in the article. I stated:

"In my view, the complaints were about discrimination in the form of pay based on sex. The actions took were clearly retaliatory. I'm not sure that this is a close call."

Well, it turns out that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon agrees with me. They said:

“It should be a given that the general counsel of Oregon’s public defense agency should not engage in retaliation,” Sandy Chung, executive director of ACLU of Oregon, wrote to the state agency last week, as reported by Willamette Week. “We request that OPDC immediately take the only appropriate action in this situation: terminate Deitrick’s employment.”

I could not agree more. I suspect that it is only a matter of time before this issue ends up in court.

And the state agency will lose.

This story is far from over. I will keep everyone updated. 

 

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.