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	Retaining Defense Lawyer in Sex-Abuse Case Made Sense By Hardy Myers Statesman Journal September 8, 2007 http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/OPINION/709080306/1049 The Statesman Journal's editorial criticism of the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) for "outsourcing" defense of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility ("Outsourcing Oregon case is bad legal advice," Aug. 8) was totally unfounded. Ten cases, the first filed June 9, 2003, and the others soon thereafter, alleged that two priests, while employed by the state as MacLaren chaplains, had abused 24 boys 30 to 40 years ago. One of the priests was deceased when the cases were filed. Responsibility for defending all the cases was assigned to then-Assistant Attorney General (AAG) William Tharp, a veteran member of DOJ's Trial Division. Defending claims of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred more than 30 years ago — claims vehemently denied by the still-living priest — was difficult. Tharp spent more than two years interviewing potential witnesses and reviewing thousands of pages of documents in an effort to establish the facts. Tharp also mastered the applicable law, including the statute of limitations defense that arguably barred the claims. When Tharp then left DOJ in September 2005 to re-enter private practice, DOJ's options were: (1) retain Tharp as a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG) to continue defending the cases; (2) assign defense responsibility to another Trial Division AAG; or (3) retain another Oregon lawyer as a SAAG. DOJ's Trial Division has many AAGs who were fully capable of replacing Tharp in defending the cases, but the time already invested by Tharp in that defense clearly made retaining him the most cost-effective and efficient option. Getting another lawyer "up to speed" would have required wasteful duplication of a lot of Tharp's work and of defense costs. The state had liability insurance coverage with a private insurance company that paid the entire cost of defending all the claims and the insurer agreed: it requested that Tharp be retained as a SAAG. The fact that Tharp re-entered private practice with a Boise firm did not matter. Tharp has been a member of the Oregon State Bar since 1973; he was (and is) an Oregon lawyer. DOJ did not hire an Idaho law firm; it retained Tharp who happened to have joined an Idaho firm. In short, Oregonians did not "lose" by Tharp's retention, the criticized "outsourcing"; they benefited from the efficient way these cases were handled and ultimately resolved. In the first case to go to trial, the jury found — by a vote of 10 to 2 — that the still-living priest had abused two plaintiffs at MacLaren in the early 1970s (and did not abuse a third plaintiff). The other cases then were settled shortly after the jury's verdict. Although the state did not completely prevail, it was appropriate — given the living priest's sworn denial of abuse — to let a jury decide the facts. And arranging for continued defense of the cases by Tharp after he left DOJ was the appropriate — indeed, the only sensible — course given the amount of Tharp's prior work on the cases. Hardy Myers of Portland is the Oregon attorney general. He can be reached at (503) 378-6002.
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