[crossposted as a hybrid of two articles originating at
Loaded Orygun, the journal of Oregon politics and culture. My co-founder Carla wrote them, but she asked me to post them here, since the Kos community is following the Brading-Minnis race somewhat...]
It would seem that if you're in the Minnis clan--they'll do an awful lot to scuttle your bad behavior. Apparently even behavior bad enough to be considered child sexual abuse.
According to information uncovered in an investigation by FuturePAC, John and Karen Minnis paid off a 17 year old girl who worked in their Hillsboro restaurant after John's brother Tuck consistently sexually harassed and abused her in the workplace. Worse, this payoff to settle her civil claim stemmed from an incident in Tuck's apartment where he engaged in unwanted touching of her in a sexual away.
(more)
According to a
legal analysis of the case facts by attorney Marc Blackman, the Minnis were legally obligated to report Tuck's behavior, and failed to do so:
As to the criminal law issues presented by the materials I reviewed, my conclusions are:
1. The facts recited in the complaint in Vega set forth allegations of child sexual abuse.
2. The principals of Little John's Pizza Co., LLC recognized that the complaint in
Vega provided reasonable cause to believe that Tuck had committed sexual offenses against Andrea.
3. As a public official, John Minnis had a duty under ORS 419B.010 immediately to report them to the Department of Human Services or a law enforcement agency in Washington County, Oregon.
4. John Minnis and Little John's Pizza Co., LLC's payment of $20,000 to Andrea combined with the failure to make the report required by ORS 419B.010 in and of themselves appear to be insufficient to establish the offenses of bribing a witness or tampering with a witness.
John Minnis was a POLICE OFFICER and a public official. I don't rightly know how he could possibly say he didn't know he was obligated to report this to the cops.
To put a fine caveat here, there is no way to obtain information directly showing whether or not John or Karen Minnis reported Tuck to the police. Anything like that would be sealed. However, there is no criminal investigation or criminal court documents against Tuck on this matter, so its more than reasonable to believe that neither of them reported it.
As I understand it, the statue of limitations on reporting these types of incidents is 18 months. Legally it would seem that the Minnis' are in the clear. I also don't know why the 17 year old didn't report it, but she wasn't legally obligated as the Minnis' were.
The legal documents and complete Blackman legal analysis are here.
Blackman's conclusion:
The information in the files in the Vega and Minnis cases reflects legitimate allegations of child sexual abuse by Tuck Minnis. It does not appear that these allegations were reported to appropriate law enforcement officials as required by Oregon's Child Abuse Reporting Law and hence were never properly investigated. Conversely, it appears that Little John's Pizza Co., LLC and John Minnis paid money to secure the dismissal of a civil case that the Washington County Circuit Court and the Oregon Supreme Court found to involve only Tuck Minnis' private sexual mistreatment of Andrea. These circumstances raise questions about the purpose of that payment, especially in combination with the violation of the mandatory reporting law. Whether they amounted to the more serious offenses of bribing or tampering with a witness, however, cannot be determined from the available information.
(Bold emphasis--Carla)
This is an ugly, disgusting story made worse by the fact a police officer and state legislator (and the potential Oregon House Speaker) didn't report their dirtbag relative to the police.
This is a complete and total violation of the public trust. But it gets worse...
In 2005, Minnis sponsored House Bill 2015, which later was folded into House Bill 2316. The law eventually passed, expanding the statue of limitations to either the child's 30th birthday or within 12 years of being reported to a law enforcement agency for the following felonies: Criminal Mistreatment; Rape I, II and III; Sodomy I, II and III; Unlawful Sexual Penetration I and II;Sexual Abuse I and II; Using a Child in Display of Sexual Conduct; Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse; Incest; Promoting Prostitution; and Compelling Prostitution.
Nice how she managed to skip the "failing to report" statue, eh?
Not only did Minnis sponsor this legislation, she gave testimony for it. You can hear it here (skip ahead to 20:45 on the time), but I've excerpted a large section of it below:
As many of you know--some of you don't know, my husband John was a Portland Police Officer for 27 years. And he passed legislation through this body that set up what they call the Child Abuse Investigation Team. They call it the CAT Team. That has an interdisciplinary model that has social workers, DAs , health professionals and police officers that took in these kinds of cases and work with these complaints.
And the devastation that is wrought upon children when an adult takes advantage of them is life long devastation. Life long devastation. It impacts people for the rest of their lives.
I don't believe that because a time limit has run out that somebody ought to get off being prosecuted for destroying another person's life. John would come home and tell me stories that were heart breaking and horrendous. And I've talked with people that have been the victims of such activity and as adults when they recall the incident. It was accompanied with tears and gut wrenching emotion because there had been no justice, no recourse.
Ladies and gentlemen I think we need to send a message that it doesn't matter who you are or what you do. That if you do something like this against one of the children of this state, there will be a price to pay. There will be a price to pay. Just because a clock runs out doesn't mean that you're not going to be held accountable.
Minnis' husband was OBLIGATED UNDER OREGON LAW to report his brother's actions to the police. He's been able to escape justice because the "clock ran out" and now he doesn't have to be held accountable.
Will she see to it that her husband pays the price?
Somehow I doubt it.