The lawsuit against former Umatilla police detective Bill Wright looks like it will move forward, but his supervisors and the city may be off the hook.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman heard arguments Friday, July 14, at the federal courthouse in Pendleton on dismissing the $26 million lawsuit against Wright, other Umatilla Police Department administrators and the city of Umatilla or allowing the case to move forward.
“I will take this under advisement and have a decision in the next 60 days,” Hallman said, but attorneys should expect the case against Wright to proceed.
The lawsuit alleges Wright in 2018 failed to investigate the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl by Michael Wayne Lyon, who traveled from Florida to Umatilla to meet the girl and sexually assault her in a hotel outside Hermiston. The girl, referred to as Jane Doe in the pleading, and her mother had to investigate the crime themselves when Wright would not, according to the lawsuit. They even provided Wright with video evidence of the assault but he still did not advance the case.
After two years of indifference from Wright, the lawsuit claims, the mother turned to the FBI to investigate the crime. The FBI’s investigation concluded in December 2020 with Lyon’s arrest, and in March he began serving 25 years in federal prison for using a minor to produce a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct.
The lawsuit also names Umatilla City Manager David Stockdale, police Chief Darla Huxel, police Lt. Keith Kennedy and the city of Umatilla as defendants, alleging Huxel and Kennedy failed to supervise Wright, and Stockdale and the city failed to provide resources for police training.
The defense sought to dismiss the case on an equal protection argument, asserting the lawyers for the plaintiff failed to show that Wright treated her differently from other people. Hallman, however, said equal protection cases no longer had to meet that standard due to a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling.
But he also told the lawyers for Doe the pleading didn’t show Huxel and Kennedy were discriminatory. He said if there was no custom policy or practice to discriminate against the plaintiff on the department’s part, there likely would be no case to progress. Without the presence of discrimination, he said, “it’s just a case of bad police work.”
Defense lawyers in court filings argued Doe did not meet the legal requirements for damages and Wright’s actions never put Doe in danger. The defense also argued police officers in Oregon have qualified immunity.
The plaintiff’s attorneys, Terry Scannell, Christopher Hayes and Patrick Gregg traded arguments with the defense, represented by Andrew Campbell and David Lewis, on relevant case law for several hours, attempting to sway Hallman to their side. Present beside Scannell was the plaintiff herself.
After completing lengthy arguments based on the case law of negligence and discrimination claims, Hallman offered the attorneys chances to bring further points or concerns to his attention. Both parties declined.
No part of this ruling involved determining the merit of the plaintiff’s claims, Scannell later said, but rather establishing certain legal standards for the claim both parties made, kicking the tires on whether or not each claim met legal criteria to proceed.
Wright resigned from the police department earlier this year, and Huxel has announced she is retiring at the end of the year.
