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Twice-acquitted defendant sues

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Twice-acquitted defendant sues

Feb 8, 2005 | Local News

By KATIE WILLSON

Of the News-Register

A wrongful prosecution and false imprisonment suit filed against local law enforcement officials by a youth twice acquitted of sexually abusing a girl in 2003 has gained new impetus with the arrest of the girl's father on similar charges involving another daughter.

The youth's family is convinced he was wrongly fingered for abuse actually inflicted by the girl's father, David Gilmore, and that police and prosecutors should have been more open to that possibility.

The suit was filed in November in federal court in Portland by Former Newberg resident Tim Warrens, now 20 and living in Nevada. It names the Newberg Police Department, the Yamhill County Jail and three individuals - officers Sherry McQuistion and Ken Summers, who investigated both cases for the Newberg police, and Greg Olson, who prosecuted the second case for the Washington County District Attorney's Office.

Summers is now a lieutenant with the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office. Cynthia Easterday, who prosecuted the first case for the Yamhill County District Attorney's Office, was not named because the plaintiffs did not feel her conduct was prejudicial.

Gilmore, a 40-year-old father of seven, turned himself in to Marion County sheriff's deputies Jan. 20 in connection with sexual abuse of another daughter. According to news reports, he has implicated himself in abuse of the second daughter, but not the first.

The case was brought in Marion County because he has since moved from Newberg to St. Paul. Charged with 10 counts of first-degree sexual penetration, he is next scheduled to appear in court Feb. 22 in Salem.

Both victims, one biological and one adopted, are now 9. The biological daughter was 7 at the time Warrens was charged, and he was 18.

Gilmore, a music teacher then active in Newberg's West Chehalem Church, had befriended Warrens and another teen.

Together, the three would go to the Newberg skate park or watch movies at the Gilmore family residence. And the teens would sleep over at least once a month with the Gilmore children.

In 2002, the biological daughter told her mother someone had been sexually abusing her for two years. When her mother asked if Warrens was the guilty party, the then 7-year-old said that he was.

When the girl underwent examination at Juliette's House, a child abuse assessment center in McMinnville, personnel found no physical evidence of abuse but found her reports credible. That led to Warrens' arrest on Nov. 20 of that year.

After the arrest, Warrens' father, Hewett, said he approached Summers and asked if Newberg police had any evidence incriminating his son. He said Summers responded, "If the Gilmores said it, it's good enough for me."

The elder Warrens said he believes Summers' acquaintance with the Gilmores steered police away from investigating other possible leads.

Summers, contacted Tuesday morning at work, said he never had any association with the Gilmore family before the case broke. He said he did not say any such thing, nor would he ever do so.

He declined to comment further, saying he had been asked to refer all questions to Salem lawyer Bruce Mowery, who is mounting a joint defense on behalf of the agencies and individuals named in the lawsuit. Two calls placed to Mowery remained unreturned at press time.

Warrens was held in Yamhill County Jail on $750,000 bail until his first trial, held in April 2003 in McMinnville.

At the time, defense attorney Ted Coran said he suspected the real offender was a member of the victim's family. However, he was unable to convince authorities of that or get his client's bail reduced to a manageable level.

At trial, the victim's testimony was hazy and inconsistent, leading the 12-person jury to return a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

Afterward, bail was reduced to $250,000. However, Warrens remained jailed until the second trial, held in June in Hillsboro.

The second trial was held in Washington County because the second case alleged separate acts of abuse occurring there.

Coran tried to persuade Olson to drop the case in light of the unanimous Yamhill County acquittal, but was unsuccessful. At the time, he termed the second prosecution "vindictive and unjustified," and he stood by that in a Monday interview.

"There's an inherent sense of fairness offended here," Coran said. "Yamhill County did a thorough job. Cynthia Easterday was vigorous in her prosecution. They brought in everything."

In Washington County, Olson won a motion suppressing some of the defense's exculpatory evidence. Coran, who is not involved in the family's civil suit in federal court, said he felt Olson was looking for a conviction rather than the truth.

However, the second jury still returned a 10-2 verdict for acquittal.

Warrens said the family moved to Nevada because his son couldn't show his face at school, church or at work. Through with his schooling, he's now working as a machinist apprentice, Warrens said.

2005 Feb 8