“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
-Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2002
On Feb. 24, 2021, at 7:06 p.m., Sgt. Jeffrey Keniston of the police department in Salem, Oregon, and Magen Marie Stevens, a Proud Boys supporter and activist with a violent history, talked by phone for six minutes. That’s according to call records Discrepancy Report obtained through a public records request.
Keniston and Lt. Treven Upkes, the spokesperson for the Salem Police Department, did not immediately respond to more than five emails sent in March, April, and July 2022 asking how Stevens got Keniston’s work cell phone number, who initiated the call, what they talked about during their phone conversation, and why she also sent text messages in April 2021 in which she told Keniston about the number of sponsors she’d picked up for a planned May 1 rally.
I, Discrepancy Report Editor Joe Douglass, texted Stevens on March 31, 2022, asking similar questions about her text messages and phone conversation with Keniston.
“We talked about rainbows and unicorns and how Kate Brown equals the s**t that comes out of my donkeys ass,” Stevens texted in response, referring to Gov. Kate Brown, D-Oregon. “We talked about liberals and how they’re ruining the world, we talked about your mom, we talked about leprechauns you know that kind of thing, don’t contact me again (OK hand gesture emoji).”
It’s possible Keniston and Stevens discussed public safety issues related to planned events involving the Proud Boys in Salem on Feb. 27 and March 28, 2021. Also, Stevens has a lengthy criminal record with her latest conviction filed just last year. But recent court documents and police reports I reviewed including one about the May 1 rally do not mention Keniston and Stevens’s February conversation or her April text messages.
In and out of jail
Oregon State Police (OSP) arrested Stevens in September 2020 for macing a man. Troopers said it happened during a fight between protesters and counter-protesters at an “American Lives Matter” rally on the grounds of the state Capitol in Salem on Labor Day.
Stevens was arrested on Sept. 17 but was released from the Marion County Jail on bail that day. As part of her release agreement, she was ordered to obey all laws and not to leave the state unless authorized.
On Dec. 7, 2020, the court issued her a travel pass to go to Washington, D.C.
About a week later, Jennifer Roberts, an investigator for the Marion County District Attorney’s Office, says she “was told that Ms. Stevens was involved in a protest rally (in Washington, D.C.) involving a group called the Proud Boys and that she’d engaged in assaultive behavior of at least one person.”
Although police in Washington, D.C. did not cite or charge Stevens with any crimes, in a report Roberts says video evidence shows Stevens “appears to have violated laws” including disorderly conduct and rioting or inciting a riot.
While reviewing criminal records Roberts says she also discovered that Stevens was arrested for public intoxication at an airport in Virginia during an unauthorized out-of-state trip on Oct. 9. Court records show Stevens was found guilty in absentia and paid $156 in costs and fines in the case.
The Marion County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to revoke Stevens’s release agreement. But the order was denied by Judge Thomas Hart, according to the Statesman Journal, due to Hart’s concerns Stevens would be released from jail because of COVID-19.
On Dec. 14, Hart revised Stevens’s release agreement, ordering her to check in daily, wear a GPS ankle monitor, and not to participate in group events or demonstrations.
In early January 2021, the court issued an arrest warrant for Stevens after the community corrections division of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said she violated her release agreement. Investigators said she was tracked on the grounds of the state Capitol on New Year’s Eve from 11:14 p.m. to 12:34 a.m., and attending a rally and march that went from downtown Salem to outside the governor’s mansion on New Year’s Day.
Stevens turned herself in at the jail, which is run by the sheriff’s office, the day the warrant was issued but was released three days later after posting bail.
On Feb. 26, Judge Hart granted her permission to attend the Proud Boys rally at the World War II Memorial in downtown Salem on Saturday, Feb. 27.
In March 2021, Stevens was convicted of second-degree use of mace/tear gas, fined $200, and put on bench probation, overseen by the court, for a year and a half.
Keniston’s name is not mentioned in either OSP’s police report regarding Stevens’s arrest in the macing incident or any of the reports the court made available from the Marion County DA’s Office and community corrections division.
Also, the original case was settled after Stevens pleaded guilty to the mace/tear gas charge, so there was no trial or court testimony from officers or witnesses.
Sergeant Keniston is named as part of the Salem Police Department’s mobile response team in police reports that played a part in another OSP case involving the Labor Day “American Lives Matter” rally. Salem PD officers apparently helped with crowd control at the event, but the location of the gathering, the state Capitol, is OSP’s jurisdiction. During the rally, Salem officers say a man named Ty Parker attacked a Black Lives Matter demonstrator and yelled anti-LGBTQ slurs at her. In Salem PD reports about the case, Stevens’s name doesn’t come up. Parker’s court case was settled through a plea bargain as well.
The OSP report on Stevens’s arrest also mentions Parker assaulting the same man she maced but again makes no mention of Keniston.
In October 2021, Parker was convicted of first-degree bias crime for his attack on the female protester and fourth-degree assault for attacking the male demonstrator. Investigators originally charged Parker with harassment for subjecting a Salem police officer to “offensive physical contact” during his arrest but the charge was ultimately dropped.
‘Potential of physical violence’
On April 22, 2021, at 8:16 p.m. Stevens texted Sgt. Keniston an image of a flyer for an event called the “May Day 2A Rally,” a pro-Second Amendment gathering held at Riverfront Park in Salem on May 1 of that year.
“Do you see all those freaking sponsors,” Stevens then texted Keniston at 8:20 a.m. the next morning, according to documentation I obtained through a public records request. “No one has came close to even have that many except for me and my highest was 9 sponsors this is incredible. 17 f***ing sponsors including myself so 16 others that’s insane.”
A redacted police report on the May 1 rally from the mobile response team does not mention the text messages Stevens sent to Keniston. It says the team learned about the planning of the event and its location on April 22 from another Proud Boys activist, Daniel Grant Tooze Sr.
The report, which focuses on crowd control, says OSP Lt. Ted Moisan was able to speak with Tooze that day “only to learn the event was being moved from the state Capitol to Riverfront Park. Moisan indicated Mr. Tooze abruptly ended the conversation after providing the news of a venue change. Sergeant Keniston said he attempted to speak with Magen Stevens but was told she would not cooperate with him for any future events.”
Eleven pages of the 16-page report include redactions with large segments blacked out. On six of the redacted pages, the written content is blacked out entirely.
Salem police justified the redactions by claiming a legal exemption under Oregon public records law which says unless the public interest requires disclosure the agency can decide not to share “specific operational plans in connection with an anticipated threat to individual or public safety for deployment and use of personnel and equipment, prepared or used by a public body, if public disclosure of the plans would endanger an individual’s life or physical safety or jeopardize a law enforcement activity.”
On Oct. 5, 2021, with help from attorney Jeffrey Merrick who I was referred to by the National Lawyers Guild, I petitioned the Marion County District Attorney’s Office to review the Salem Police Department’s redactions and handling of my public records requests. I asked that the redactions be lifted in part because “the exemption claimed by Salem unambiguously refers to plans for the future, not what happened in the past.”
As part of his response, Salem Assistant City Attorney Marc Weinstein said Lt. Jacob Burke of the mobile response team told him, “The tactical plan will serve as a ‘template’ for similar events in the future, and that a release of the full plan would compromise the safety of officers deployed to similar events.”
Marion County Deputy District Attorney Amy Queen denied my petition saying in part:
…You asserted the public interest requiring disclosure, in this case, is that ‘there’s a question of the use of unsanctioned force by untrained armed individuals.’ Based on the totality of the information provided there is insufficient evidence to support that the asserted public interest outweighs the risk to public safety.
From a letter sent by Marion County Deputy District Attorney Amy Queen on Oct. 19, 2021
Salem police report regardi… by jmdglss
“There is a high likelihood and potential of physical violence, criminal acts, or crime damage,” the mobile response team report on the event says. “This group is associated with Proud Boys, 3 Percenters, and Patriot Prayer. In the recent past, they have engaged in unlawful activities with counter groups as well as law enforcement. This group is well-armed and is usually armed at these events.”
Officers named Stevens and Tooze as hosts of the rally. Tooze, the report claims, told Salem Police Department Sergeant Trevor Morrison that he would oversee security, and that around 18 to 20 members of the Proud Boys would act as security personnel.
The governments of Canada and New Zealand have labeled the far-right group the Proud Boys a “terrorist entity” and the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the organization a hate group. Members of the Proud Boys adamantly refute the labels.
During the unpermitted “May Day 2A Rally,” multiple journalists and activists claimed officers gave preferential treatment to the event’s organizers in part by not having a large police presence and allowing armed members of the Proud Boys to remove people from the public park and allegedly assault them.
Salem police deny the accusations. The agency says all of the cases associated with the rally have been closed and no arrests were made.
A city spokesperson said event permits were not being issued at the time due to COVID-19 protocols, though the police department said, “No organizer(s) requested a permit.”
Through a previous public records request, I obtained text messages Tooze sent to Sgt. Morrison the day before the rally and on May 2 and 5. In them, Tooze discussed safety concerns and complaints about media coverage.
“Please keep them away from us tomorrow. We are done tolerating their behavior,” Tooze texted Morrison on April 30 along with an image of a “Fascist Free 503” flyer.
“We are aware of it,” Morrison texted back. “Thks.”
Salem Police Communication … by jmdglss
I asked Tooze how he obtained Morrison’s cell phone number. Tooze said he wasn’t sure but that Morrison may have given him a business card at some point when Tooze was helping set up for the rally.
Upkes, the spokesman for the Salem Police Department, said at the time, “In the crowd management profession, it is standard practice to try to obtain contact information for all types of event organizers and then chat with them. That way we can get important information regarding the event: who is attending, how many, how long, is there a march, where is the venue, will there be speakers, do they have porta-potties, where are they parking, etc.?”
Upkes told me Morrison obtained Tooze’s phone number from Oregon State Police.
A legal compliance specialist for OSP, however, said she could find no record of that happening.
On June 25, 2021, after I told Upkes about OSP’s response, he suggested I file a public records request for police reports related to the event.
“As I have now explained repeatedly, an officer contacting an event organizer is routine and common practice,” Upkes said in an email. “I will not be answering any further questions regarding this event.”
Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) told me neither Tooze nor a company he owns, Proud Security, Inc. are certified to perform security services professionally. Tooze said he only provides security services voluntarily and that his company is inactive.
Tooze’s lack of security certifications is not mentioned in the mobile response team report, and Upkes would not say whether officers knew he wasn’t certified.
‘Pie the Proud Boys in the face …’
Sergeant Keniston has been with the Salem Police Department since 2004.
On April 1, 2022, a staff member for the DPSST, which certifies law enforcement officers and investigates alleged misconduct, told me, “I didn’t see any indication of past or current professional standards matters involving Keniston in his file.”
Meanwhile, Stevens, 38, has a criminal record going back more than a decade.
Court records show she was convicted of fourth-degree assault and second-degree theft in 2009, methamphetamine possession, first and second-degree theft in 2013, and first-degree criminal mistreatment, a Class C felony, in 2014.
Police said the criminal mistreatment case involved a child abuse allegation. A charging document says Stevens “in violation of a legal duty to provide care for a dependent person … did unlawfully and knowingly cause physical injury to (them) contrary to statute and against the peace and dignity of the State of Oregon.”
The mobile response team report does not mention Stevens’s criminal record.
The report says Stevens applied for a permit at the state Capitol grounds, which was denied.
But Chris Havel, a spokesman for Oregon’s Parks and Recreation Department, told me, “We did not receive an application to use the State Capitol State Park or any other state park property for this May 1 event, so there was nothing to reject. We did send a blank application form to a person named Dan Tooze in April for a May Day rally at the State Capitol State Park, but Mr. Tooze did not complete and submit it for our review.”
The mobile response team report says organizers of the rally moved the gathering to Riverfront Park because they did not feel safe at the Capitol due to the events of March 28, 2021 in which far-right demonstrators clashed with anti-fascist (antifa) counter-protesters and four people were arrested, according to KGW.
Stevens discussed planning the “May Day 2A Rally” in an interview with the hosts of KSLM’s “Good Morning Salem” radio show on April 20, 2021.
“We want to really have a good time. This one is a lot about children,” Stevens explained. “The kids get to come and pie the Proud Boys in the face and they can dunk them. And we’re gonna have a water balloon fight. We’re going to do a fundraiser and we just really plan to do really fun stuff this summer.”
Stevens said she and the Proud Boys were sponsoring the event together to operate like an anti-child abuse organization.
“The PDX Proud Boys can ensure your safety from antifa and the radicals,” she explained. “We really have been working together as a team with our communities, working on safety, education, morals, and bringing the Constitution back to the kids around here. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Public records fight
Since May of last year, the Salem Police Department has charged me $866.13 for multiple public records requests seeking all communication records between certain officers and far-right activists.
Invoices for the requests include charges of $85.10 an hour for an “information technology review” and $83.70 an hour for a “PW Level 4-Program Manager.”
Public Records Requests Inv… by jmdglss
The police department charged me $479.63 for the first public records request filed May 3, 2021. The request sought written communications between city employees and organizers of the “May Day 2A Rally.”
On May 21, I paid the fee thanks to a donation from Warren J. Thompson of Salem.
About a week later the city sent me a message saying, “Please provide the email address(es) of the parties related to the records you are requesting. For example, you mentioned Magen Marie. This information is required in order to perform a record search. Thank you.”
I then asked, “How were you able to generate such a specific request for this amount of money when you apparently had no idea who city employees communicated with regarding this event? … Also the city never stipulated this (the need for email addresses) before requesting its fee and accepting payment.”
The city then apparently backed off from its request. On June 15, 2021, officials sent me a PDF featuring an exchange of text messages between Tooze and Sgt. Morrison.
On June 25, I filed another public records request seeking all call detail records between Morrison and Tooze. Call detail records are generally made up of a list of calls showing who called who, when, and the duration of each call. The city told me it was already researching that information based on a message I sent in a thread linked to my previous records request. Officials then told me my records would be ready by 5 p.m. on July 30 but ultimately pushed the deadline back to Aug. 13, claiming I hadn’t filed a fee waiver request form and that they needed more time because they were handling a large number of requests.
On Aug. 13, the city disclosed the mobile response team police report free of charge. Although the document describes communications, it does not include the call records I had requested repeatedly since June 25.
The city did not respond to multiple messages I sent asking why the call records were not included until Sept. 14. On that day, the city sent me a message saying in part:
I have confirmed today, that the Department does not receive or use detailed/itemized phone bills/reports of the type you are seeking from our service provider. All records that we hold, that are responsive to this request have been released. We will continue to work the other two requests you still have open with us. I am currently waiting for one final response from our IT Department about phone service providers, so we can close one of the other requests.
Message city of Salem sent on Sept. 14, 2021
The “other two requests” are public records requests I filed after receiving the mobile response team report. They asked for digital copies of all written communications between Sgt. Keniston, Tooze, and Stevens. I also asked for all call detail records between them. My request included any possible one-on-one communications between Keniston and Tooze and/or Keniston and Stevens and any group texts or group phone calls that may have taken place.
“This request is NOT just for communications regarding the May 1 event but for any and all communication records between the people mentioned above,” I stated.
On Sept. 14 the city denied a fee waiver I filed, saying, “Payment of the fee does not impede the public interest.”
It sent me an invoice charging me $124.60 for the requests, which I paid on Sept. 17.
The next day I sent the city a message regarding the requests saying, in part:
Please also include relevant information from the call log on Sgt. Keniston’s Salem Police Department-issued cell phone. Also include the make and model of the phone. As noted previously relevant information should include records/logs of all calls made to and from Magen Marie Stevens and Sgt. Keniston and/or Daniel Grant Tooze Sr. and Sgt. Keniston including who called who when (time and date) and the duration of each call.
From message I sent to the city of Salem on Sept. 18, 2021
Salem police confirmed that the agency contracts with Verizon for cell phone service and Lumen for landline service.
On Oct. 5, 2021, I filed my petition with the DA’s office to review my requests saying in part:
Among Salem’s arguments against producing the records is that some records are in the hands of the company with whom they contract for phone, text, and other services. Keeping records in the hands of another, or some warehouse or any place in which the public body retains ownership and may request the documents does not excuse production.
From petition I filed with the Marion County District Attorney’s Office on Oct. 5, 2021
I cited a 1990 case filed in Multnomah County to back up my claims and the law itself which says, “‘Public record’ includes any writing that contains information relating to the conduct of the public’s business, including but not limited to court records, mortgages, and deed records, prepared, owned, used or retained by a public body regardless of physical form or characteristics.”
“I assume Salem owns the records of its communication to or from devices it owns,” I wrote in my petition. “Public bodies have an obligation to produce preexisting information in their databases, regardless of whether it has generated a report for its own use. ORS 192.324(3). Consequently, Salem needs to produce the data I requested.”
On Oct. 12, Weinstein, the assistant city attorney, said in response that he had spoken with, among others, Oscar Amador, the quartermaster for the Salem Police Department.
Weinstein’s letter said in part:
On October 8th, I also joined Quartermaster Amador in a conference call with the Verizon representative. The Verizon representative informed us that for Verizon to obtain call log information, it would take a specific request from the customer detailing what information was sought. After receiving the request, Verizon would have to formulate a search to obtain the information which usually takes 24-48 hours to provide a response. … If the City is unable to obtain the ‘call log’ information from the on-line business portal, the City will attempt to retrieve the information from Verizon. … If the City is unable to obtain the information from its phone system, the City will further explore obtaining the information from Lumen. … The City is continuing to explore ways to obtain and provide Mr. Douglass the requested ‘call log’ information.”
Excerpts from a letter Salem Asst. City Attorney Marc Weinstein sent on Oct. 12, 2021
Spokespeople for Verizon and Lumen would neither confirm nor deny Weinstein’s claims.
Weinstein said Sgt. Morrison’s phone was an iPhone XR. He attached an image that he said was a screenshot from Morrison’s cell phone indicating a voicemail from the number associated with Tooze was received on April 27, 2021.
“There is no other ‘call log’ information on Sgt. Morrison’s work cell phone responsive to any of Mr. Douglass’ requests,” Weinstein explained. “Sergeant Morrison has checked both his current work desk phone and his previous desk phone for any ‘call log’ information (Sgt. Morrison recently changed offices).”
Weinstein attached two more photos that he said showed all requested call log information Sgt. Morrison could locate on either of his desk phones. The logs showed calls between Morrison and Tooze’s number placed on April 25 and 28.
In a letter regarding my petition dated Oct. 19, Queen, the deputy district attorney, said in part, “I find that the City of Salem has been responsive and continues to work with you in order to satisfy the ongoing public records request for ‘certain communication records.'”
The city then asked for more time to satisfy my request for written communication records and call logs involving Sgt. Keniston and I agreed to narrow my request from “all” to only those from Jan. 1, 2017 until my original request date.
On Oct. 7, 2021, the city told me it expected to send me the records by “approximately” Nov. 1, then later said it would do so by Nov. 19.
But it wasn’t until Nov. 29 that the city finally provided records.
Staff members said they had released the call logs for Keniston and Morrison that they were able to get through the Verizon Business Portal.
“We are still working with Verizon to determine if additional call log information is available to the City,” they said. “Additionally, we are still working with Lumen to determine if any call log information is available …”
Officials gave me two documents that they said show Verizon call logs displaying relevant records from February to September 2021. One document shows a two-minute call taking place between Sgt. Morrison and Tooze on the afternoon of May 1 and another two-minute call between Morrison and a different number on the afternoon of May 20.
The other document shows a single call, the one that took place between Keniston and Stevens on Feb. 24, 2021.
Keniston Call Detail Record Verizon Redacted by jmdglss on Scribd
The city also said it “discovered three additional texts that appear to be from Ms. Stevens to Sgt. Keniston regarding the May Day event.”
Those were the text messages in which Stevens told Keniston about the number of sponsors she’d picked up for the rally.
After more delays, the city charged me an additional $261.90 to review “possibly responsive records,” which I paid on Dec. 2, 2021.
I have not received any records since.
Privacy Dashboard
On Jan. 28, 2022, in response to multiple messages I’d sent checking on the status of my requests, the city told me:
Through further consultation with the Verizon legal team, we were informed that Verizon does not have any data call logs past what we can pull on the portal regardless of who makes the request. They simply do not have that information. I do not have any update on the availability of call logs from Lumen, but will check the status of that request.
Message city of Salem sent on Jan. 28, 2022
Verizon confirmed to me the “business portal” the city repeatedly said it used only shows call detail records going back 90 days. Also iPhones like the one Sgt. Morrison was issued typically show a maximum of just 100 call records.
For reference, Hiya, which provides caller ID and spam protection services to companies like AT&T and Samsung, says the average person makes and receives about 120 calls a month.
The city would not say how it was able to get Verizon records spanning seven months (from February to September 2021).
I happen to be a Verizon Wireless customer, and in January 2022, I told the city I was able to request my own call detail records going back a year. I did so through the Verizon Privacy Dashboard, a service available to any Verizon customer or client at no additional charge. You simply click a few buttons on a website, wait about a month and a half and the records are sent to you.
I learned about it from Verizon customer service employees.
Verizon Privacy Dashboard as of Nov. 2021 by jmdglss on Scribd
In late November I requested my records through the dashboard and received them in January in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. I provided city staff members with a link to more information about the service and offered to help them use it.
On Feb. 8, the city sent me a message in response saying:
Thank you for inquiring regarding the status of your request. Your request is still actively being processed and we are reviewing the information that you have provided.
Message the city of Salem sent on Feb. 8, 2022
The day before I had requested my records through the dashboard again. I received them on March 22.
About two weeks later I sent an email to Queen saying in part:
Regarding this issue, in October you wrote:
“In reviewing all of the information, records, and arguments presented in this petition for review, I find that the City of Salem has been responsive and continues to work with you in order to satisfy the ongoing public records request for ‘certain communication records.'”
It is now April 4, 2022, and after paying fees and filing multiple requests for the call detail records I referenced, I still don’t have them. The police department has provided records that were requested outside of the ones mentioned in my communications with the DA’s office. They gave me records they say came from phones/devices officers use for work. But phones typically only carry call detail records for a limited time. …
My request all along has been for records of all calls and written messages between the people mentioned in my requests. But I’ve been willing to narrow the request. I’m even willing to narrow it down to 12 months given the tool I describe below.
From email I sent to Marion County Deputy District Attorney Amy Queen on April 4, 2022
I then told Queen about my experience using the Verizon Privacy Dashboard and the fact that the city had not even sent me a message regarding my referenced requests since Feb. 8. (It still hasn’t.) I then wrote:
I have to ask, Amy, were you ruling that the city had to turn over the requested phone records? Because that is how I interpreted it. You said it’s been responsive. Is this responsive?
Why can’t I get these records? They are freely available to the city and I’ve offered to help them with the process, which, frankly, is not difficult.
From email I sent to Marion County Deputy District Attorney Amy Queen on April 4, 2022
Queen responded to my email on April 5 saying in part:
I read your email to ask specifically about the decision letter from October. My decision did not order the City to do anything. The decision found in part that based on the ongoing back and forth between you and the City as to specific records you were seeking and not provided, they were being responsive.
The process for a petition to appeal a public records request must be based on a denial to provide or failure to provide as required by law.
If you feel you have a basis to petition to appeal based on a failure to provide as required by law, you will need to file a formal petition and include all of the documentation related to that specific request and records.
From email sent by Marion County Deputy District Attorney Amy Queen on April 5, 2022
Merrick, the attorney who helped me with my informal petition, has retired, and I am now seeking another lawyer to help me file a formal one.
On Aug. 2, more than three weeks after this article was originally published, the city of Salem sent me a message regarding my outstanding public records requests saying in part:
To the extent there are public records responsive to your request, they are exempt from disclosure pursuant to ORS 192.345 (3) Investigatory information compiled for criminal law purposes, ORS 192.355 (2)(a) Information of a personal nature such as but not limited to that kept in a personal, medical or similar file and ORS 192.355 (4) Information submitted to a public body in confidence and not otherwise required by law to be submitted.
Message city of Salem sent on Aug. 2, 2022
Neither Queen, the spokesperson for the Marion County District Attorney’s Office, nor Paige Clarkson, the district attorney, immediately responded to two emails seeking comment about an Aug. 29 column by Les Zaitz, editor of the Salem Reporter. The column centers on the news organization’s attempts to get records from Salem police regarding how a former longtime deputy police chief retired with a special agreement and an extra $53,500 earlier this year while he was under investigation for alleged misconduct. It says in part:
In emails, Queen said she has never ordered the Salem Police Department to release public records. In fact, she said, she has never ordered any government agency to disclose records it wanted to keep away from citizens. …
From an Aug. 29 column by Les Zaitz, editor of the Salem Reporter
Queen is married to a Salem Police Department officer. (Clarkson was too – until her husband left last year for another job). That means Queen is ruling on whether her husband’s employer is improperly withholding information from the public. In addition, one of the largest donors to Queen’s current campaign to become a state judge: the Salem Police Employees Union, which gave $3,000 on Aug. 18.
That seems a significant conflict – and one not disclosed by Queen, Clarkson or the resulting order that said the public wasn’t entitled to a single piece of paper about this matter.
Neither Queen nor Clarkson disclosed the conflict to me either.
