Charles Luukinen spent almost his entire 25 years on the bench overseeing the Polk County Circuit Court as the presiding judge. After retiring, he devoted time to settling Oregon’s most complicated and costly criminal cases.
Tag: Courts
Chemeketa Community College eases speech rules following lawsuit
Chemeketa Community College on Thursday, April 16. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Students at Chemeketa Community College can now more easily hold protests on campus after the college settled a lawsuit with a conservative legal group. Under the agreement, the college changed its policy that allowed students to only hold protests in[Read More…]
Lawsuit accuses Chemeketa Community College of violating students’ free-speech rights
Chemeketa Community College (File/Salem Reporter) Chemeketa Community College violated the constitutional rights of a pro-life student group by only allowing its members to distribute pamphlets, flyers and other materials in small “speech zones,” a lawsuit alleges. The complaint was filed on March 5 in U.S. District Court in Eugene on[Read More…]
Brothers involved in brutal 1990s killing will have their sentence reconsidered
Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon attorney general Twin brothers convicted of murdering an elderly couple in Salem while they were teenagers will have their case reconsidered after the Oregon Department of Justice withdrew a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case centers around Lydell and Laycelle White who were each sentenced[Read More…]
Michael Barton died after getting sick in prison. A lawsuit says prison staff ignored his cries for help
Oregon State Penitentiary (Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons) An Oregon State Penitentiary inmate suffering from mental illness was left to die of pneumonia after staff ignored his requests for medical attention, a lawsuit filed against the state Department of Corrections alleges. The lawsuit seeks $15 million and was filed by Stephen Brown, the[Read More…]
What a Supreme Court ruling could mean for contested energy projects
(Courtesy/ Wikimedia Commons) Two controversial energy projects in the Columbia River Gorge area could move forward as the result of a ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court. The court’s ruling on Wednesday concerns administrative rules adopted in 2018 by the state Energy Facilities Siting Council, which oversees and imposes conditions[Read More…]
Seeking to protect farmland, conservation groups go to court to block airport runway extension
A jet arrives at the Aurora State Airport. (Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group). A proposed expansion of the Aurora State Airport violates the state’s land-use law, imperils prime farmland and wasn’t properly approved, two conservation groups argue in a lawsuit. 1,000 Friends of Oregon and Friends of French Prairie have sued[Read More…]
Clergy reported her husband’s confession of sex abuse. Now she’s suing the church
Marion County Courthouse (File/Salem Reporter) A local woman has sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for nearly $10 million after a church counselor reported her husband’s confession of sexually abusing a minor. According to the lawsuit, in 2016 Kristine Johnson learned that her husband, Timothy, had sexually[Read More…]
Finding that ‘words have consequences,’ judge throws out Sen. Brian Boquist’s lawsuit
Sen. Brian Boquist reflects on his political and military careers at his Dallas farm. (Aubrey Wieber/Salem Reporter) A federal judge compared state Sen. Brian Boquist to the actor Clint Eastwood and a playground bully Tuesday in dismissing the Dallas Republican’s claims that Senate President Peter Courtney and others attempted to[Read More…]
Oregon’s top judge asked about immigration arrests in courthouses. Here’s what she found
Marion County Courthouse (File/Salem Reporter) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made arrests in or near 10 of Oregon’s 27 state circuit courts, according to state records obtained by Salem Reporter. The records, released under a public records request, shed light on the scope of ICE’s increased activity in Oregon[Read More…]
