Tarnished

[July 25th, 2001] Few local businessmen have fallen farther faster than Roger Pollock. Two years ago, Pollock was the largest homebuilder in Oregon, named by Inc. Magazine as one of the nation's leading entrepreneurs under 40.

At the time, Pollock was operating in the upper echelons of local Republican politics. Three Junes ago, for instance, he held a $500-per-head fundraiser at his 12,600-square-foot waterfront home in Lake Oswego for 1998 Republican 1st District congressional candidate Molly Bordonaro.

The event was hosted by Sen. Gordon Smith and others, including Bob Pamplin, Sr., developer Homer Williams and Jeffrey Grayson. Bordonaro eventually lost narrowly to David Wu.

In 1999, Pollock sold his company, RMP Properties, for more than $7 million. Since then, he has been developing a large stretch of beach near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and running Provenance Fine Arts, a company that markets bronze sculptures, created by the Ghiglieri family, to nonprofit auctions across the country.

A WW cover story about Provenance (see "In the Name of the Father," Jan. 24, 2001) raised questions about the validity of the appraisals that the company uses to market its art.

Today, Pollock's world is in tatters. Early this year, he pled guilty to driving while intoxicated and was accused in divorce proceedings of physically abusing his wife, Kristy. On April 4, he was indicted by a Multnomah County Grand Jury on charges of possession and delivery of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, and assault in the fourth degree.

Court documents show that shortly after midnight on March 28 police responded to a 911 call from Dante's nightclub on Southwest 3rd Avenue. There, police arrested Pollock for the alleged assault of a woman named Katie L. Andersen.

Also, police allegedly found Ecstasy in his possession in the course of the arrest. If Pollock is convicted of possession and delivery of Ecstasy, he could face up to 20 years in prison, although such a sentence is unlikely.

Pollock, now 40, was scheduled for a court appearance on June 5. But he missed that date with the judge's permission because, in mid-May, he entered the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., as part of his sentencing agreement for his earlier DUI conviction.

In addition to his legal problems, Pollock may be experiencing financial difficulties. Company records reviewed by WW show that the former homebuilder has pumped more than a million dollars into Provenance; the records also show that the company lost money in 2000.

Over the past 18 months, Pollock has uncharacteristically unloaded several parcels of real estate, including a building at 5909 SW Corbett Ave. that he sold in April 2000 for $460,000. His agent on the sale was Bordonaro, now a commercial real-estate broker with Norris, Beggs & Simpson.

For a time, Pollock even placed his treasured home on the market, asking $7.5 million for the property. Ironically, the most interested buyer was Blazers power forward Shawn Kemp, who reportedly offered Pollock $5.5 million for the house before his season was cut short by drug problems.

Pollock, who did not return WW's call, is scheduled to appear Sept. 10 in Multnomah County Court for pretrial conference; his lawyer, Stephen Houze, expects the trial to begin shortly thereafter.