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Clackamas
County DA Terry Gustafson (above) pushed hard to hire Alan
Newbauer in 1996. Under her predecessor, John Foote, the
DA's office turned him down for a job in 1995.
Ronald
Gray, administrator of the Clackamas Indigent Defense Corporation,
will ask the state bar to determine whether Newbauer violated
any state bar rules.
Terry
Gustafson is running for reelection this year. John Foote,
her predecessor, is one of four others seeking to fill her
post.
Gustafson
is currently snarled in legal proceedings with the state
bar, which could lead to her disbarment.
In 1993
the Multnomah County Circuit Court lifted the injunction
against Newbauer. In his petition, Newbauer argued that
it was "an unnecessary cloud on my record. I would like
to begin my legal career on a 'clean slate.'"
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There's more to the story of Alan K. Newbauer than the tale
of a prosecutor with bad manners. As reported earlier this
month, the Clackamas County deputy district attorney penned
an "offensive" note on Nov. 23 and then passed it to a female
Oregon City defense attorney.
News about the note, the details of which have not been
made public, surfaced when Newbauer took a voluntary leave
of absence on Jan. 5.
As it turns out, it wasn't the first time that Newbauer's
interactions with the opposite sex got him into trouble.
WW has learned that as a student at Lewis & Clark's
Northwestern School of Law, Newbauer was accused of stalking
by a fellow student.
In 1990, Abby Wool Landon filed a civil suit against Newbauer.
According to court records, the two had been involved in
a three-month relationship that winter. But when Landon
called it off, Newbauer peppered her for a month with letters,
phone calls and continual approaches on campus, according
to court documents. The morning of July 24, 1990, Newbauer
stepped out from behind a tree while Landon was jogging
and asked that she continue to see him, court documents
say. When she refused any contact with him, Newbauer replied,
according to court documents, "Then you better watch out.
One of these days I am going to take us both out. I can't
live without you; therefore, neither one of us deserves
to live."
Landon ran off, but when she returned home, court documents
say, Newbauer was waiting in her driveway. Landon reported
the incident to Portland police and the law school. She
backed off from criminal action once Newbauer agreed to
a permanent injunction that would keep him from contacting
Landon. He complied with the order, even going so far as
to withdraw from law school for a year, so that he and Landon
would not encounter one another on campus, according to
court documents. He also underwent counseling.
Still, law school officials were reportedly rattled enough
to write a letter urging caution to the state's Board of
Bar Examiners two years later, when Newbauer sought admission
to the bar. Under Oregon law, the bar can refuse to admit
persons of "moral turpitude."
Stephen Kanter, then the law school's dean, declined to
discuss the letter, citing the school's privacy policy.
Bar officials also refused to comment, saying admission
records are sealed. Court documents indicate that the Board
of Bar Examiners determined that Newbauer was of "sufficiently
good moral character to be admitted to practice."
Complicating matters is the fact that Newbauer is married
to Sylvia E. Stevens, the bar's assistant general counsel.
Contrary to rumors sweeping the legal community, however,
she was not an employee of the state bar in 1992 when Newbauer
was admitted and had no input into decisions regarding his
admission, according to Kateri Walsh, spokeswoman for the
bar.
Newbauer's fate now lies with the woman who got him his
job: Clackamas County District Attorney Terry Gustafson.
Gustafson says Newbauer approached her for a job shortly
after she was elected to her post in 1996 but before she
actually took office. She says he was open about his previous
lapse and the court order. Based on his candor and a string
of strong recommendations for his work as a Umatilla County
deputy district attorney, Gustafson asked the outgoing DA,
John Foote, to hire him.
Foote, however, balked. In a July 22, 1996, letter, Foote
told Gustafson that Newbauer had been turned down for a
prosecutor's slot in Clackamas County in 1995. A week later,
in another letter, Foote told Gustafson that he would respect
her request and hire him. But, he added, she might want
to check his references--in effect telling her that it was
her hiring decision to make, not his.
Gustafson says Newbauer has been an "excellent prosecutor."
Since joining the DA's office in the summer of 1996, Newbauer
has prosecuted scores of felony cases, including Measure
11 offenses. "He's proven over time that his abilities are
quite good," says Gustafson.
Still, she concedes he has his liabilities. "I think that
Alan's social skills are wanting," she says, when asked
about the note that got him in his most recent trouble.
"I think it was a crudely written letter, but he wasn't
smart enough to know that when he wrote it." Gustafson says
the county is currently investigating whether Newbauer wrote
any other offensive letters during his tenure. She says
she'll decide his fate by Jan. 21. An at-will employee,
Newbauer could be fired.
Newbauer is on vacation in the Caribbean and was unavailable
for comment.
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 26,
2000
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