Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 Once you get beyond the playground taunts, the field of eyeware might seem a pretty safe career. But optical office politics can get rough, as optometrist Trevor Hay learned last month when his former employer, Reynolds Optical, dropped into the realm of Roguery. On the evening of March 6, Hay used his key to unlock the door to Reynolds Optical's downtown branch, where he kept an office, to check on the next day's appointments. He looked in his appointment book and found that a line had been drawn next to each appointment, and next to each was scrawled the word "CANCELLED." Then, outside his office, he found his 1,050 patients' files had been placed in boxes. That, Hay says, is when he realized he was being kicked out. There had been friction between Hays and Reynolds for months. Just a week or two before, he'd met with another optical store about relocating. Clearly, word had gotten back to Reynolds. But Hay says he didn't appreciate the degree of acrimony until he opened up his patients' file folders. His patients' medical histories were gone--and with them, Hay's only record of their address and phone number. The aggrieved optometrist sued Reynolds last month, claiming a half-million in damages to his business. Officials from Reynolds did not return WW's calls. However, in court documents, the store has taken the position that it considered Hay a quasi-employee and the medical histories proprietary information. Still, it seems odd that the store shredded the records, as it has admitted in court documents. "I have never had anything that malicious happen to me before," Hay says. Hay isn't the only one seeing red over the episode. His suit includes an affidavit by David Plunkett, the executive director for the Oregon Board of Optometry, stating that patients' medical histories belong to optometrists, not retailers such as Reynolds. Justice, even when long delayed, is always sweet, and this week Catherine Stauffer is relishing it. In October 1991, during the heat of the battle over Ballot Measure 9, Stauffer was covering the premiere of an anti-gay video at the Foursquare Church in Southeast Portland for Just Out newspaper. She was spotted by Scott Lively, the burly mouthpiece of the Oregon Citizens Alliance. He wasn't exactly glad to see her. "He picked me up, threw me into a wall and dragged me out into the street," says Stauffer. In 1992, she sued Lively and the OCA over the incident and won a $20,000 settlement from Lively and another $10,000 from the OCA. But until last week, Stauffer didn't see a penny. Lively, an activist-turned-writer (in 1995 he self-published a book comparing gays with Nazis), recently got a law degree from a Southern California Christian school. Lively could not be reached for comment, but according to correspondence Stauffer received from him, he plans to do pro bono work as a Christian missionary. Problem is, you can't join the California Bar with outstanding judgments. Before he can practice law, Lively has to pay up, and last week Stauffer received a first installment of $10,000. As for the OCA's payment, Stauffer is still waiting. The group is circulating another anti-gay initiative this year, and she's watching it closely. "I still have $10,000 due from the OCA, and I intend to get it," says Stauffer, who is now a fine-arts photographer. "If they gear up with a big campaign, I'm going to go after their money." --Patty Wentz