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A second young man has filed a lawsuit against Terry Bean, the embattled Portland real estate developer and civil-rights pioneer.
Bean, 70, is a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington, D.C. LGBTQ advocacy group, and has been a prolific fundraiser for Democratic politicians.
On May 3, the Portland lawyer Sean Riddell filed a civil lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on behalf of a young man referred to in the lawsuit by the initials R.J.V.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2013, Bean had sex with the young man "on at least three occasions" when the the young man was 17 and under Oregon's legal age of consent. The lawsuit, which was first reported by The Oregonian, seeks damages $2.04 million.
In a response to the lawsuit, Bean's attorney, Derek Ashton said that RJV is a disgruntled former Bean employee attempting a "shakedown."
"It's revealing that RJV never made such claims until after his current attorney filed a similar lawsuit seeking more than $6 million," Ashton said in an email. "Like that lawsuit, this lawsuit is frivolous and, upon its dismissal, RJV may find himself paying for Terry Bean's attorney fees. Terry will respond vigorously."
Bean's attorneys today filed a motion seeking to move the case to federal court.
The new lawsuit follows a similar claim another Riddell client filed in March in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
In that case, the plaintiff, who goes by the initials M.S.G., is also the alleged victim in Lane County criminal case in which Bean stands accused of sexually assaulting M.S.G. in 2013, when the young man was 15.
An earlier criminal case against Bean in Lane County was dismissed in 2015, when M.S.G. declined to testify against Bean. But in a bizarre twist, after M.S.G.'s attorney, Lori Deveney, allegedly pocketed nearly all of the $220,000 Bean agreed to pay M.S.G. as compensation, M.S.G. changed his mind and agreed to testify against Bean.
Pre-trial motions in the criminal trial are due Aug. 2.