This article was republished from Pamplin Media Group.
As alleged victims of ex-West Linn doctor David Farley passionately plead for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to take up their case, recently released records from a West Linn Police Department investigation shed new light on a process that ultimately failed to result in grand jury charges against the doctor.
After an investigation that lasted nearly two years, a Clackamas County grand jury decided in September not to indict Farley on criminal charges. The former West Linn doctor still faces sexual abuse allegations from more than 120 of his former patients in a blockbuster civil lawsuit.
A few weeks after the grand jury decision, 71 of Farley's former patients, including four minors, sent a letter to Rosenblum assailing West Linn police and the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office and asking her to open her own criminal investigation.
Farley, who opened the West Linn Family Health Clinic three decades ago, allegedly used his position as a doctor to sexually abuse female patients. He also admitted to photographing the breasts and genitals of five underage patients as the Oregon Medical Board investigated the claims against him.
WLPD initially denied Pamplin Media Group's September public records request for the police report on the case, but eventually complied with a Washington County District Attorney's Office advisory opinion to release 76 pages of the 1,472-page police report. The rest of the report is undisclosable due to personal privacy exemptions in the public records law.
Following the Washington County decision, West Linn police asked for $400 to release the 76 pages of the report and another $373 to fulfill Pamplin Media Group's request for emails to and from Tony Christensen, WLPD's detective leading the case. WLPD then waived those fees after Pamplin Media Group contacted the West Linn City Council and several councilors requested that city administrators waive the fees given the strong public interest in the case.
The alleged victims remain upset and confused as to why there were no charges when elected officials and even police said they believed the women who reported abuse. While there is no single simple answer to this question, to begin understanding the result requires first examining the investigation and grand jury process.
What Coworkers Said About Farley
With most evidence and interviews from alleged victims of Farley exempt from disclosure, the bulk of the police report Pamplin Media Group received contained interviews from current and former employees of the West Linn Family Health Clinic.
Christensen, often accompanied by fellow West Linn police detective Adam Simms, interviewed employees from the clinic including doctors, medical assistants and administrative staff. Detectives asked each of the employees about Farley's use of gloves during examinations, his protocol for chaperones, if he saw more female patients other than doctors and if they'd heard any complaints about him. They also asked about protocols for seeing patients at their homes.
Several of the employees remarked that Farley saw more female patients than the other providers, though this was explained as the result of the doctor trying to grow his obstetrics practice and wanting young girls to get to know him, so they'd be comfortable coming to him for OBGYN needs when they were older.
According to the police reports, Farley told several colleagues he ordered pap smears for his patients more frequently than recommended because he'd had a patient die of cervical cancer, but none of the staff knew of a patient diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Most of the employees also mentioned the office's policies for chaperones changing around 2019 or 2020. Prior to then, most of those interviewed said Farley would not have a chaperone present for certain invasive procedures. Several employees said Farley would sometimes ask the patient if they'd like a chaperone in the room.
Each employee also recalled a disturbing day when Farley performed a "hymenectomy" on a patient, causing the girl to "scream bloody murder" as one employee recalled and concerning everyone in the office at the time. A medical assistant told police that Farley addressed the incident and claimed that the patient "had a lot of anxiety," but there was agreement between him and the girl's mother — who was present in the room — that the procedure should continue.
Some employees also learned of Farley's intent to photograph patients to document the stages of puberty. Farley explained this by saying he wished to put together information on puberty for patients and parents. One medical assistant said Farley asked to borrow her phone to photograph the cervix and breasts of a 20-year-old patient. According to the police report, the medical assistant said Farley uploaded the photos somewhere and then deleted them from her phone.
Farley defended his actions in a July 28, 2020 letter to the Oregon Medical Board, claiming that he could no longer find "adequate" and "apolitical" education materials about sexual development and puberty that he could give to families, so he decided to create his own. One week later, Farley signed an interim stipulated order that suspended his license. His license was permanently revoked in October 2020.
Questions Surrounding An iCloud Account
While police and prosecutors said they had the FBI search Farley's personal iCloud account for evidence of child pornography, the records obtained by Pamplin Media Group only indicate that investigators searched a hard drive containing an Apple Time Machine backup that previously belonged to Farley. The hard drive did not come to investigators' attention through a warrant, but instead after a man reached out to WLPD saying his neighbor bought the device at a thrift store and then discovered the name "David Farley" within it, records show.
When he met with police, the man with the hard drive told Christensen he bought it for $10 in 2019 at a thrift store called Deseret Industries, according to the police report. The man said he'd read that Farley was Mormon and knew that Deseret Industries was a "Mormon thrift shop," the report stated.
He told police that the device sat on his shelf for a while but he eventually had a friend help him get into the drive to perform a soft reset, at which point the device "displayed David B Farley's hard drive."
"He googled David B Farley's name with the intention of getting a hold of him to let him know he had this hard drive," the police report stated. "When he googled David Farley, he learned about the criminal investigation and contacted his neighbor Dwight Holton because he wasn't sure who to contact."
WLPD turned the device over to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Computer Forensics Unit for examination. The computer forensic unit identified the device as an Apple Airport Time Capsule — a wireless router with network attached storage, which allows a user to backup all computers on a network using Apple's Time Machine application. Investigators searched the device for key medical terms and the names of victims who reported abuse. They also searched the devices for photos and videos.
A spokesperson from the FBI Portland office declined to say whether the agency participated in the investigation, but Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth and West Linn Police Chief Peter Mahuna said the FBI executed a search warrant for Farley's iCloud.
"No evidence of criminal activity was discovered," Wentworth told Pamplin Media Group. "The grand jury was made aware of the FBI's search and findings."
With no mention of the iCloud in the police report pages and emails reviewed by Pamplin Media Group, or communications to and from the FBI, Pamplin has attempted to obtain a "property in custody" form to learn if contents of the iCloud account were ever held or reviewed by West Linn police. The Washington County DA's Office recently updated its advisory opinion to say that property in custody forms not pertaining to abuse of a child should be released, as long as names and identifying information about adult patients are redacted.
Farley's Connection To Mormon church
At the request of Deputy District Attorney Matt Semritc, West Linn police reached out to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where Farley was a stake high counselor.
"Thinking about trying to set up an interview with someone at Farley's former church," Semritc wrote to Christensen and other prosecutors. "I would be curious to know if he ever had contact with minors or ever was associated with youth in any way."
But the church's response to Christensen, which came through an attorney in Utah, didn't offer much clarification.
"In answer to your question, my understanding from my client, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is that the Church has no awareness of any allegation that David Brian Farley ever engaged in sexual misconduct on Church property or in connection with any Church-sponsored activity," the attorney wrote to Christensen in April 2021.
One month later, the attorney wrote Christensen again: "The below statement was true at the time I made it — as we really never had heard any allegation of misconduct having occurred on Church property."
The emails provided to Pamplin Media Group did not contain any other correspondence with the church.
Mahuna said he was unsure if Christensen talked to anyone affiliated with the church in West Linn.
Several alleged victims have previously stated they met Farley through the church or knew people at church who recommended seeing him. According to police interviews with former employees at the West Linn Family Health Clinic, several members of staff were also LDS members. One employee told police the clinic adopted LDS policies, like prohibiting coffee. According to the police report, that employee also said some clinic patients were told they could have their bills forgiven if they joined the church.
The records also show that not long after WLPD launched its investigation in 2020, Christensen received a call from a detective with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office in St. Anthony, Idaho, where Farley relocated after his medical license was revoked.
The detective said he'd received a call from a concerned citizen about Farley living in the area and working as a substitute teacher at a local school. The detective requested confirmation from Christensen that WLPD was investigating the sexual abuse claims against Farley and said the Fremont County Sheriff's Office was willing to assist with the investigation in any way it could.
The emails provided to Pamplin Media Group show no further communication with law enforcement in Idaho after that. Mahuna said he did not believe WLPD ever used the sheriff's office for assistance in the case.
What Is A Grand Jury?
Since the grand jury is where the criminal case against Farley died, discerning how the process works is important to understanding the case and its possible shortcomings.
A grand jury proceeding, normally shrouded in secrecy to protect those accused of a crime, is a legal step the state must take before moving forward with prosecution. The grand jury is a panel of several citizens. The process is overseen by the district attorney's office.
If the grand jury finds there is sufficient evidence to indict the defendant, it will return a "true bill" and the case will progress to court. A 37-year-old saying from a New York judge — that prosecutors could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich — still echoes in legal circles today.
Between November 2021 and November 2022, grand juries in Clackamas County issued a "not true" bill on some or all charges in only 16 cases of more than 1,300. The Farley case is one of those 16.
"The DA is completely in control of all the evidence that goes in front of the grand jury and sometimes they will use a grand jury in order to provide political cover so they can duck out of doing a risky prosecution, despite the fact that the public interest demands it," Greg Kaffoury, a Portland attorney, said.
Kaffoury has represented sexual abuse victims of medical providers in several high-profile civil cases including victims of Jeff McAllister, the Legacy Emanuel ER nurse now serving 15 years in prison for sexually abusing nine patients and a coworker.
According to Wentworth, the grand jury process was unbiased, and his office aggressively sought justice.
"While Dr. Farley's conduct was professionally sanctionable, the grand jury, an impartial group of Clackamas County citizens, after considering all of the admissible evidence and the applicable laws, concluded that his conduct could not be proven criminally beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law," Wentworth said in a September press release." The Clackamas County District Attorney's Office has a reputation for being not only aggressive, but ethical. The presentation of this case to the grand jury further demonstrates this reputation is well-earned."
Disagreements About Handling Of Grand Jury
Emails between WLPD and the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office paint a chaotic picture of the grand jury proceedings, with multiple back and forth emails about who had which reports and who still had to be interviewed. Wentworth, for his part, said the process was "anything but 'chaotic'" and none of these issues affected the end result.
In an email Aug. 22, Deputy District Attorney Sarah Dumont wrote to Christensen: "Tony, I am extremely disappointed that we still haven't received the report. Further, GJ (grand jury) is TODAY not tomorrow. Please send it to my attention as soon as possible."
Multiple alleged victims said they felt the grand jury process was disorganized, and they were ill-prepared to testify.
"I got the subpoena, and the subpoena says to call your district attorney who was assigned to your case, and they would prep you for testifying and everything," former Farley patient Katie Medley previously told Pamplin Media Group. "I had to call Sarah Dumont and when I called her, she couldn't remember anything about my case. And so, then I have to continue to call her and track her down, and she wouldn't call me back, and when I did get a hold of her, she was just terrible on the phone and made me feel incredibly unnerved to testify in front of the grand jury. She just discounted my abuse on the phone and so then expected me to walk into the grand jury the next day."
Wentworth and Mahuna maintained the viability of the grand jury process during the case.
"The grand jury process was anything but 'chaotic,'" Wentworth wrote to Pamplin Media Group. "It took four months to complete, and the presentation was never compromised by a lack of information to present. Whatever issues existed in getting certain reports did not impede what a witness testified to or impact our ability to present a complete and thorough case to the grand jury."
Mahuna noted that with such a big case, it's normal for reports to go back and forth in large batches, and both sides need to verify who received what.
Wentworth also stated that 23 victims testified to the grand jury. Nearly 100 former patients reported abuse.
"Individuals who had potentially actionable charges were chosen to testify," Wentworth said.
"Others testified as witnesses because, although their cases were not prosecutable, their testimony was admissible as relevant evidence for the grand jury to consider."
Did Christensen have proper training?
Mahuna has repeatedly defended the credibility of the investigation, as well as the knowledge of lead detective Tony Christensen, despite claims from alleged victims that the detective was grossly incompetent when it came to matters of sexual assault and female anatomy.
Records from the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training show that, of the 4,053 hours of training he's completed since becoming a police officer, Christensen has received two hours of training related to sexual assault. Those two hours of sexual assault forensic evidence collection took place in September 2021 — 11 months after WLPD launched the investigation into Farley.
According to the police report, Christensen interviewed at least 56 of the victims who reported abuse.
WLPD's policy manual states officers investigating sexual assault "should" be trained in medical and legal issues that are specific to: sexual assault investigations; follow-up interviews and investigation; presenting appropriate cases of alleged sexual assault to the prosecutor for review; coordinating with other enforcement agencies, social service agencies and medical personnel as needed; providing referrals to therapy services, victim advocates and support for the victim; and participating in or coordinating with the Sexual Assault Response Team or other multidisciplinary investigative teams.
When asked about adherence to this policy, Mahuna emphasized the word "should," meaning these trainings are not required for officers investigating sexual assault. However, Mahuna maintained that Christensen and the other officers working the Farley case had training in these areas.
Mahuna said it did not make sense to him that Christensen would only have two hours of training related to sexual abuse, but that he probably received relevant training during the detective academy as well as on-the-job training.
Rosenblum's office has not yet decided whether to take on the case.
