The University of Oregon filed motions with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 27, 2015 to appeal the Cleavenger vs. University of Oregon Police Department lawsuit verdict. The motions ask for either a retrial or a judgment as a matter of law, meaning the verdict could be overturned without going to a jury.

“The University has not yet determined whether it will appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” university spokesman Tobin Klinger said in a statement. “At this point, the University has merely filed post-trial motions with the trial court, which preserve the right to appeal the issues raised in those motions.”

The issues raised concern major points in the plaintiff’s case and the general scope of the jury’s award.

James Cleavenger, a former UOPD officer, was awarded $755,000 last September in a free speech trial. The jury found that three of Cleavenger’s superiors, Sargeant Scott Cameron, Lieutenant Brandon Lebrecht and Chief Carolyn McDermed, retaliated against Cleavenger for exercising his free speech rights. The jury found that the retaliation harmed Cleavenger’s potential career in law enforcement, awarding economic damages based on his potential loss of income.

The defense asserts that Cleavenger’s counsel’s argument and eventual award was based on two things: Cleavenger’s retaliatory placement on a “Brady List,” a list of officers deemed too untrustworthy to testify in court, and as a punishment to the UOPD for infractions not related to Cleavenger’s termination, such as the infamous Bowl of Dicks List, a list of things officers felt should “eat a bowl of dicks,” created by the UOPD night shift.

UO claims that the Brady Listing was not retaliatory, nor was it detrimental to Cleavenger’s career. They also contend that the use of evidence not harmful to Cleavenger constitutes “punishment for unrelated conduct allegedly causing harm to non-parties,” and shouldn’t be considered when assessing damages.

The defense also argued that Cleavenger’s claims of lost potential income were exaggerated. The jury awarded Cleavenger economic damages based on his inability to become a police chief after being “Brady Listed,” a goal he told the jury he was striving for.

“Plaintiff speculated that he had lost the chance eventually to become a police chief, but he made no showing that he was qualified for that position or that he had any probability of achieving that goal over all other potential candidates,” the defense said in their appeal. They believe the loss of potential earnings cannot be proven, therefore the jury awarded no damages that were “non-speculative.”

The defense asked for a judgment as a matter of law, meaning the trial would not go back to a jury. The judge would make the final decision. This is possible if the defense proves that the entire basis of the trial is faulty.

“Here, as submitted to the jury, plaintiff’s claim of actual damages was based solely on the submissions of Brady materials to the District Attorney by Defendant McDermed, assisted by Defendant Lebrecht,” the defense said. “That alone does not constitute an “adverse employment action” sufficient to support a claim of retaliation for First Amendment rights,” they continued, citing previous First Amendment cases.

If UO decides to go through with their appeal, and the judge accepts, they have also asked that the trial or judgment be all-encompassing, not just restricted to determining damages – meaning the potential for a completely new trial.

The historic White Stag building in Portland, OR, famous for the “Portland, Oregon” electric sign decorating its roof, now belongs to the University of Oregon Foundation. They purchased the building for $42.6 million, the UO foundation confirmed today.

The university has occupied the facility since 2008, operating in about 70 percent of the 137,000  square foot building. Victoria Nguyen, public affairs coordinator for the UO Foundation, told the Portland Business Journal that the acquisition will not change daily operations at the building.

UO acquired the building after Venerable Group, Inc. finished a long term restoration of it. The building is over 100 years old. Venerable has offices in the building, and plan to stay there even after the acquisition.

UO has been increasing its Portland presence in recent years. The White Stag building already has a Duck Store in its ground floor.

In late September, the Eugene Police Department received $598,000, half from a federal grant and half from the city of Eugene, to outfit every officer with a High Definition body camera. The University of Oregon Police Department is on its way to matching them.

Over the past two years, the UOPD has slowly integrated a large stock of body cameras into the department, testing out different brands and models. They have almost enough for every officer.

“What we’d like to do ultimately is eventually get to one product that works the best with our overall system,” UOPD Public Information Officer Kelly McIver said.

Across the country both police departments and citizens have pushed to increase the use of body worn cameras in the wake of several controversial police shootings. For citizens the cameras provide a level of police accountability; for officers they are a reliable witness.

The University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology published the first study on body cameras in 2012. They studied their use at a police department in Rialto, California. Results of the study appealed to concerned citizens. It found that use-of-force incidents dropped by 59 percent when officers began wearing body cameras. Departments approved of the results as well, as the amount of citizens complaints decreased by 87.5 percent.

“It really is something that works well for everybody concerned,” McIver said. “It’s certainly something that can be as much protection for an officer as for members of the public because it allows you to go back and see what actually happened.”

“Sometimes, especially if you’re dealing with intoxicated individuals and things like that, sometimes the recall of exactly how something went down isn’t entirely accurate,” McIver said.

EPD received their cameras as part of a grant from the US Department of Justice. Out of the 285 departments that applied, EPD was one of only 73 awarded the money. The only other police department in Oregon to receive the grant was Beaverton. UOPD unsuccessfully applied for the same grant in partnership with the Portland State University Campus Police.

EPD has estimated that the grant will buy 170 body cameras. The department had already been using cameras for their bike force for several years.

“One of the benefits of it that other agencies do not have in deploying these body cam videos is that we already have wide agency wide acceptance of it,” EPD Assistant Chief Karl Durr said in a press conference in September. “We don’t have to try to convince the officers that this is something good. They’re already asking for them.”

UOPD’s body camera footage is used primarily for internal training and reviewing complaints. The footage is not available through public records requests. The cost of data storage is a factor, as well as the time and cost of reviewing and redacting footage.

“Nobody intends that the taxpayer time, or in our case tuition and general fund paid staff individuals, go so heavily into that,” McIver said.

Since the footage is not available from a public records request, some have doubted its usefulness.

“They’re really using [the cameras] for their own reasons. It really doesn’t assist in accountability,” attorney Brian Michaels said. Michaels has been involved in litigation against the UOPD before, but he has never requested body camera footage.

Michaels wants the cameras more firmly embedded into university policing. “The bottom line is, I see no downside,” he said. “It improves professionalism, enhances respect and removes unconstitutional behavior.”

“A way for people to access how the police conduct themselves can only improve relations with the community,” Michaels said.

A former therapist of the victim of an alleged 2014 sexual assault involving University of Oregon basketball players announced her resignation on Sunday.

In an open letter to UO President Michael Schill, Jennifer Morlok stated she is leaving because she “can no longer manage the emotional strain and professional toll I have paid for speaking the truth.”

After the alleged assault on Jane Doe in 2014, Morlok complained that her director, Shelly Kerr, had given Doe’s confidential records to UO attorneys. This lead to allegations of misconduct at the University Counseling and Testing Center. Morlok and her former colleague Karen Stokes filed a tort claim against UO in August claiming they were retaliated against for withholding the records.

“I am no longer willing to be treated as though I am an enemy of the very counseling services I enjoyed providing to students,” Morlok said in her letter. “I am disheartened that, because of the ill treatment I have endured after speaking up regarding confidential records being disclosed unethically by the Director of the UCTC […] I am forced to resign.”

After the whistleblowing incident, Morlok claims she was removed as a staff therapist, but maintained the title of Case Manager/Senior Staff Therapist and External Resource Coordinator at the UCTC. She resigned from that position Sunday.

A former version of this article stated that Morlok had refused to give up Doe’s records to UO lawyers, and that she had definitively been removed as a staff therapist. Morlok simply reported Shelly Kerr’s giving up of records to UO lawyers, and she claimed she was removed.

Chou Her, a candidate in the university’s search for a new Assistant Chief of the University of Oregon Police Department, gave a talk on campus today, outlining what he feels are the most important aspects of a university police department.

Her has worked for the University of California, Merced, as a campus officer for 11 years. He is currently serving as the department’s Interim Chief of Police. Moving from Laos to Portland when he was three-years-old, Her is fluent in English and Chinese.

The Assistant Chief is a new position at the UOPD. The Assistant Chief will work directly below Chief Carolyn McDermed, focusing on campus community involvement.

In his talk at the Ford Alumni Center, Her focused on the importance of melding the community with its police department. He advocated for a transparent, diverse and inclusive department. Student involvement is key, he said, an aspect that separates university police from the city police department.

“Every student success is our success. Every student failure is our failure,” Her said. “We’re all part of this.”

Her said he would work on community engagement using student volunteers, event outreach and collaboration with faculty.

“There are much smarter minds on campus that we can tap into; they’re called faculty,” he said.

Her hoped officers can build a relationship with students and faculty on campus, getting out of their vehicles to connect with the community.

“Officers can be more than that guy who gave you a ticket,” he said.

The University of Oregon will pay over $1.6 million for losing the James Cleavenger vs. University of Oregon Police Department free speech retaliation lawsuit. Fees include the jury-awarded sum and the attorney fees of both Cleavenger and UO.

Cleavenger won a lawsuit against the UOPD in September. The jury awarded him $755,000, and UO was ordered to pay Cleavenger’s attorney fees. Combined with fees for UO’s own attorney’s, UO will pay $1,647,899.29. The money will come from UO’s insurance policy, not the general fund.

The initial award of $755,000 included $650,000 in economic damages and $105,000 in punitive damages. The jury broke the punitive damages down by defendant: $36,000 against UOPD Chief of Police Carolyn McDermed, $51,000 against Cleavenger’s supervisor, Lieutenant Brandon Lebrecht, and $18,000 against Sergeant Scott Cameron.

“We didn’t ask the juror’s for any specific amount of money. They just came up with that on their own,” one of Cleavenger’s attorney’s, Jason Kafoury, said. Kafoury said the actions taken against Cleavenger by the UOPD ruined a potential career in law enforcement. Cleavenger’s goal was to become a police chief.

“I told the jurors, ‘Police chiefs make anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 a year. You guys do what’s fair for him in terms of how you think this has affected the rest of his life economically,’ and they awarded $650,000 in lost earning capacity,” Kafoury said.

The jury also ordered UO to pay Cleavenger’s attorney fees and costs. Cleavenger’s attorney fees add up to $452,200. The fees cover five attorneys, a trial technologist, a law clerk, and two paralegals. Cleavenger was represented by Portland law firm Kafoury and McDougal. Jason Kafoury and Mark McDougal were co-counsel on the case.

Cleavenger also had an additional $45,773.59 in costs relating to the trial. The additional costs include fees for submitting witnesses, subpoenas and even printing papers related to the case. The most costly of these fees by far, at $36,588.95, are “fees for printed or electronically recorded transcripts necessarily obtained for use in the case,” according to court documents. These fees include paying court reporters to transcribe witness testimony. This was done with 18 witnesses.

In first amendment cases, once the attorney fees and costs are submitted and approved by the judge, they are automatically added to the final award.

UO also has its own attorney fees. UO was represented by Eugene firm Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick. The total of all their approved fees is $394,925.70, according to the Office of the General Counsel. The university’s insurance policy has so far paid $281,867 to Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick.

UO has an insurance policy that will pay all $1.6 million. The Public Universities Risk Management and Insurance Trust, PURMIT, covers the seven public universities in Oregon.

“The University of Oregon has comprehensive insurance for situations involving University employees, officers and volunteers as well as the buildings, vehicles and other assets,” Julie Brown, the Campus Relations Director of Enterprise Risk Management, said. “The insurance program covers everything from earthquake damage to art collections.”

In the Cleavenger vs. UOPD trial, the insurance policy will cover 100 percent of the damages, with a $0 deductible for the university.

Before the trial started, Cleavenger and his attorneys offered to settle the lawsuit for $600,000. “Defendants refused to engage in settlement discussions,” court documents note, “with the exception that at 10:46 p.m. the night before trial was to start, defendants offered to settle for $20,000 inclusive of fees. This offer was less than plaintiff’s costs.” Cleavenger turned down the offer. UO will ultimately pay $1 million more than Cleavenger’s initial offer.

Governor Kate Brown appointed a new student member to the Board of Trustees on Monday. Will Paustian will replace Associated Students of the University of Oregon President Helena Schlegel. Schlegel resigned from the Board on Sept. 25, 2015.

“We look forward to working with Trustee-designate Paustian on student issues throughout our respective areas of our shared governance structure,” ASUO said in a statement. “We believe that this decision will prove beneficial for students by disjoining the roles of ASUO President and the student Board of Trustees member, which allows for President Schlegel and Trustee-designate Paustian to focus directly on their respective roles and improve the quality of representation we have in each position.”

ASUO conducted a search for the new board member after Schlegel resigned, ultimately bringing two candidates forward to Governor Brown. Brown chose Paustian.

Paustian is an undergraduate Pre-Business Administration major, according to UO records.

The name of the biker injured in a car and bike collision on Monday has been released. Grace Ledbetter, an undergraduate Landscape Architecture major, hit the rear window of a car as it was backing out of the Hendricks Hall circular driveway on Monday just before 8 p.m.

Ledbetter broke the rear window on impact, but remained standing. She was meeting a friend as the collision occurred. Ledbetter’s friend and Ryan Bath, the driver of the vehicle, waited at the scene for emergency services to arrive.

UOPD reported to the scene at 7:56 p.m., and Ledbetter was transported to Sacred Heart University District. As of 5 p.m. today, Ledbetter was not checked into the hospital.

On Monday Bath said he was keeping in touch with Ledbetter’s friend. “I’m just trying to make sure she’s okay,” he said.

Tuition, textbooks, food, gas, rent: all things college students are expected to pay for. Combined with a shortage of time and job experience, some students find it hard to keep up with expenses. Sometimes the bills pile up, and the funds can’t stretch. Eventually, people find themselves without a bed to go home to. Instead of waking up in a dorm room, some students wake up in their cars.

The rumor of homeless students at the University of Oregon has echoed through the halls for many years. Many professors have heard of their existence, but few claim to have met any.

Josie McCarthy runs the Dining Room in downtown Eugene. The restaurant serves free meals to anyone over 18, four days a week. McCarthy says that students struggling with funds often come in for a free meal.

From 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, the Dining Room looks like any other brunch cafe. The walls are covered in hand painted murals; soft acoustic guitar music fills the air, mingling with the chatter of the volunteer waiting staff and their many customers. Today, the smell of hot dogs adds a tinge of middle school cafeteria.

“Sometimes we have great food, and sometimes we have hot dogs,” McCarthy said. “Today we have hot dogs.”

The only thing that separates the Dining Room from a greasy spoon is the line.

“We serve 300 people a day at the hall,” McCarthy said. “Some of them are students, living in their cars and going to classes.”

Faire Holliday, a Dining Room volunteer and UO graduate, has met students whose “living situations are in flux,” she said. Their financial aide was shrinking, and “they couldn’t stretch it.” They started coming to the Dining Room to eat and to volunteer.

Students from both UO and Lane Community College get meals at the Dining Room, Holliday said. Patrons don’t have to be homeless, just over 18 and sober upon arrival.

Rumors of homeless students have spurred conversations on campus. “It’s a condition, not a crisis,” philosophy professor Naomi Zack said. “It’s a problem that keeps getting bigger. […] Our culture as a whole is not addressing this in anything like an effective way.”

In early September, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy asked for help addressing the homelessness and transients issue. In an email to the City Council and City Manager Jon Ruiz, she said, “I don’t want travelers actually controlling, living on our corners, our plazas, our public spaces.” She wanted “our public spaces to be for all to use.”

This reaction is part of a culture McCarthy wants to end. Lane County originally wanted the Dining Room to be farther out of the city, in the Whitaker district, instead of its current location on 8th Street.

“Why are we hiding poverty?” McCarthy said. “It’s not going to get better if we hide it.”

UO itself does not have a program addressing homelessness.

“I think the University of Oregon has an international reputation, certainly a national reputation, for a certain kind of progressiveness,” Zack said. “If we could come up with a program, it might just be a drop in the bucket, but a well developed program from higher administration would be a model for other universities.”

“On the other hand,” Zack said, “the university is in a constant struggle to survive and get better. The university is not a church.”

The west campus neighborhood was loud this weekend. The Eugene Police Department received 24 noise complaints, starting late Wednesday night. Twelve of those complaints came from directly west of campus, centering around 13th Avenue. The rest of the complaints spread in other directions, but all centered around campus.

Many landlords in the areas subscribe to a service that automatically informs them when the police are called to their property. This service is called the Rental Property Program. Regardless of whether residents are cited or even warned, the landlord will receive a notification. Out of the 24 calls the EPD received, 20 occurred at rental properties subscribed to the RPP.

Here is a complete map of noise complaint calls to the EPD from Wednesday, Oct. 8 to Sunday, Oct. 11: