Tag Archives: Jennifer Morlok

Psychologist Examiners: Shelly Kerr unethical. Doug Park merely clueless?

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The Final Order in regard to the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners investigation of Counseling Center Director Shelly Kerr’s decision to comply with UO Deputy General Counsel Doug Park’s request for alleged basketball gang-rape survivor Jane Doe’s confidential counseling records was made today. You can download the thorough report from Oregon Administrative Law Judge Alison Green Webster and the ruling of the OBPE here. Kerr was represented by C. Robert Steringer of HLGR. He lost:

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In contrast whistleblowers Karen Stokes and Jennifer Morlok, whose retaliation lawsuit UO just settled for $425K, come off as total professionals.

According to the timeline in Webster’s report, Jane Doe’s attorney John Clune sent Park a “litigation hold” on Aug 5th 2014 to ensure that the records were not destroyed. But Park’s office didn’t ask the Counseling Center for the documents until December 8th, *after* mediation failed. Despite this 4 month gap, and despite the fact that he knew Clune already had a copy of the file (Clune had shown him some excerpts during mediation) Mr. Park maintained that the only reason his office asked for the counseling records was to comply with Clune’s litigation hold and keep the records safe. Some excerpts from Judge Webster (Licensee & Respondent refer to Kerr):

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OR Senate bans method Park and Hill used to get student therapy records

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2/17/2016 update: From the Lund Report, here:

Partisan animosity broke down in Salem on Presidents’ Day, as Republicans frustrated by the Democratic agenda turned to D.C.-style delaying tactics, forcing House and Senate clerks to read, verbatim, dozens of pages of legalese in each bill before it could come to a vote.

But the Senate still managed to unanimously pass a bipartisan bill that closes a critical gap in medical privacy — forcing university-based health providers to abide by the same confidentiality rules as off-campus providers.

… The demand for the bill was spurred by a notorious case involving the University of Oregon and a student who alleged she’d been raped by members of the basketball team. The woman sued the school, and the university ordered the school’s counseling center to turn over her therapy records to try to disprove her case of emotional distress.

I should note that UO lawyers Doug Park and Sam Hill dispute the claim that UO planned to use Jane Doe’s therapy records to try and disprove her case. They say that they were securing them on request of Jane Doe’s lawyers. However they have never explained why they scanned them into the GC’s computer system, or what procedures they had in place to monitor who then accessed them, or why Counseling Center Director Shelly Kerr would tell Karen Stokes not to stamp the file and keep the GC’s request a secret:

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2/4/2016 update: Oregon legislature considers bill making it illegal for university lawyers to do what Park and Hill did

Legislation and testimony etc. here:

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This isn’t a hard one:

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Meanwhile, UO’s lawyers are getting nasty in their attacks on Stokes and Morlok, the UO Counseling Center employees who blew the whistle and brought the whole matter to state and national attention, and who have alleged that UO responded by retaliating against them:

1/26/2016: UO lawyers use Stokes and Morlok’s OA award against them. Updated below Continue reading →

DOJ orders Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners to stop using fees and delays to hide public records

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12/18/2015 update: 

The DOJ will bill the OBPE ~$500 for having to write this order. All because their Director, Charles J. Hill, spent weeks ignoring a public records request for the rules that he claims allow him to keep the public out of the hearing about the $5K fine that the OBPE recommended for UO Counseling Director Shelly Kerr. Then Hill tried to use a petty $2.75 fee to delay release for two more weeks. Ridiculous.

The documents he’s been trying to hide are the OBPE“Notice of Rights and Procedures” and documents showing this was adopted according to state law. Call me slow, but I’m starting to wonder if it was.

We’ll find out, Hill’s got a week to provide the documents at no charge, and I’ll post them when he does. Meanwhile the Oregon Office of Administrative Hearings is telling me that no hearing on the Kerr fine has yet been scheduled.

The DOJ’s full Public Records Order is here:

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12/16/2015: Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners uses fees and delays to hide public records

Here’s an email exchange with Charles Hill, the Director of the OBPE, in chronological order. Mr. Hill is trying to argue that he can close the upcoming OBPE hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge about UO’s appeal of the OBPE’s $5,000 fine against Shelly Kerr, who gave the Jane Doe Counseling Records to UO’s lawyers Doug Park and Sam Hill.

I ask Hill for a copy of the rules that allow the hearing to be closed. He waits for 3 weeks to respond, then tries to use a $2.75 charge to further delay release of the records.

I’ve filed a petition with Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum over his office’s use of fees and delays to frustrate the intent of the Oregon Public Records law, saying:

Dear Mr. Hill –

I’m ccing AAG Michael Kron, the head of the DOJ’s Task Force on public records reform, because your use of delays and fees to frustrate the release of public records is so classic that it might serve as a useful example of how state agencies are manipulating current law.

The emails below show a simple request for your board’s “Notice of Rights and Procedures” and documents showing this was adopted according to state law.

You managed to avoid even responding for 21 days, until I filed a petition with AG Rosenblum. Your response proposes an additional delay of 2 weeks, plus the time needed to send you a check for $2.75.

My request asked for a fee-waiver on the basis of public interest. Given that the UO counseling records incident that led to the hearing at question have been the subject of many news stories in the local, state, and national press, and to proposed and adopted changes in state and federal law, I don’t think there’s much to argue there – the interest certainly exceeds the cost of the $2.75 fee you propose. In any case, if you disagree and do not want to waive the fee, the public records law requires that you explain why you think it is not in the public interest to waive the fee. Your letter doesn’t even try.

Given Mr. Hill’s obstinance, I’m also beginning to wonder if the OPBE (sic) actually has the authority to close these hearings.

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The AG’s opinion on his $2.75 fee is due Friday.

On Nov 17, 2015, at 10:18 PM Continue reading →

UO hires Barran Liebman to defend against Morlock retaliation claim

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12/8/2015:  Don’t cry for our old friends at Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick. They’re still getting their share of billable hours from the long list of law firms making bank off UO’s legal troubles. This is just October:

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But HLGR was unable to stop the OPBE from proposing a $5K fine for UO Counseling Director Shelly Kerr over her decision to give Doug Park and Sam Hill the Jane Doe counseling records.

And it looks like JH is taking the retaliation claims brought by Jennifer Morlok and Karen Stokes seriously enough to call in some experienced legal representation for the federal case:

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Mr. Harnden is the managing partner of Barran Liebman, and has quite the resume:

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11/10/2015: Morlok and Stokes claim retaliation, file lawsuit against Robin Holmes, Shelly Kerr, etc.

Diane Dietz has a detailed story in the RG here. A snippet:

Two former University of Oregon counseling center employees filed suit against the university saying they faced retaliation after they blew the whistle on the university for accessing a student’s therapy files.

This is the third lawsuit to stem from a March 2014 rape allegation, which has become a blight that the university can’t seem to shake.

Jennifer Morlok and Karen Stokes filed their suit Monday at the U.S. District Court in Eugene naming four administrators, two unnamed defendants listed as John Roe and Jane Roe and the university.

Stokes claims that in December 2014 she was ordered to make a complete copy of a student’s medical file without indicating — by stamping or documenting — that the file had been copied, according to the lawsuit.

Stokes notified Morlok, the student’s therapist, about the order.

Speaking of blights that the university can’t seem to shake:

University spokesman Tobin Klinger said the university is preparing a statement in response to the lawsuit. …

Here’s the email, apparently sent at the direction of former Interim General Counsel Doug Park and his associate GC Sam Hill, that has so far cost UO $800K for the Jane Doe settlement, untold legal fees, and incalculable embarrassment:

And here’s what I wrote last week, when Jennifer Morlok resigned. Her amazing letter to President Schill is here.

11/2/2015: Ms Morlok was Jane Doe’s counselor at UO. Her decision to fight General Counsel Doug Park’s efforts to get her client’s counseling records has led or will lead to improvements in state and federal law and UO policy. UO needs more people like her. She’s a hero.

But the UO administration has treated her like a pariah. She took it for a year, at great personal cost. Now she has resigned, after a year of retaliation from UO. It’s heartbreaking. We can’t afford to lose people like this.

As for people we can afford to lose – Doug Park, Sam Hill, Shelley Kerr, Robin Holmes – the people who made the decision to get Jane Doe’s records, and who led UO into more than a year of expensive national embarrassment? (Legal costs and Jane Doe settlement alone ~$1.6M). They are still here, still making decisions, still collecting their paychecks, still due for their next raises.

Recapthelaw has the docket here, and the complaint from Stokes and Morlock’s attorneys Beth Creighton and Michael Rose of Portland’s Creighton and Rose is here. Some extracts:

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CNN reports on UO retaliation, will air Hunting Ground despite libel threat

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Back in the day, Dave Frohnmayer could make sure that even the local press wouldn’t cover stories about UO’s retaliation against its employees. For example, Joe Wade’s discrimination and retaliation lawsuit, which forced Frohnmayer and John Moseley to pay $500K and create what is now UO’s VP for Equity and Inclusion. I think that got one brief mention in the ODE.

Those bad days are gone. The RG and Oregonian cover everything. UO’s (alleged) retaliation against Archivist James Fox also made the national higher-ed press, as did the UOPD’s retaliation against James Cleavenger. And now CNN has a thorough report on the retaliation lawsuit brought by the UO whistleblowers who went public in the RG about Doug Park’s seizure of Jane Doe’s counseling records, here. A snippet:

Jennifer Morlok landed her dream job on the very campus where she earned two degrees. She was both a proud alumnae of the University of Oregon and a senior staff therapist and case manager at the university counseling center.

But when the school became embroiled in a scandal involving sexual assault allegations against three basketball players, Morlok found herself caught between a student client and the university she loved and served.

It was not easy, but her choice was clear.

She stood up for Jane Doe. …

And CNN will air “The Hunting Ground” today, Sunday, November 22, at 8 p.m. ET. CNN calls it “The groundbreaking documentary about sexual assault on American college campuses”.  The lawyer for Jameis Winston calls it libel. The NYT reports CNN is broadcasting it anyway:

The documentary, “The Hunting Ground,” features an interview with Erica Kinsman, who accused Mr. Winston of sexually assaulting her when he was a quarterback at Florida State University. The movie, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, had its premiere at Sundance in January.

The movie received some positive reviews but was the subject of withering criticism last week from professors at Harvard Law School who argued the movie’s treatment of a rape case at Harvard was deeply flawed.

An attorney for Mr. Winston urged CNN not to run the documentary, saying that the movie “falsely and maliciously” attacks his client, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and threatened to sue CNN if it showed the film. Mr. Winston’s case was investigated by the Tallahassee police and Florida State, and he was not charged.

Sounds like Mr. Winston should have hired HLGR attorney William F. Gary, who has years of experience sending out threatening defamation take-down letters.

Portland Tribune editors interview President Schill about – lawsuits.

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Online here. I’ll take a guess that he was hoping to talk about his “Oregon Commitment” initiatives, instead of having to rehash and defend Doug Park’s lousy decisions for the nth time:

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… University of Oregon President Michael Schill defended the university’s actions regarding a December 2014 transfer of medical records from the counseling center to its General Counsel. Schill spoke during a Wednesday, Nov. 11, meeting of the Portland Tribune editorial board.

Schill says he is open to criticism “that is constructive criticism and that isn’t demonization criticism or criticism which is based upon salacious details. Or, alternatively, actions that are really just designed to generate money for the complainants. There’s a big business out there of lawyers doing this sort of thing.”

… Morlok says her supervisor, Shelly Kerr, also asked her not to respond to a request from the Jane Doe sexual assault victim for a summary letter of her medical treatment after the victim had filed a notice to sue with the University. Morlok says she felt uncomfortable with the request to provide “nonstandard care” to a student client who intended to sue the university so wrote the letter anyway. Morlok says her employment was threatened as a result.

Schill, however, says none of the university’s actions was illegal. Morlock and Stokes, he says, “ ‘whistleblowed’ on something that was legal, but that’s fine.”

Schill, who was Dean of the University of Chicago Law School until his July 1 appointment to the UO presidency, says the lawsuit was not a surprise.

“Everybody knew that she was setting it up this way,” he says.

… “We’ve gone out of our way to get better and we’re going to continue to get better,” he says. “We’ll learn and do better.”

Here’s what I wrote last week, when Jennifer Morlok resigned. Her amazing letter to President Schill is here.

11/2/2015: Ms Morlok was Jane Doe’s counselor at UO. Her decision to fight General Counsel Doug Park’s efforts to get her client’s counseling records has led or will lead to improvements in state and federal law and UO policy. UO needs more people like her. She’s a hero.

But the UO administration has treated her like a pariah. She took it for a year, at great personal cost. Now she has resigned, after a year of retaliation from UO. It’s heartbreaking. We can’t afford to lose people like this.

As for people we can afford to lose – Doug Park, Sam Hill, Shelley Kerr, Robin Holmes – the people who made the decision to get Jane Doe’s records, and who led UO into more than a year of expensive national embarrassment? (Legal costs and Jane Doe settlement alone ~$1.6M). They are still here, still making decisions, still collecting their paychecks, still due for their next raises.

ESPN reports on Brandon Austin, Jennifer Morlok, Doug Park

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To be broadcast this Thursday, 10:30AM West Coast time on ESPN’s Outside The Lines.

The full broadcast apparently includes an interview with UO counselor Jennifer Morlok, who blew the whistle after UO lawyers Doug Park and Sam Hill got the records of her confidential counseling sessions with Jane Doe, the survivor of an alleged gang-rape by Duck basketball players. I’m guessing Doug Park’s part will be a brief no comment.

UO paid $800K to Jane Doe, who had sued over the counseling records and an alleged lack of due diligence by coach Dana Altman. Altman recruited Austin to UO while he was suspended from Providence College over an alleged sexual assault.

Morlok’s whistleblowing has already led to changes and proposed changes in Oregon and US law and UO policies to protect students.

Austin is now suing UO, alleging he was expelled without due process.

Extract from the ESPN archive here:

Jennifer Morlok resigns over retaliation, calls out President Schill

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Update: The Chronicle’s report is here:

… In a written statement to The Chronicle, Oregon’s vice president for student life, Robin Holmes, said that the university “was committed to providing Ms. Morlok with a supportive work environment,” but that she had chosen not to accept offers of “alternative workplace scenarios.” Ms. Holmes went on to write that the university was “fundamentally opposed to anything that can be construed as workplace retaliation against those who air critical views or opinions.”

UO is fundamentally opposed to retaliation? Come on, retaliation has been part of the Oregon Way for years. Joe Wade ($600K), Jean Stockard ($600K), James Cleavenger ($750K so far), etc., etc.

Thanks to the UO Senate and the UAUO faculty union we do now have an academic freedom policy that says the administration can’t retaliate on the basis of speech criticizing the administration, but Randy Geller, Doug Park, Scott Coltrane, Mike Gottfredson, Doug Blandy, and Tim Gleason fought that for years, and it’s still to be seen if our new administration will enforce it.

I wonder who wrote that statement for Robin Holmes? Jennifer Winters and Rita Radostitz again, as with Holmes’s basketball rape allegations op-ed for the RG? Those emails are from the Presidential Archives release. Speaking of retaliation, Doug Park and Doug Blandy tried to use that release to fire me, and UO did use it to fire Archivist James Fox.

11/2/2015: Ms Morlok was Jane Doe’s counselor at UO. Her decision to fight General Counsel Doug Park’s efforts to get her client’s counseling records has led or will lead to improvements in state and federal law and UO policy. UO needs more people like her. She’s a hero.

But the UO administration has treated her like a pariah. She took it for a year, at great personal cost. Now she has resigned, after a year of retaliation from UO. It’s heartbreaking. We can’t afford to lose people like this.

As for people we can afford to lose – Doug Park, Sam Hill, Shelley Kerr, Robin Holmes – the people who made the decision to get Jane Doe’s records, and who led UO into more than a year of expensive national embarrassment? (Legal costs and Jane Doe settlement alone ~$1.6M). They are still here, still making decisions, still collecting their paychecks, still due for their next raises.

The final straw?

I was cautiously hopeful when President Schill stated, “I will not tolerate the victimization of any member of our community. Period.” (President Michael Schill 2015)   But then President Schill stated, “I do not believe any of our coaches, administrators, or other University personnel acted wrongfully, nor do I believe that any one of them failed to live up to the high moral standards that we value and that they embody in their work every day.” Mr. Schill did not speak to me or my colleague about our concerns and it appeared that there was no consideration on his part that wrong may have occurred and that ethics may have been violated. I am thankful that the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners looks at all the evidence and does not carry blind loyalty and PR concerns as does a University. Mr. Schill, your statement claiming no wrong doing without even speaking to the ones who brought the concern up in the first place deflated hope by many that accountability and consequences would come to those who did wrong in leadership positions- causing harm along the way.

Her letter in full:

November 1st, 2015

Dear President Schill, UCTC Colleagues and Others Whom This Concerns,

This letter is to inform you that, effective immediately, I resign from the position of Case Manager/Senior Staff Therapist and External Resource Coordinator with the University of Oregon Counseling and Testing Center (UCTC).

After a year of retaliation because I spoke up for a client of mine, with regard to the unethical actions of my superiors, I can no longer manage the emotional strain and professional toll I have paid for speaking the truth. I have had to seek my own therapeutic support along this tough journey, and it is recommended that I take care of my own psychological and physical well-being.

I was hoping change would occur where I would no longer have to endure retaliation. However, even after the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners issued a notice of proposed disciplinary action finding that the Director of the Counseling Center had engaged in unethical behavior with regard to disclosing confidential client files, the University has taken no supportive actions to make sure I am safe and treated with the full professional support I need in order to do my job. The direct lack of concern for my client’s well-being by leadership at both the Counseling Center and elsewhere in the University has been astonishing to say the least.

With all this considered, I am no longer able to continue to pay the price for others’ wrong actions.  I am no longer willing to be treated as though I am an enemy of the very counseling services I enjoyed providing to students- or an enemy of the very University I received my degree from- where I had hoped my two sons would attend. It is wrong to treat employees who share problems with the system as though they are the problem. It takes more loyalty to speak up to the University and one’s superiors about a wrong they may be doing than it does to participate in the wrong behavior that ultimately will hurt the University as a whole. As George Orwell stated, “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

As a clinician and a member of the Interpersonal Violence Team and the Mandated Risk Assessment Team, I have truly enjoyed the opportunity I have had to assist students in connecting to services and resources in their time of need.  Being able to accomplish this in numbers above the national average has been a fantastic accomplishment and a deep enjoyment for me. 

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 (as evidenced by the September notice by the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners) I am forced to resign.  I am sad to have to leave a job I have otherwise greatly enjoyed, where I was able to support students in their own struggles.  Working with students has been a pleasure and an honor for me.  The positive feedback from students has kept me going through the difficult times and will continue to be an inspiration to me.

I am not able to sit any longer and be the token of other’s revenge. I am disgusted and disappointed that such behavior exists at my beloved alma mater, but in particular at the Counseling Center itself. The Counseling Center is supposed to represent a safe place for students to come and it is supposed to be a place supporting the mental health of the clients coming in for services. It should never be about the loyalty to the “business” of the University, or to commit unethical behavior with supervisors utilizing their positions of power to evade proper accountability and consequences. I am still in shock that a State regulatory board, which fully investigated and found unethical behavior to have happened by leadership at the Counseling Center, is more likely to enact consequences than the very place of higher education where the wrongful behavior occurred.  I was cautiously hopeful when President Schill stated, “I will not tolerate the victimization of any member of our community. Period.” (President Michael Schill 2015)   But then President Schill stated, “I do not believe any of our coaches, administrators, or other University personnel acted wrongfully, nor do I believe that any one of them failed to live up to the high moral standards that we value and that they embody in their work every day.” Mr. Schill did not speak to me or my colleague about our concerns and it appeared that there was no consideration on his part that wrong may have occurred and that ethics may have been violated. I am thankful that the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners looks at all the evidence and does not carry blind loyalty and PR concerns as does a University. Mr. Schill, your statement claiming no wrong doing without even speaking to the ones who brought the concern up in the first place deflated hope by many that accountability and consequences would come to those who did wrong in leadership positions- causing harm along the way. After all, if the President of the University is confident these leaders have done no wrong then why would they be worried about consequences and why should they stop retaliating against myself or my colleague? A system of no accountability is certainly not going to learn from its mistakes and it perpetuates a cycle of the same unethical and problematic leaders repeating harmful history. As Abraham Lincoln stated, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

I have offered my assistance to help make positive changes on our campus but I have been removed from the ability to do so, having duties taken away from me. I have been “sidelined.” At the very moment that a concerned employee (whistleblower) can help fix the problem the leadership does everything in its power to make sure the whistleblower does not have the chance to be a part of any positive change. Despite this, I continue to believe that speaking up makes change for the better possible. Even while being sidelined, advocating for better policies on confidentiality for our students seems to have had an affect toward better care for students nationwide. It is accurate that the truth will set one free and I choose to stay with the truth. As Malcolm X stated, “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.”

I am encouraged that strong policies are being enacted to further protect students’ confidential records by our legislators. This has been the force needed to make sure Universities are honoring the difference of when a student actually becomes a patient/client with rights to appropriate medical treatment following State standards and ethics. It is important for the University and federal government to adopt the strongest confidentiality policies possible so the line between student and patient does not get blurred.  Although I am disappointed in the dishonorable treatment of myself and my colleague who also spoke up, I am encouraged by the greater change that is happening on campuses nationwide from those courageous enough to disclose the problems that are occurring.

I wish the best to the University and its students and to those I leave behind who are trying to stand for moral and ethical leadership. I have been honored to be a part of positive change for our campus and our students.  I am sad to leave but I hope that those who come after me will take a stand for better treatment of whistleblowers at the University of Oregon and campuses nationwide as well as for students who are seeking clinical treatment services during very vulnerable times in their lives. They – not us — are our priority.  I will continue to stand for, and promote, positive changes on campuses and in our community. I hope you will also.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

With Kindest Regards, Jennifer Morlok

I like the quotes. Our history is full of people who fought for justice and truth, and paid the price. We return their sacrifice with fame and honors. Their words inspire others to fight, and they also console them, when they get stomped on.

Ms Morlok has already filed a tort-claim notice against UO. More here.

Just this spring UO Human Resources gave Jennifer Morlok and Karen Stokes its highest award for their actions in reporting Doug Park’s counseling records seizure.

Jane Doe’s therapist and Shelly Kerr’s assistant will sue UO over retaliation

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[See below for email update]

Morlok and Stokes deserve enormous respect for telling the truth about the UO General Counsel’s efforts to seize Jane Doe’s confidential counseling records. That revelation let to changes in Oregon law and may lead to changes in federal law as well. And now it seems that UO has retaliated against them.

Rich Read has the story in the Oregonian, here:

A University of Oregon therapist who counseled a woman allegedly gang-raped by three Ducks basketball players has filed a claim with a former colleague accusing the school of unlawful employment practices and violating their First Amendment rights.

In the tort-claim notice sent to the university Tuesday, senior staff therapist Jennifer Morlok and former UO Counseling Center staff member Karen Stokes accuse the school of discriminating and retaliating against them and wrongfully terminating Stokes.

Morlok and Stokes accuse UO Counseling Center managers of undermining their work, ignoring them to the detriment of patients and violating Stokes’ disability rights. The claim serves notice that they will seek damages in a forthcoming lawsuit, likely to be filed in federal court. …

President Schill has said he wants to put the alleged basketball rape and Gottfredson and Coltrane’ response to it behind us. But it seems like there’s a lot more truth that needs to come out first.

The job ad Shelly Kerr posted for a replacement for Karen Stokes is here. Here’s the email that triggered the trouble, and the tort claim notice to UO:

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