Portland judge sanctions state in lawsuit over job opportunities for severely disabled Oregonians

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Oregon U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall, joined by Bob Joondeph, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon, announced in 2013 that the U.S. Department of Justice has joined a federal lawsuit that accuses Oregon of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

(Brent Wojhan/The Oregonian)

A federal judge has sanctioned Oregon officials for their glacial release of electronic records to disabled adults who accuse the state of failing to provide them better work opportunities.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart this week ordered the state to produce a vast trove of emails sought by, but not turned over to, plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Gov. Kate Brown and her administration.

Paula Lane sued then-Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2012 for allegedly segregating her and other disabled Oregonians in poorly paid positions in sheltered workshops instead of helping to integrate them in the general workforce. United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and SW Washington, later joined by the U.S. government, also sued.

But three years into the litigation, lawyers discovered that an information technology technician had failed to include the proper search terms while poring through hundreds of thousands of pages of emails by state education and human services officials. As a result, many weren't turned over.

"The volume of email that defendants failed to produce is significant and quite possibly unprecedented," lawyers for the disabled workers wrote in a court motion last month.

Stewart ordered the state on Wednesday to hand over documents - omitted in the standard exchange of discovery - by June 19.  She also ruled that the state must pay the fees and costs of lawyers representing the state's accusers if they are forced to take new depositions or reopen old ones because of the state's sloppiness.

Lawyers representing the state in the lawsuit did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment about the sanctions.

Oregon once was a leader in helping people with even the most severe disabilities get jobs in the general public and provide them with workplace supports and training. But in recent years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, many of those jobs shifted back to sheltered workshops, where workers are often paid pennies an hour for repetitive piecework jobs.

Two years ago, in response to the lawsuit, Kitzhaber announced plans to move more Oregonians with severe disabilities into the general workforce and gradually decrease state funding to the nonprofit workshops. But the measures didn't go far enough to satisfy those behind the lawsuit, who accuse the state of violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Stewart scheduled the case for a four-week trial beginning on Dec. 1.

-- Bryan Denson

503-294-7614; @Bryan_Denson

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