California has Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York has Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and here in Oregon we’ve got Dean Gushwa.
A low-roller compared to the other two, Gushwa was still in a position as Umatilla County DA to strut like a bull among his female subordinates, one of whom finally accused him of rape when the sex turned rough and frightening.
Powerful men abusing females is hardly news. What is surprising in this case is that the state’s largest newspaper is trying to explain away Gushwa’s sexual badgering. The paper even puts a price tag on it: If it’s going to cost six-figures to pursue charges, better not.
In its story this past weekend, The Oregonian introduced Gushwa’s ordeal as a “train wreck of a personal life … thrown into public view.” The newspaper explained his “partying” this way: “Newly divorced after years of marriage, Gushwa was enthusiastically single again. He was involved with three employees of his office, some at the same time.”
Reducing Gushwa’s behavior to a guy just feeling his oats sets the tone for the story, which ultimately concludes that squandering taxpayer money could have been avoided if only the men in the state’s Justice Department had allowed Gushwa to quietly save face.
Here’s what The Oregonian didn’t say:
- Gushwa, who was on paid leave for eight months while he was being investigated, could’ve saved Umatilla County taxpayers the cost of his salary by simply offering to resign (which he eventually did, rather than fight the charges).
- Gushwa invited the state Justice Department to bring in a replacement for him after he went on leave Aug. 26, 2010. In an e-mail to Sean Riddell, the lead prosecutor in the Justice Department, Gushwa wrote: “It has come to my attention that your office is engaged in an investigation of me. For the good of the county of Umatilla and the state of Oregon, I hereby request that during the tendency of your investigation that your agency appoint an office to serve in my stead. May your investigation reveal the truth.”
- Less than a year after Gushwa was elected DA (after running unopposed), he was so dedicated to the taxpayers of Umatilla County that he applied for a job with the state Justice Department, the very job that Riddell later got. If I know this, certainly The Oregonian’s reporters must know it. Instead they point a finger at Riddell and accuse him of not being “collegial” when he came to Umatilla County to pursue the truth that Gushwa wanted revealed. Imagine that. An investigation in which one prosecutor confronts another about sexual improprieties, and instead of snickering over it like guys used to, the meeting turned nasty.
- Confessed killer Kathleen Blankenship did not “walk free.” She served 10 years in prison for manslaughter after killing her husband. Her original sentence was not life; it was 25 years to life. Gushwa considered his prosecution of Blankenship his “big win.” Had he not screwed around in office, he would not have been on leave when her appeal came up. He might have been able to retain his big win. He’s the one who ultimately let the victim’s family down.
The Oregonian blames Riddell and his boss, Attorney General John Kroger for this mess – Riddell for being aggressive and Kroger for being ambitious.
The opposite of ambitious is indifferent, and indifference is part of Oregon’s laid-back ethos. “We Welcome Dreamers” is the state motto. Or to paraphrase former Gov. Tom McCall, “Realists visit, but please don’t stay.”
Indifference has long been the standard in handling complaints about guys like Gushwa, Schwarzenegger, DKS, ad infinitum. “For most of human history, men have treated women much as they pleased …,” says New York Times writer Benedict Carey.
The same week that The Oregonian was tallying up the cost of pursuing the case against Gushwa, a jury in New York acquitted two police officers of rape but found them guilty of official misconduct. That’s typical. Rape cases are notoriously difficult to win when there’s prior consent, as in Gushwa’s case, or the victim was too intoxicated to be credible, as in the New York case.
There are so many Dean Gushwa’s you can’t possibly go after all of them (think of the costs!). If you never go after any of them, or let them all quietly and privately move on, nothing will ever change.
By reducing the issue to dollar signs, The Oregonian has created the perfect lose-lose scenario: Had the Justice Department tried Gushwa and won, the paper could have added up the costs and suggested it would’ve been cheaper to settle out of court. Had the Justice Department lost the case, The Oregonian could have tallied up the cost and suggested the case should’ve never been brought.
No wonder the world is full of predatory males.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
I don’t trust anything the Oregonian says so I don’t care what they think of Kroger. It looks like he’s trying to make things happen and for this state, that’s a start.
The state motto — where did that come from? HIlarious and fits perfect. Most of our dreamers are stoned.
I think the state motto came from southern California and fairly recently at that. Or, perhaps it came from the suburbs of Cincinnati or where ever creatives are to be found.
The Oregonian is a dishonest, lazy and hypocritical newspaper, that much is true.
This is a difficult essay to address. Two points I’ll offer – My estimate is that this sort of bullying and exploitative behavior is to become more common among women as they gain positions of power.
My experience w/women supervisors is that it is not the world made new.
Just recalled the Minneapolis fire chief a couple years back.
Second, Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton engaged (or engage) in variations of this sort of conduct and it goes (went) pretty much unremarked for much of Bill’s and all of Ted’s life. They enjoyed a happy conspiracy of complicity between papers like the Oregonian, Washington Post, and etc. and most women’s groups.
Well, Clinton was impeached (and Hillary, in her own way, has had her revenge. She became someone in her own right). But you are absolutely correct about Ted Kennedy. The media were besotted on him, and women’s groups were not much better. I feel no sympathy for Maria Shriver. When she defended her husband during his first race for governor and asked voters, “Who are you going to trust — me or someone who has known him for 15 seconds” (paraphrasing there), I remember thinking, “You’re a Kennedy wife. You are either willfully ignorant or blissfully ignorant.” Too bad Dominique Dunne didn’t live long enough to see this latest farce.
As a former reporter and editor, it embarrasses me when the media suck up to men like Kennedy.
Regarding the Oregon state motto: “We Love Dreamers” was endorsed by Kulongoski in 2003, after he solicited ideas from Wieden + Kennedy. Before that the motto was “She Flies With Her Own Wings.” I guess that didn’t work anymore. The state had been grounded, so to speak.
Pamela
The Gushwa story is not over. As his office played patty cake, and in the upheaval that followed, Arrested a fugitive on charges from Hawaii. He sat in jail until Gushwa (now in private practice)helped a criminal bail out. This criminal had taken a 15yr old from her mother that he had just beaten, took her on a 10 yr 10 state spree and impregnated her. A neighbor, who help the girl escape with the now 5 yr old child was just murdered at the end of December.