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Scott Kveton, center, in Urban Airship's offices in 2013. He stepped down from his CEO position with the company earlier this month after The Oregonian reported on sexual assault allegations made by a former girlfriend.
(Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian)
The complicated case involving national tech leader Scott Kveton and sexual assault allegations made by a former girlfriend grew more convoluted Wednesday morning when Portland Mayor Charlie Hales announced the case was going to be scheduled to go before a grand jury.
Hales' comments at a city council meeting came as the woman's attorney publicly berated the Portland Police Bureau and Multnomah County district attorney's office over their handling of sexual assault allegations the woman made in 2012.
Yet hours later, the mayor's spokesman said Hales "misspoke."
"Our office contacted the (Multnomah County) district attorney after the city council meeting and they are discussing it. They haven't scheduled it for grand jury," said spokesman Dana Haynes, adding that a staffer gave the mayor unclear notes. "It's still under consideration and it's not appropriate to comment on it."
Haynes said he doesn't know when a decision will be made on whether the case goes to a grand jury and that the mayor has no opinion on how the case has been handled.
Stephen Houze, a Portland criminal defense attorney who represents Kveton, called Hales' comments "completely inaccurate and reckless."
Kveton was co-founder and chief executive of Urban Airship, one of Portland's biggest and most prominent young tech companies. Urban Airship has gained a national clientele, and $46 million in venture capital, by enabling "push notification" on smartphone apps. Kveton stepped down earlier this month after The Oregonian reported that police were investigating allegations made by a former girlfriend.
The woman reported alleged incidents in Washington County in 2010 and 2011 and in Portland in 2012 and 2013. No charges were ever filed.
The Washington County district attorney is examining one of the cases that allegedly occurred in Beaverton in 2010 while Portland police and the Multnomah County district attorney's staff continue to investigate the Portland allegations.
During Wednesday's council meeting, Hales said he was told earlier in the morning that the "district attorney is about to schedule this case for the grand jury."
He went on to say the case was being taken seriously and that he was "sorry if this case and the process was slow and uncertain."
"That's not our intent," he said, adding that it "sounds like, for whatever reason, at long last this case is going before a grand jury."
Traci Anderson, the deputy district attorney overseeing the case, told The Oregonian later Wednesday that she hasn't finished reviewing the case and that the investigation isn't complete.
"I have much to review," she said, "hundreds of pages."
Upham, the woman's attorney, said he took on the woman's case late last year and wrote to Portland police asking why they hadn't acted after receiving her allegations in 2012.
Upham said his client reported two different attacks to the Washington County sheriff's office in 2012 – one allegedly in North Plains and another in Portland. Washington County then forwarded the information to Portland police. His client and her rape-victim advocate attempted to follow-up multiple times, he said, but never heard a word from Portland police, he said.
"They called and called," Upham told city council members. "But they were stonewalled and never received a response and so finally, each gave up."
Upham also said that he was told by an employee within the police chief's office this year that the bureau had no information on a 2012 accusation.
On Wednesday, however, Commander George Burke, who oversees Portland's detectives, said his agency first heard of the case in February 2012 after they were contacted by a representative of the Sexual Assault Research Center in Washington County.
Portland police searched for the case but didn't have it, Burke said. They requested reports from police in North Plains and Washington County and received them in March, he said. A detective later called Washington County for more information, Burke said, and the case was referred to Portland's sex crimes unit sergeant.
The case wasn't assigned to a detective after that and the file shows no communication either way between Portland police, the victim or her advocate, Burke said.
"Should we have looked at this two years ago? Yeah, I don't know what happened," Burke said. "But when Upham reached out to us recently, we jumped on it."
At Wednesday's council meeting, Upham slammed Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill and the mayor himself, both of whom he said had not responded to multiple emails he'd sent earlier this year about the case.
Hales said he planned to meet with his staff, the district attorney and police to discuss the case.
Upham, a former Washington County district attorney, says the case has moved too slowly over the past five months and that his client has been treated poorly.
"They all blame her – asking why it took her so long to make her allegations – but she made them back in 2012," he said. "Portland police just didn't do anything. They're leaving her twisting in the breeze."
-- Laura Gunderson and Mike Rogoway