Complaint against governor dismissed

PORTLAND – A formal misconduct complaint against Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski has been rejected by the Oregon State Bar.

The bar was asked to investigate whether Kulongoski lied when he said he knew nothing about former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl while Goldschmidt was Portland mayor.

The complaint was made by conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson and Newberg resident James Johnson.

But the letter, first reported by the Oregonian newspaper on www.oregonlive.com, found that there was not enough evidence of professional misconduct by Kulongoski.

The complaint stemmed from statements by former Goldschmidt speech writer Fred Leonhardt that he told Kulongoski about the abuse during a party in 1994, while Kulongoski was Oregon attorney general. Leonhardt said he discussed the matter with Kulongoski on several later occasions.

Kulongoski said he never heard of the abuse until Goldschmidt admitted to it just before news reports in May 2004.

“Mr. Leonhardt and Gov. Kulongoski have differing recollections of events that occurred more than a decade ago,” wrote Chris Mullmann, the bar’s assistant general counsel. “I find that both Mr. Leonhardt and Gov. Kulongoski are credible in their recollections.”

A spokeswoman for Kulongoski said the governor would have no comment and that the bar’s letter is “very clear, and there’s not much to add to it.”

Larson and Johnson can petition the bar’s general counsel to review Mullmann’s decision. They must make that request before Jan. 11. Larson told the Oregonian late Friday night that he will appeal the decision.

“To come to the conclusion that you have two stories that contradict each other – but that they are both credible – is absurd,” Larson told the newspaper.

“They don’t want to look into this any deeper. The thing that they should do if they found that both stories have credibility is they should go on to find out what the truth is.”