Solved: The Mystery of the Federal Marshals Appearing in Gov. Kate Brown's Office

Speculation has been rampant in the Capitol today about U.S. marshals who visited Gov. Kate Brown's office yesterday.

Could the visit have some connection to the pending federal investigation of former Gov. John Kitzhaber and first lady Cylvia Hayes?

Or might it concern the visit to Oregon on Wednesday and Thursday of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch?

Although Lynch has not said she would visit the Oregon Capitol, recent protests over pending legislation showed the building, where the governor has her office, boasts lax security.

It turns out the answer is far less interesting.

A Canby resident named Raymond Baldwin went to the Clackamas County recorder's office on Nov. 10, 2015, and attempted to file papers that he refers to as "constructive notices."

In a federal lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Jan. 26, 2015, Baldwin, who is acting as his own lawyer in the case and calls himself "private attorney general," explains that clerks would not file his papers.

"This assistant clerk (Jane Doe) was confused, stating there is no court order and that she has never seen such documents before or entered such," Baldwin writes in his lawsuit.

The marshals who entered the Capitol yesterday, causing much excitement, were merely filing notice of the lawsuit on Brown, whom Baldwin named as defendant.

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