Skip to main content
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state.
Thirteen former Oregon Youth Authority staff have submitted sworn statements describing years of sexual abuse by a longtime agency physician and accusing OYA leaders of knowing about the abuse and doing nothing to stop it.
The statements by doctors, nurses and other staff with direct knowledge of the matter were filed in July and are reported here for the first time. Together, they add fresh weight to a group of pending lawsuits alleging Dr. Edward Gary Edwards sexually abused young men in his care from 2000 to 2017.
The Oregonian first reported on the lawsuits last year. What is new is substantial evidence of a cover-up, which comes as the state heads into mediation for the first Edwards case at the end of this month.
It’s an inopportune time for the state to try to settle what could be very expensive litigation, given that last month the state agreed to pay an Oregon-record $49 million settlement to state prison inmates harmed by COVID. That settlement was so large the state had to defer most of the payout because its self-insurance fund is effectively out of money.
In the pending Oregon Youth Authority cases, several groups of plaintiffs in different lawsuits (totaling at least 125 former youths in custody) allege that Edwards, the longtime chief medical officer at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility, sexually abused them, causing lasting trauma. (OYA runs Oregon’s juvenile corrections system, which currently houses about 830 youth. MacLaren, located in Woodburn, is by far the largest of OYA’s nine facilities.)
Debbi Martin, spokeswoman for the agency, said in a statement the claims are regrettable.
“The alleged conduct is abhorrent and fundamentally inconsistent with what OYA stands for,” Martin said. “While we cannot discuss the specific allegations because this matter is pending litigation, Oregonians can expect OYA to take concerns seriously, foster a culture where people speak up, and intervene before harm occurs.”
The 13 new filings go beyond the original lawsuits, however, and show for the first time that MacLaren and OYA leaders had direct knowledge of Dr. Edwards’ predatory behavior. In their statements, former staff said Edwards’ conduct deviated from medical norms and that top OYA decision makers were repeatedly notified of the abuse but failed to stop it.
That failure came, according to the newly filed statements, despite hundreds of written grievances from victims and staff complaints referred to the agency’s professional standards unit, the Oregon State Police, the Oregon Department of Human Services, and the Oregon Medical Board, among other places.
“The sexual abuse of plaintiffs occurred roughly between approximately 2000 and 2017 and included skin-on-skin fondling and groping of plaintiffs’ testicles and penises, digital penetration, masturbation and oral sex—all for Dr. Edwards’ sexual gratification,” says a July 27 amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on behalf of 11 of the plaintiffs. (Edwards died in February 2025.)
Erin Olson, a Portland lawyer who has represented sex abuse victims for decades and has successfully sued OYA in the past, said it’s unusual for so many insiders to file statements in support of sex abuse victims.
“I’m shocked,” said Olson, who is not involved in the current cases. “It’s very uncommon and may be unprecedented in terms of abuse cases against the state.”
Despite the allegedly widespread knowledge of Edwards’ conduct, the lawsuit and supporting statements allege his abuse of young men proceeded without interference until his retirement in 2017.
“No OYA director, MacLaren superintendent, or other supervisor conducted any additional investigation or took any corrective or disciplinary action towards Dr. Edwards,” said the lawsuit filed by the Portland firms Crew Janci and Galm Law.
An amended complaint in the lawsuit filed July 27 describes numerous incidents of abuse in testicular examinations during intake and routine medical care. Edwards allegedly used intake exams to place his bare hands on the genitals and anuses of young men and also did so during treatment for unrelated health issues.
A former OYA clinical psychologist, Orin Bolstad, said in a statement filed in July that youths called Edwards “Dr. Cold Fingers” because “the youths did not like Dr. Edwards practicing what Edwards characterized as ‘prostate exams’ on the youth (i.e., penetrating their anuses with his fingers without gloves).”
Bolstad added that Edwards defended the practice in a conversation, saying “he believed he would have a more accurate ‘reading’ of a boy’s prostate with his fingertips than he would if his fingertips were covered with gloves.”
A former OYA physician, Dr. Michael Puerini, said in his statement there would be no medical justification for performing rectal exams of young men absent specific symptoms. Puerini said he might have conducted one or two such exams in a dozen years: “Digital rectal exams certainly were not routine.”
A former OYA nurse said the agency allowed Edwards to continue the abuse because it was expedient.
“Despite the many grievances against Dr. Edwards, OYA never fired or disciplined Dr. Edwards because he was the chief medical officer for juveniles and he was inexpensive,” said Jeffrey Lynn Anderson, a former OYA nurse, in a sworn statement.
A couple of high-profile settlements provide context for what the state faces. Last year, Los Angeles County agreed to pay $4.8 billion to about 11,400 people who alleged they were abused in juvenile custody. And in 2021, various organizations, led by Michigan State University, agreed to pay $1 billion to about 500 victims of a single predatory doctor, Larry Nassar.
As OJP has previously reported, the state of Oregon is largely self-insured against liabilities for its employees’ misbehavior. Settlements have grown larger in recent years, leaving the state’s self-insurance fund effectively out of money—so broke, in fact, that the state had to defer payment of most of the $49 million settlement it agreed to with Department of Corrections inmates.
Total payouts jumped from $134 million in the 2019–21 biennium to $330 million in 2023–25, a 146% increase. Although the Legislature’s policy is to keep an amount equal to 70% of anticipated liabilities on hand, state figures show the funding percentage is now close to zero.
Of course, the OYA case is far from over. Chief U.S. District Judge Michael McShane set the different groups of plaintiffs for trial in the OYA cases, with the first group, represented by Crew Janci and Galm Law, set for Nov. 2. The parties will enter mediation on that case later this month. If the mediation is unsuccessful, the trial will proceed.
The Oregon Department of Justice represents OYA in the cases.
“The personal stories and the allegations about OYA during Dr. Edwards’ time are heartbreaking,” said DOJ spokeswoman Jenny Hansson. “It takes very real courage for victims and witnesses to come forward to describe their experiences, even years after the alleged abuses took place.”
Perhaps the most prominent individual named in the lawsuits is Fariborz Pakseresht, who ran OYA from 2012 to 2017. Pakseresht went on to lead the Oregon Department of Human Services until his retirement last year.
Last month, however, Gov. Tina Kotek called Pakseresht out of retirement to serve as interim director of the state’s largest agency, the Oregon Health Authority.
Michelle Burrows, a lawyer who has regularly represented sex abuse victims, said that’s a puzzling decision given that Pakseresht is a defendant in the OYA lawsuits. “Didn’t anybody do any research or investigation or think about this?” Burrows asked. “It’s an inexcusable decision. It’s fucking stupid.”
Through an OHA spokesman, Pakseresht declined to comment.
OJP asked Kotek’s office whether the governor knew Pakseresht was a defendant in the OYA lawsuit when she placed him in charge of her largest agency.
“Given that this is a matter of pending litigation, the governor is unable to comment,” said spokesman Luke Harkins, who added, “We do think it’s worth noting that there are others named in the lawsuit.”
