Skip to main contentTerry Bean, the gay rights pioneer and Democratic activist, is opening his checkbook again.
A filing with the Oregon secretary of state shows that Bean gave the Multnomah County Democratic Central Committee $1,600 on Friday.
That check follows an earlier $5,000 donation last month from Bean to the same group.
The reason the contributions are noteworthy is because Bean has been in the hot seat lately. The Portland real estate investor was indicted last year on charges that he'd had sex with a 15-year-old boy in Lane County in 2013.
A Lane County judge dismissed the case on the scheduled trial date of Sept. 1 because the alleged victim refused to show up in court to testify. After dismissing the case, the judge revealed that Bean had earlier offered the alleged victim $225,000 if he'd agree to drop charges against Bean.
Bean denied wrongdoing throughout the case and after the dismissal said he'd been vindicated. "I was falsely accused and completely innocent of every accusation that was made," Bean said in a Sept. 1 statement.
Last Friday, as The Oregonian reported, another sex crimes case involving Bean came to an end. In that case, a Washington County jury found Kiah Lawson, a former boyfriend of Bean's and his co-defendant in Lane County, not guilty of charges that he'd had sex with an underage boy.
Bean's alleged actions were also at issue in the Washington County trial: Lawson's attorney alleged that Bean had engineered charges against Lawson. When Lawson's attorney questioned Bean about his role, The Oregonian reported, "Bean cited his Fifth Amendment rights in response to each question."
"The young man's family approached Terry," she says. "And he just wanted the case to go away."
WWeek 2015