Video: Labor Commissioner Candidate Explains What He Did When Cops Raided His Home, Looking for Tenant’s Child Porn

Ogden explains his tenant's kiddie porn bust and why he let the man stay on in his house for 18 months.

Lou Ogden (photo: Rick Vodicka)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Tualatin Mayor Lou Ogden is running in the non-partisan primary for labor commissioner. Either he or his opponent, former House Majority Leader Val Hoyle (D-Eugene) will succeed incumbent Brad Avakian next year.

It's been a remarkably mean-spirited race. And part of that has to do with questions surrounding what happened in Ogden's home.

Ogden has been the mayor of Tualatin for 24 years, a remarkable achievement. But more unusual than his longevity in that position was a story that began in December 2008, when law enforcement officials seized computers from a man who was renting a room in Ogden's Tualatin home.

For 18 months after the seizure, The Oregonian reported, the man continued to live in Ogden's home, until he was arrested in June 2010 on child pornography charges. (He was eventually convicted and sentenced to six months in jail).

In a recent endorsement interview, Ogden explained the sequence of events and why he didn't boot the man, William Leverence, after police seized his computers.

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