coffin's reMorse

Karen McCowan
Eugene Register Guard
June 25, 2009

An all-white federal jury deliberated a little more than an hour Wednesday before rejecting a young black man’s claims that a Eugene police officer violated his [Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment] civil rights by singling him out for questioning and a brief “pat-down” search as he left a local nightclub with [four] white friends [one of whom, Matthew Ruiz, was falling-down-drunk and had a warrant out for his arrest] five years ago.

The mostly middle-aged jury of four men and four women rejected all of Cortez Jordan’s claims in the $1 million civil lawsuit against officer Wayne Dorman and the city. Jordan claimed Dorman’s actions in the early morning hours of Sept. 4[5], 2004, violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution to equal protection under the law and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

Dorman denied stopping Jordan, now 30, because he was black. He said he decided to stop and search Jordan because he thought he might be carrying a concealed weapon.

Dorman and an off-duty corrections officer [Lane County Sheriff's Office "Deputy" Ryan Lane, a childhood friend of Mr. Dorman who was also named in the original lawsuit (05-cv-06164-TC) but who, along with Lane County, settled with the plaintiff for a currently unknown amount of money on February 13, 2006] riding with him that night both testified that they saw Jordan clutching his right hand to the waistband of his sweatsuit as he and four friends left the Tsunami nightclub. Both officers said they had been trained [in Boy Scouts, the "Explorer" program and in their training to be reserve (i.e., unpaid) Lane County Sheriff's Deputies] that such a mannerism could signal someone concealing a gun under baggy clothing.


Coffin’s ReMorse

THOMAS M. COFFIN, MAGISTRATE JUDGE
CHRISTY WEILER, COURTROOM DEPUTY
KRISTIE ANDERSON, COURTROOM RECORDER
CORTEZ JORDAN, PLAINTIFF
WAYNE DORMAN, DEFENDANT
CITY OF EUGENE, DEFENDANT
KEVIN LAFKY, COUNSEL for PLAINTIFF
JENS SCHMIDT, COUNSEL for DEFENDANTS
RYAN LANE, WITNESS for DEFENSE
CHRISTOPHER HENRY(?), CITY OF EUGENE EMPLOYEE/JUROR
COURT JESTER

Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse
405 East Eighth Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97401
Courtroom 4
June 23-24, 2009

Prologue

JESTER:
A play, a play.
A way to greet the day.
First thing we must do is
Go outside and play.

[GO OUTSIDE.]

The play, today
Pertains to yesterday
Our city won a trial
Woohoo hiphip hooray.

The city was on trial
Amendments were discussed
In Four and in Fourteen
Can we the people trust?