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A grand jury in Multnomah County has declined to indict former Urban Airship CEO Scott Kveton on allegations that he assaulted his ex-girlfriend.

(Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian)

A Multnomah County grand jury has declined to indict Portland tech entrepreneur Scott Kveton over a former girlfriend's claims that he sexually assaulted her, according to the attorney representing the woman.

While the grand jury's decision decides the criminal aspect of the woman's allegations, a civil case remains ongoing in Multnomah County. She sued Kveton last month seeking $3.3 million in damages.

Prosecutors didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kveton's lawyer, Portland criminal defense attorney Stephen Houze, faulted The Oregonian for reporting the woman's allegations while the police investigation was underway.

"Although exonerated by the grand jury, the salacious reporting of the unproved, and now rejected allegations, has caused great harm to Mr. Kveton and his family," Houze said in a written statement. "Out of a desire to rush to print a 'juicy story' before the criminal investigation had been completed and the matter was submitted to the grand jury, the slanted coverage strongly suggested his guilt to readers."

The Oregonian spent six months examining Kveton's relationship with the woman, ultimately reporting on multiple police and court reports and on a series of email and text exchanges between the woman and Kveton's account. The correspondences detailed a difficult, highly physical relationship and a series of breakdowns between them around the times of the alleged incidents.

The woman, who dated Kveton intermittently from 2008 into 2013, said that Kveton had assaulted her on multiple occasions beginning in 2010. She reported the accusations to police in Washington County in 2010 and 2011, and made fresh allegations to Portland police early in 2014.

Washington County prosecutors had previously declined prosecution, but Portland police conducted a fresh investigation this year. Kveton stepped down as chief executive of Portland mobile software startup Urban Airship, a company he helped found, earlier this year after The Oregonian reported the woman's allegations and the police investigation.

The Oregonian is not identifying the woman because she claims to be a victim of sexual assault.

As with all grand jury proceedings, the Kveton case was not open to the public. Scott Upham, the woman's attorney and a former Washington County district attorney, said he was concerned about what was presented to the grand jury and hopes to address some of his questions through the civil case.

"The civil suit will proceed," said Upham, admitting that still depends on whether his client is able to proceed after what he characterized as an emotionally trying police investigation and criminal court proceeding.

E-mails and other electronic correspondence the woman provided to The Oregonian and to Portland police indicate that she and Kveton had a difficult, on-and-off-again relationship. They broke up repeatedly and reunited, amid recriminations on both sides, before separating for good last year.

The allegations created an open wound in Oregon's tight-knit startup community, which is overwhelmingly male.

Some worried that the controversy around Kveton would overshadow broader concerns about the relatively small number of women working in tech, and about broader allegations of sexual harassment in the tech sector. Kveton was not accused of misconduct in the workplace.

-- Mike Rogoway and Laura Gunderson