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Students walk by the the UO's University Counseling & Testing Center, where a student known in court records as Jane Doe went for therapy after multiple alleged gang rapes by three Ducks basketball players on March 8, 2014. The Oregon State Bar and the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners are investigating six UO employees for alleged misconduct in the handling of the woman's therapy records, which were released on Dec. 10, 2014, to the UO General Counsel's Office.

(Mary Jane Schulte, for The Oregonian)

Six University of Oregon employees, including a vice president and the school's interim top lawyer, are under investigation for alleged misconduct in the handling of therapy records of a student who says she was gang-raped by three Ducks basketball players.

The Oregon State Bar is investigating complaints against interim general counsel Douglas Park and associate general counsel Samantha Hill. The Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners is investigating complaints against four people, including Robin Holmes, the university's vice president for student life, who is a licensed psychologist.

Jennifer Morlok, a senior staff therapist identified in legal correspondence as the clinician who counseled the woman, filed all the complaints. The state Bar can, among other possible penalties for misconduct, permanently disbar a lawyer for gross violations of professional-conduct rules. The psychologist's board can, in extreme cases of wrongdoing, revoke practitioners' licenses. Each organization can also dismiss cases or issue mild rebukes.

Despite knowing of the investigations, Acting Provost Frances Bronet appointed Holmes and another psychologist under investigation to a committee working on new confidentiality policies for university clinics. Holmes is scheduled to brief members of the university's Board of Trustees Friday about the counseling center and student health services.

The unidentified student, known in court documents only as Jane Doe, says she was raped multiple times on March 8, 2014, by three members of the UO men's basketball team. Eugene Police investigated, but the Lane County district attorney declined to prosecute for lack of sufficient evidence to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. The athletes were dismissed from the team and suspended from the university.

On Dec. 10, 2014, University Counseling & Testing Center director Shelly Kerr released Jane Doe's entire confidential file, including Morlok's therapy notes, to the General Counsel's Office without the student's permission. A month later, the student sued the university and basketball coach Dana Altman in U.S. District Court in Eugene on multiple grounds including the records release.

The university and Altman countersued the student, but dropped the claim after public outcry that generated renewed attention to the University of Oregon as national outrage grew concerning campus sexual assaults.

Morlok filed her complaints with the Bar and Psychologist Board in January. She said state law requires a clinician who sees licensed practitioners take actions that appear illegal or unethical to report them to regulators. She said she was shocked by the release of a client's entire file.

"It's the worst thing I could think of," Morlok said. "The last thing we want to release is the session notes, because those are the intimate details of the process a person is going through and sharing. We kind of want to guard those with our life."

Morlock still works at the counseling center, though she says she's suffered retaliation and ostracism in response to her complaints.

The Bar and Psychologist Board investigations represent just the latest, most localized fallout from the rape accusations and the subsequent handling of the accuser's files.

Oregon legislators are aiming to pass laws blocking release of college mental-health records. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., want to close any loopholes in federal privacy laws that could be used to justify such releases. University officials have tried to reassure students that the counseling center can be trusted.

But Kerr, Hill and psychologist Joseph DeWitz -- the counseling center's assistant director and clinical director, who is also under investigation -- recently rewrote the clinic's Confidentiality and Privacy Policy.

Jacqueline Swanson, a Portland lawyer experienced in representing sexual-assault survivors, performed a detailed comparison of the old and new policies for The Oregonian/Oregonlive. Swanson said the new policy is less transparent and "will only add to students' confusion regarding the exceptions to confidentiality applicable to their campus counseling records."

Compounding the confusion, Swanson also said the new policy is weaker than policies promised in a March 20 memo issued by Bronet. The acting provost wrote that no records would be accessed by anyone not involved in their care unless, for example, a student signed a written release or a court ordered release. But the new policy does not require written permission and says records may be released upon receipt of a subpoena.

Responding to Morlok's complaints, attorneys for all six of the UO employees being investigated say they did nothing wrong.

The Board of Psychologist Examiners received initial investigation results during a confidential meeting March 20, and voted to investigate further, according to documents obtained by The Oregonian/Oregonlive. The board is sending written questions to the four psychologists that must be answered within 30 days.

Robert Steringer, a lawyer hired by the university to represent the psychologists, said they did nothing that would violate the American Psychological Association's ethical principles and code of conduct, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Oregon laws.

"They believe that they certainly intended to comply with their ethical obligations and believe that they did so," Steringer said. He said he could not respond to specific accusations because of the confidential nature of Board of Psychologist Examiners proceedings.

The psychologist board is investigating whether, by releasing the student's records, clinic managers violated the American Psychological Association's code of conduct and ethical principles.

In the code's Standard 4, the association prohibits psychologists from disclosing confidential information without consent of patients only as mandated by law, or as permitted in instances such as protecting people from harm. In such cases, the code says, "disclosure is limited to the minimum that is necessary to achieve the purpose."

Steringer noted that John Clune, a Colorado lawyer representing Jane Doe, sent an Aug. 6, 2014, "litigation hold" letter to Park, the university's chief counsel, warning the institution to preserve all potentially relevant documents and digital information in anticipation of a lawsuit by the young woman.

"A litigation hold places an obligation on a university to take action to secure documents and to make sure they are preserved," Steringer said.

But Jennifer Middleton, a Eugene lawyer working with Clune on behalf of Jane Doe, said in an email to The Oregonian/Oregonlive that university lawyers did more than the standard litigation-hold letter and a preservation letter requested.

"It does not require custodians to turn their records over to the legal department," Middleton wrote. "It only requires custodians to ensure that records are not destroyed or changed."

The state Bar is investigating whether university lawyers Park and Hill violated professional rules of conduct by instructing Kerr to print a client's entire file and hand it over to the General Counsel Office without notifying Morlok or the student.

Morlok asked the Bar to decide whether UO lawyers engaged in "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" by asking for files without notifying her. She asked whether UO lawyers indirectly gave her legal advice by having Kerr tell her and other clinic staff members that everything they were doing was legal.

Morlok said confidentiality requirements prevent her from confirming or denying that she counseled Jane Doe. But Park's lawyer, Arden Olson, stated in a letter to the Bar, a public record obtained by The Oregonian/Oregonlive, that Morlok was Jane Doe's therapist.

Olson denied that Park gave Morlok advice, via Kerr or otherwise. Olson wrote that Clune's litigation-hold letter demanded university employees "produce" electronic copies of their relevant active files and ensure that all back-up materials were identified and stored in a safe place.

Therefore, Olson wrote, Hill asked Kerr to provide a copy of relevant counseling records. Kerr placed a hard copy of the records in a sealed envelope and hand-delivered them to the General Counsel's Office, where staff members digitized them, Olson wrote. Staff members placed the digitized copies in a secured file, and the hard copies in a locked drawer.

"To this day," Olson wrote the Bar, "the documents have not been reviewed by anyone in the General Counsel's Office."

Copying documents to preserve them is not illegal, Olson wrote.

Bradley Tellam, a lawyer representing Hill, told the Bar that the General Counsel's Office asked Kerr to provide a copy of the relevant counseling records to finalize their preservation and to prepare for anticipated litigation.

"Ms. Hill's request for the records was entirely appropriate and did not violate any state or federal law," Tellam wrote the Bar. Student consent was unnecessary, he wrote, because Hill was a "school official" with a legitimate interest in gathering and preserving the records.

Despite the investigations, top university officials have continued to place psychologists involved in the records-handling controversy in positions to influence how the university responds to such cases in the future.

Holmes and psychologist Brooks Morse -- the counseling center's associate director, who is also under Psychologist Board investigation -- are serving on a 10-person committee the provost created to recommend policies for the future handling of medical and psychological records on campus.

In an interview, Bronet defended the appointments of Robin Holmes and Brooks Morse.

"There's no question to me that Robin and Brooks are experts in those arenas," said Bronet, who announced this week that she's leaving Eugene for a position at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "These are allegations. My guess is that they'll be dismissed."

Kerr -- the campus clinic director and senior staff psychologist, who is also under Psychologist Board investigation -- is serving on a panel that will help select the university's next general counsel. Park is one of five finalists for the job, according to a May 1 report in the Daily Emerald student newspaper.

The Bar and Board of Psychologist Examiners inquiries could take weeks or months to reach resolutions.

On Thursday, UO senior communications director Julie Brown released a statement on behalf of the university, which said in part: "We are confident that the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners and the Oregon State Bar will clear the individuals of what we believe are false claims and accusations.

"The individuals involved are fully cooperating with the entities leading the inquiries," Brown wrote, "and continue to carry out their job responsibilities with honesty and professionalism for our students."

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