Wednesday, May. 13, 1998

Judge Jelderks demands the parties convene

Magistrate Judge Jelderks, May 13, 1998:

A succession of incidents and disclosures during the preceding months has raised serious questions concerning both the physical security and scientific integrity of the human remains at issue in this action. Status reports submitted in accordance with an earlier order of this court have included allegations that:

(1) the remains were improperly stored;

(2) persons with an interest in the outcome of the case were permitted to visit the remains and even to handle them;

(3) the remains may have been contaminated with modern DNA that could compromise the sophisticated scientific tests that in all likelihood will be necessary in order to answer the questions previously posed to defendants by this court;

(5) some remains believed to be part of the same individual were kept in a box with animal bones and unrelated human remains;

(6) some of the remains at issue are now unaccounted for or were taken from defendants' custody and buried; and

(7) third parties have been permitted access to the storage facility and have been allowed to remove boxes of human remains without adequate controls.

The court views these allegations very seriously. The security of the skeletal remains and the storage conditions are especially important because it is very likely that some scientific analysis and testing of the remains will be necessary to adequately address the issues that have been raised in this case.

The court will conduct a hearing on Thursday, May 28, 1998, at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 12A of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, 1000 S.W. 3rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon, to review the adequacy of the present curation protocols. In addition to legal argument and affidavits, each party will have up to 30 minutes to present expert testimony.

It is so ordered.

Dated this 13th day of May, 1998.

John Jelderks

United States Magistrate Judge