New allegations surfaced Friday in a federal lawsuit against Umatilla police officials over their handling of child sexual abuse reports.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit was 13 years old in 2018, when she says a former Umatilla detective failed to investigate after a 34-year-old man video recorded himself raping her, then threatened and harrassed her family with the footage for years.
This week, the victim’s lawyer argued in amended court filings that the same police officer ignored another teenager’s sexual assault report in 2022.
Former Det. Sgt. Bill Wright has since left the department under unclear circumstances.
The complaint against him and other city officials states that in April 2022 a second minor female in Umatilla was sexually assaulted by an 18-year-old male, while they were both on a school-sanctioned trip to Houston.
When Wright was assigned to investigate the girl’s complaint, he put off meeting with her for two weeks, failed to interview witnesses, and misled the family about the investigation, the complaint states.
The lawsuit seeks more than $25 million in damages, and a jury trial over claims that Umatilla officials acted negligently and violated constitutional rights for equal protection and due process.
