In Whistleblower Lawsuit, Former Worker Alleges Multnomah County Housed Homeless Youngster in Motel Infested with Bedbugs

A former Multnomah County employee sued the county today on the grounds that he housed homeless families in a bedbug motel and then declined to renew his contract after reporting the matter to child protection services .

John Summerville, who filed the lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on May 26, worked last fall as a health and wellness specialist at the Portland Value Inn Motel, which the county used as a facility to isolate homeless families who tested positive for COVID-19.

Summerville emailed an investigator with Child Protective Services for the state on Sept. 15, reporting that a child and his mother had been isolated in a bed bug-infested motel room and the child had subsequently been ridden with insect bites. WW has checked the email. The subject line of the email was “Child Abuse”.

Summerville wrote in the September email to the investigator: “A guest who lives there with his child has been admitted to a bug-infested room. This kid had dozens of bites and when the staff asked to move the guest to another room we were told by the shelter management not to move them. And they had to stay in the same room until they were released and face ongoing physical suffering. “

Summerville continued, “I cannot condone or allow myself to participate in activities that injure a child. Not only were the child and the other guest exposed and suffered, this put any mandatory reporter at risk of losing the licenses and certifications they had acquired before going to work [the county]. ”

He emailed the county using the email he’d sent the investigator the day after.

Summerville tells WW the child was about 6 years old, and when he told the shelter manager about it, he was told that the mother and daughter must be protected in the room.

“The kid was bitten pretty badly and I told them the county wanted them to stay in this room, which is ridiculous because they are in isolation for 17 days and the bed bugs multiply during that time,” says Summerville. “They went out and did all their laundry and cleaned them to get rid of the bugs and I was hoping to move them to another room when they got back from cleaning and I think they stayed with a friend and tonight when you came back and were instructed to stay in the same room. “

Summerville tells WW that his contract with the county expired in October and that he was the only contractor out of hundreds that he knew his contract would not be renewed.

He said he later filed a report on the county termination of his employment with the Labor and Industry Bureau.

The lawsuit filed by Portland attorney Michael Fuller alleges that the county terminated Summerville’s employment in October, thus rejecting and discriminating against him for whistleblowing in the county by reporting her to a regulator.

“Multnomah County then acted and retaliated against Mr. Summerville on an excuse and terminated his employment on October 23, 2020 for reporting information he believed to be in violation of any state or federal law, regulation or regulation Prescriptive Representing Mr. Summerville lost wages and emotional damage and disrupted daily activities. In January 2021, Mr. Summerville served Multnomah County with a tort charge. He had previously reported the illegal child abuse to the child protection services and filed a complaint with the Office for Labor and Industry, ”the lawsuit said.

Fuller tells WW this is “one of the cleanest whistleblower cases I’ve seen from the email he sent,” and says, “We haven’t seen any justification from the county as to why they fired him.”

A county spokesman told WW that “Multnomah County is not addressing any ongoing litigation.”

Summerville is seeking no more than $ 45,760 in damages and a court order preventing the county from “engaging in the illegal practices leading to this complaint.”

He is also aiming for reintegration into the county.