OREGON: Judge Denies Settlement Offer To Alleged Victim Of Activist Terry Bean

An Oregon county judge has refused to allow HRC co-founder Terry Bean to make a financial settlement with the underage boy Bean and his former boyfriend are alleged to have hooked-up with on Grindr in 2013.

Bean, who lives in Portland and is a prominent political fundraiser, proposed a civil compromise that could result in the dismissal of the criminal charges. Had the request been granted, the criminal charges against Bean would have been dismissed. Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché said he was unaware of another child sex abuse case that has been settled by civil compromise. In Oregon, judges have discretion to accept or deny a civil compromise. In the Bean case, the alleged victim, now 17, supports the settlement and does not want to testify, said attorney Lori Deveny, who represents the boy. "He has been as vocal as he can be and his voice still isn't being heard," Deveny said. "There are certain social mores that we, as a society say, 'We are not going to let this happen,'" Zennaché said. "I think it's bad public policy ... (and bad) from a public safety perspective," Zennaché said.

The terms of the settlement offer were not disclosed.

RELATED: Ex-boyfriend Kiah Lawson was sentenced yesterday in an unrelated drug case.

Junction City resident Kiah Loy Lawson was placed on probation and issued a 20-day jail sentence after being convicted in Lane County Circuit Court of methamphetamine possession and supplying contraband, in connection with an arrest last year in Eugene. Lawson, 26, was given credit for time he has already served in jail and was expected to be promptly transported from Eugene to Washington County, where he faces sexual abuse allegations. That case is scheduled to be resolved before the Aug. 11 trial in Lane County set for both Lawson and Bean. They are charged with sexual abuse and sodomy for an alleged encounter with a 15-year-old boy in a Eugene hotel room in September 2013.