With a new federal lawsuit filed this week in Portland, more than 70 people have now alleged that they were abused by a doctor who worked in the medical clinic of Oregon’s largest youth prison for more than 40 years.
Eleven men sued the Oregon Youth Authority on Tuesday accusing Dr. Edward Gary Edwards of groping them during exams, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 73.
Edwards, who died in February at 87, worked at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility and was responsible for the intake exams of all boys, according to the suits.
The suits also allege that staff working at the Woodburn prison ignored complaints about Edwards and in some cases threatened to send youths to the doctor as punishment.
Edwards was dubbed “Dr. Cold Fingers” because he routinely groped boys with his ungloved hands, according to the suits.
Will Howell, a spokesperson for the Oregon Youth Authority, said the alleged abuse “is abhorrent, and the accusations do not reflect what thousands of trusted adults do each day to help OYA youth become crime-free adults.”
U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane has identified a magistrate judge to oversee potential settlement negotiations should either side seek to resolve their case before trial. He set Nov. 1, 2026, as the start of the first of what may be a consolidated trial or multiple separate trials.
The latest men to sue were in custody as boys at MacLaren from 2000 to 2017 and are now between ages 26 and 39.
The new suit claims one boy was as young as 14 when the abuse occurred. One reported the abuse to a female employee and another reported abuse to a security guard but both failed to intervene or alert others in the prison, the suit alleges.
Instead of taking steps to investigate the complaints, staff “would ridicule and humiliate” boys who spoke up, leading to bullying or assaults by other youth, the suit says.
One of the plaintiffs, identified as B.W.H., alleged Edwards threatened to send him to the “hole” — solitary confinement — if he reported that the doctor had tried to force him to touch the doctor’s genitals.
The suit alleges sexual battery by Edwards and negligence and civil rights violations by Oregon Youth Authority leaders.
At least one boy or a family member of that boy had reported alleged abuse by Edwards to Oregon State Police in 2007, but Edwards remained in his job at the youth prison “with unfettered access to youth” for another 10 years, Janci said. Janci said he believes state police did an investigation and his office is working to get ahold of it.
The latest suit also alleges a former MacLaren gym teacher, Susan Baumgartner, sexually abused a boy in 2001 and 2002 when he changed clothes in the bathroom for gym. She repeatedly ordered him to keep quiet and offered him chewing tobacco to make sure he didn’t report their encounters, the suit alleges.
According to the suit, Baumgartner was eventually removed from her job after two other boys “got into a fight over her,” the suit says. It alleges she later married a former MacLaren prisoner once he was released and moved with him to Arizona.
No charges were filed against her. Baumgartner, now 51, did not immediately return a phone message regarding the suit.
At this week’s status hearing in federal court on at least five other suits pending stemming from similar allegations involving Edwards, McShane asked lawyers to consider whether one large-scale liability trial is warranted to be followed by separate trials on potential damages, if liability is found.
He set a November 2026 date for the first trial to be held, and subsequent trials, if needed, will start the first Monday of every subsequent month “until we are done,” McShane said.
Janci, along with attorneys Paul C. Galm and Kendall M.H. Spinella, held a press conference Wednesday morning on the new suit they filed.
Galm said he was buoyed that the multiple suits representing at least five dozen alleged victims already had helped spur the convening of a Marion County grand jury in June to investigate the conditions and management of Oregon’s largest youth prison in the wake of the sexual abuse claims by former youth and a backlog of complaints that went unaddressed. The governor this year also appointed an independent youth advocate for teens and young adults in Oregon’s criminal justice system.
“These are things that don’t just happen necessarily on their own. They happen when these victims come forward and say their truth,” Galm said. “I take a lot of pride in these clients showing such courage.”
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