[vendtalk] Former Oregon Commission for the Blind manager exonerated in misconduct probe, seeks records expungement, The Oregonian, August 26 2014

[Nightingale, Noel]

Link:
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/08/former_oregon_commission_for_t.html

Text:
Former Oregon Commission for the Blind manager exonerated in misconduct probe, seeks records expungement
By Bryan Denson | bdenson at oregonian.com<mailto:bdenson at oregonian.com>
August 26, 2014

Three years ago, the man who headed the Oregon Commission for the Blind's vendor programs - which supply public buildings with coffee carts, snack machines and cafeterias - fell under suspicion.

State auditors had found a problem in the record keeping of the commission's Business Enterprise Program, which was managed by Walter Reyes. He was placed on administrative leave on Aug. 1, 2011, pending an investigation.

Now it turns out that Reyes, who says he later negotiated a settlement to leave his job, had done nothing illegal. In fact, all he did was correct the date on a contract. For this, he fell under an Oregon State Police investigation, which found that Reyes committed no crime.

"I thought it was dead and done," Reyes told The Oregonian on Tuesday.

But the three-year-old allegations against Reyes resurfaced recently as he worked with a group writing a grant proposal for a program that helps children with autism. When someone Googled his name, up came an old story.

The Oregonian had carried a story about the cloud of suspicion around Reyes three years ago, which remained on www.oregonlive.com<http://www.oregonlive.com>.

Also, the state police report that exonerated him was still being held in a Multnomah County records room.

Reyes expects to file an affidavit this week to expunge that report and any mention of the allegations. He noted that he was never arrested, never charged with a crime.

"Bottom line is, I didn't do anything wrong," he said.

-- Bryan Denson