NADADs

Oregon's Department of Justice has agreed to pay 300 thousand dollars to a Bend family, to settle their allegation the state acted improperly during a sexual abuse investigation. Questions about the state's handling of that investigation made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

In 2003, a child protective services worker walked into a Bend elementary school to interview a nine-year-girl without her parent's consent.  Authorities were concerned she might have been sexually abused by her father.  He was already under investigation for abusing another child. He eventually reached a plea deal in that case. Charges he abused his daughter were eventually dropped.

In the meantime, his daughter and her sister were placed in foster care.  The girl's mother filed the lawsuit.

Last year, the US Supreme Court weighed in the case - specifically on the legality of interviews conducted without parental consent. Without ruling on the constitutionality of such interviews, the court struck down an appeals court ruling that had effectively banned the practice.