A federal judge has ordered Lincoln County to restore Commissioner Casey Miller’s full access to courthouse offices and other “rights and prerogatives of his office” by Friday following 30 minutes of oral arguments Wednesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken came on a request for a preliminary injunction by Miller and his attorneys as part of a whistleblower lawsuit he filed in March.
Lincoln County Commissioner Casey Miller had been prohibited since September 2024 from using offices in the Newport courthouse. (File photo)Aiken granted Miller’s request to force county officials to allow him to return to work in the courthouse, 18 months after he was barred from his office over allegations he bullied staff and released confidential personnel information.
Aiken did not rule on Miller’s request to order county counsel Kristin Yuille, acting administrator/human resources director David Collier and Commissioner Walter Chuck to stop obstructing him from putting items on the commission’s bi-monthly meeting agendas. Aiken said during the hearing that she needed more information about the commission’s agenda process before making a decision on that issue, according to the online Lincoln County News Source.
Aiken said a formal written opinion would follow.
The injunction request is part of a whistleblower lawsuit Miller filed in early March seeking unspecified damages over his ban from commission offices and retaliation for his complaint to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission about potentially illegal public meetings to vote on employee hirings.
Outside attorneys for the county said in April court filings and motions to dismiss the lawsuit that Miller’s injunction was a “political stunt completely devoid of merit.”
Miller read a statement on the ruling at the beginning of the commission’s bi-monthly meeting Thursday and said he plans to work with county administrators to implement the judge’s order.
“The court’s ruling affirms the ability of elected officials to fully perform the duties of their office on behalf of the public they serve,” he said.
A spokesman for Lincoln County said Thursday they had no statement on the judge’s order.
— Lincoln Chronicle staff
Such a waste of county time and funds going after Miller and then paying “outside” attorneys to try and defend and defeat this lawsuit. Such a sad state of affairs that the lawsuit was needed to be filed in the first place. Let’s hope that by January of next year the commission is back to being functional.