Attorney Deanna Wray suspended, but questions remain
Why was she even involved in the Terry Bean sex abuse case?
Attorney Deanna Wray has agreed to a nine-month suspension of her law license, for her work helping to prevent the alleged teenage victim from testifying in the Terry Bean sexual abuse case, back in 2015.
The Lane County District Attorney considered but did not bring a criminal case against Wray for her witness tampering, which she accomplished in concert with now-disgraced former attorney Lori Deveny, and others.
But questions remain: Why was Wray even involved in that matter, and just how did she end up representing another potential witness, Dr. Glenn Strome?
Wray’s suspension was just announced in the Oregon State Bar’s monthly magazine. She violated various professional rules, but notably absent was any charge of misconduct related to the criminal act of witness tampering, or any charges involving fraud or deceit. She certainly negotiated away such damaging charges in exchange for her quick stipulation to lesser counts.
Except that it wasn’t quick. It took five years for her to concede to the February 2019 complaint. That Deveny’s criminal case was pending for some of that time is no excuse: Deveny has long since pleaded guilty, and is now a year into her incarceration.
Regardless, Wray and her friend Deveny’s conduct is inextricably linked, and but for the bravery of the then-minor victim of their misconduct, Deveny would likely not have been prosecuted at all, at least not by the state. It was the minor’s phone call to police in August 2018 that appears to have at least hastened Deveny’s downfall, if not outright caused it: She stole most of the settlement money Bean had paid him, and she stole it through forgery and fraud.
We now know that Deveny’s representation of the minor in the 2015 sex abuse case appears to have been fraudulently arranged by someone within — or with strong ties to — the Portland Police Bureau.
What we still do not know, though, is how Wray came to represent a different witness in the case, Dr. Glenn Strome.
According to a 2019 police report, Wray’s former assistant¹ told investigators that “Deveny got Ms. Wray involved in representing a witness in the Terry Bean case named Dr. Strome,” who apparently “knew Terry Bean’s preferences… for minors.” She also stated that “Deveny drafted either a declaration or an affidavit” for Dr. Strome, which was used “with the attempt to quash” a subpoena.
The police report included references to Wray’s invoices and file notes, which showed that she was also strategizing in July 2015 with Bean’s attorney, Derek Ashton, to prevent Dr. Strome’s testimony.
Unsurprisingly, there are no signs of any official investigation into the unseen hand maneuvering all these people — who have vastly conflicting interests — into each others’ lives. The fact that it is apparently still going on is of even greater concern.
¹ Wray’s legal assistant, Heather Coffey, also participated in the witness tampering scheme, and even accepted a check for $1,500 from Deveny for that work, which included hiding the minor at the Coffey family’s Pine Hollow cabin.
