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Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr., who goes by Cleve, grew up in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. His father owns a hundred-year-old company that makes utility poles, and his mother was a homemaker who later became an interior decorator. He had two sisters, one of whom died young, of brain cancer. He attended the prestigious Lovett School, in north Atlanta, where nearly all his classmates were white, and where, a few of those classmates told me recently, the N-word was occasionally heard in the hallwaysmaking it depressingly similar, one said, to many schools in the area at the time. Meredith was an upbeat kid. One of his classmates, Dean Temple, who is now a stage actor, recalled a class trip to the U.S. Capitol. Most of the details were fuzzy, Temple said, but he could still recall the smile on Cleves face.

In high school, Meredith twice led Lovett to cross-country championships. He was so damn fast, he seemed to be on his own, a former teacher at Lovett told me, adding that Meredith set himself apart and above others. He was a popular and good-looking guy, Matt Arnett, whos now a music producer in Atlanta, said. A former family friend told me, He was about cars, running, and ego. He drove a Datsun 280ZX, and won the best car award in his senior year. He started a detailing business, Temple said, mainly so that he could drive fancy vehicles, and he painted flames down the side of the family station wagon. Patrick Brown, who became a lifelong friend, described a trip to the Grand Canyon during which Meredith, goofing off with other kids, slathered himself with ketchup and lay down in the middle of the road. The first people to pull up were the fucking game wardens, Brown said. I still have the citation. But that was Cleve. He loved to pull pranks. Brown went on, I dont see him as a violent person. Just a high-energy guy. Electric is the word Id use. Tries to suck the marrow out of life. He added, At the end of the day, I dont know if theres a joke element to it.

By it, Brown meant Merediths espousal, in the past decade, of extreme and increasingly paranoid right-wing views, including the set of wild delusions that circulate among those who believe in the QAnon conspiracy, which holds that many Democrats in Washington and Hollywood are satanists and pedophiles. Meredith has shared those views on Facebook and elsewhere; at times, there appeared to be an element of trolling involved. But he could also seem deadly serious. Last week, Meredith was one of the first thirteen people charged in connection with the violence that followed a rally on January 6th for Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. The next day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference calling on Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Meredith allegedly texted an acquaintance, Thinking about heading over to Pelosi CUNTs speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV. He appended the purple devil emoji. He allegedly had two firearms and thousands of rounds of ammo in his trailer.

Brown, who voted for Trump but said he didnt believe that thered been widespread election fraud and that theres no place for violence at any of these demonstrations, told me that hes still trying to make sense of it all. When we spoke, he was not yet aware that Meredith evidently never made it to the Capitol. Maybe he desecrated that place, Brown said, of his friend, and if he did Id beat the shit out of him. He went on, But if I was gonna go to battle and war for this country, I would want him on my side, next to me, in the trench. Hes a warrior, in a way.

Before graduating from Lovett, in 1986, Meredith served on the homecoming court, and he was active in vestry, a group connected with the schools chapel that did volunteer work and assisted in worship services. Always carrying that cross, the family friend told me. For his yearbook page, he chose a quote from Life in the Fast Lane, by the Eagles: Blowin and burnin, blinded by thirst, didnt see the stop sign, took a turn for the worst. After Lovett, he went to Sewanee, an Episcopal liberal-arts college in the hills of Tennessee. He had not been especially interested in politics in high school, and didnt seem to be at Sewanee, either, Arnett said. Its not exactly a bastion of militant conservatism, he added. I dont think he changed much there.

After college, he opened a car wash north of Atlanta. He got married and had two sons. He enjoyed driving Jet Skis and motorcycles and big trucks and trailers, Arnett said. I never got the impression that all that was funded by the car wash. I think he had family money. In recent years, Meredith raced Porsches and drove speedboats. He loved his toys, Brown said. On Facebook, Meredith posted pictures of those toys, and began sharing his opinions about the state of the country. After Barack Obama was elected President, those posts became exceptionally racist, a former classmate told me. She recalled one that referred to Obama as a porch monkeyshe added, of the slur, I thought that was of a vintage before my time. She unfollowed Meredith but still occasionally saw his posts. It seemed to her that he was disturbed by a world that had changed.

Temple thought so, too. I confronted him about his outspoken hatred of Muslims, he said. It struck him as a clichd, right-wing-media, knee-jerk take on the ills of the world. Meredith, to Temples surprise, responded with a seemingly open mind. I thought, Huh, that went well. But he really turned into a troll, and kind of a cult member, eventually.

Arnett, who tends to vote for Democrats, told me that his own Facebook page was a place where people from the right and left would debate. And Cleve was one of those people that would jump in with just the craziest, most outlandish things. One of Merediths recurring themes was that the Confederate flag represented heritage, not hate, he said. Meredith made a version of this argument after a white man named Dylann Roof killed nine members of a Black church in Charlestonat which point, Arnett said, he unfriended him. His posts just became so virulently racist and unmoored from fact, I drew the line, he said. Meredith was upset by the unfriending, and the two men had a long private exchange about it through Facebook. Honestly, Meredith wrote, I think the only way to solve these major issues and Im not talking about just racial/social issues, Im talking about the whole gamut (economic, military, debt, etc) is to flush everybody (both sides of course) out of Washington and start over... to hit the reset button.... Just not sure how we do that.

A few weeks before Meredith sent that message, Donald Trump announced that he was running for President. Meredith was thrilled. Somebody like Cleve was the perfect target for Trumps rhetoric, Arnett told me. Its much easier to understand why, perhaps, lower-income people would be susceptible to that talk, he added. But I think there are people of greater means, like Cleve, who see the way of life changing from white control of everything that has made them very comfortable. Meredith also enjoyed Trumps owning of the libs, Arnett said.

Though Meredith lost a few friends and followers on Facebook, he also gained new ones. Suleiman Fetrat, an Afghan-American former defense contractor, who has a degree in political science, is a few years older than Meredithold enough, he told me, to have been fooled by both sides. A mutual friend connected him with Meredith in late 2015, and Fetrat described to me a warm online relationship that transcended their divergent politics. (An ardent Bernie Sanders supporter, Fetrat sat out the 2016 election, then voted reluctantly for Joe Biden in 2020.) They never met in person, though, and Fetrat took notice of Merediths evolution with a degree of detachment, watching him parrot the Gateway Pundit, Trumps Twitter feed, Fox News, and, eventually, QAnon supportersand finding it all more fascinating than frightening. He took the red pill with the Q stuff, Fetrat said. I was grateful for that. My specialty is political ideology. I was an observer of this whole thing. Fetrat knew many Trump supporters, but Cleve was beyond that, he told me, adding, I hesitate to say this, but he and others like him are like the American Taliban. The difference, Fetrat believed, was that Merediths tough talk was, in his view, basically bluster. He enjoyed tweaking Meredith, and being his libtard pal. I dont think Cleve would ever hurt anybody, he said. Hes all nave braggadocio. Bark, no bite. He added, We always promised to meet each other. He would always say, When it all goes down, Ill protect your children. As much as we disagreed, he had my back.

In the spring of 2018, Meredith put up a billboard near his business, Car Nutz Car Wash, that read, simply, #QANON. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story about it; Meredith told the paper that he was a patriot among the millions who love this country. Then he put the hashtag on the car washs marquee. A real-estate appraiser named Chris got into an argument with him about it, and later wrote about the exchange in a private Facebook group. I told him that it is dumb to have the name of a batty insane organization flashing on their sign, that it drives away customers like me and makes them look like idiots, Chris wrote. Oh so you must be a Hillary supporter, Meredith said to him, according to Chriss account. I bet you are on welfare, and you are unemployed. Meredith continued to yell at me as other customers were in their cars in line, hearing all of it, Chris wrote. Soon afterward, Meredith began driving a blue two-door Saab decorated with a giant law-enforcement star bearing the name Donald Trump. He posted pictures of the vehicle on Facebook with the caption Theres a new Sheriff in town.

It was around this time that Meredith and his wife separated, and he moved from Cobb Countya once conservative area just north of Atlanta that has lately turned blueto Hiawassee, a small, deeply conservative town in the north Georgia mountains. (His ex-wife did not reply to an interview request.) Merediths parents had, at this point, become concerned enough about their son to call the Hiawassee Police Department to give them a heads-up. They wanted me to be aware of his involvement with Q, and the social-media posts hed been making, Paul Smith, Hiawassees chief of police, told me. (Merediths mother declined to comment for this story. His father could not be reached.) They described their son as a great person who had fallen from grace into far-right-extremist territory, Smith said, adding, They were letting me know that he seems like he could be dangerous and hes living in your city now. Merediths parents told Smith that they had communicated with the F.B.I., and the Hiawassee police passed along word to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Smith said that there was an investigation but that he didnt know the details.

In March, 2019, Meredith showed up at Lovett in his unmistakable Saab to protest an appearance by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, who was there to speak about current affairs. Fairly anodyne stuff, one of Merediths old classmates told me, of Meachams talk. But Meredith ended up skirmishing with campus security. It got kind of scuffly, the classmate said. Security escorted Meredith from the eventone classmate heard a rumor from friends that they took him to the OK Caf, which, until recently, prominently displayed a carving of the old Georgia flag. Whatd they do, this classmate speculated, laughing, go prop him under a Confederate flag for some fried chicken? Meredith was banned from Lovett after the incident. By March of last year, he was posting angry comments on his classs Facebook page. This was a page that has nothing to do with politics, the woman who unfollowed him told me. Meredith was posting things like, Democrats are idiots, theyre destroying America. Blah, blah, blah, she said. The page is devoted to who got married, who had a baby, who got a job! So it was weird.

After the coronavirus pandemic hit Georgia, Meredith became a strident opponent of mask-wearing, and his Facebook posts started earning him temporary suspensions from the platform. After his first suspension, Fetrat told me, He became more and more vitriolic, less willing to share where he got his info. Posting fewer links. He was also posting pictures of increasingly aggressive activity on his toys, Fetrat said: The last picture I saw on his Facebook feed, hed flipped a Bobcat front-end loader. At a certain point, you stop doing that kind of stupid thing. But he didnt. Hes immature.

In June, after George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, a group of Hiawassee residents held a demonstration in the town about police brutality. Meredith showed up in loafers and khaki shorts holding a IWI Tavor X95 rifle. Witnesses say that he held it up in a menacing way. The North Georgia News spoke to Meredith for a story about the demonstration; he told the paper that he was a fifth-generation Atlantan who supported America, freedom and President Donald Trump. As for the protest, he said, Its basically a political stunt done by the higher ups, just paying people to screw everything up. He added, I sincerely believe the New World Order, Cabal, Deep Statewhatever you want to call itwants society to devolve into a race war so that its much easier to take over. In August, after an Illinois teen-ager named Kyle Rittenhouse killed two protesters for racial justice and injured another with an AR-15-style rifle in Wisconsin, Meredith posted a photoshopped Robocop poster bearing Rittenhouses face and the tagline PART KID, PART COP, ALL PATRIOT.

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The Georgia Dad Who Said That He Wanted to Kill Nancy Pelosi - The New Yorker

When Congress convened on Wednesday to certify the results from each respective states electoral college votes, from the previous month, it was clear there would be contention among representatives on the upcoming votes, however, few could have anticipated the actions that were about to be taken.

The siege on the U.S. Capitol would result in the death of a police officer, a woman being shot and killed, as well as damage to the historical building and its artifacts.

As with the following of each presidential election, Congress began Wednesday with the historical and ceremonial process of accepting each states certificate of votes from their respective Electoral College convenings.

In Ohio, for example, appointed members met on Monday, December 14 under the direction of Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted to affirm the states vote for president.

Ohio is a winner-take-all state, which means whichever candidate for president wins the popular vote within the state becomes the recipient of all of its states electoral votes.

Two states, Maine and Nebraska, divide their Electoral College votes by districts allowing for proportional allocation of electorates in selecting who will ultimately become the next president and vice president of the country.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia pledge their electoral votes not on who wins the popular vote within their state, but who nationally wins the popular vote.

At the completion of the convenings on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December, electors sign and record their votes on six certificates.

One certificate is sent to the President of the Senate, two are sent to the U.S. Federal Archivist, two are sent by registered mail to their own states Secretary of State and one is sent to the Chief Judge of the closest United States District Court.

Each certificate, which was sent to the Senate, is the official set of documents seen Wednesday in which is used to officially certify who will become the new leaders of the Executive Branch of the United States come January 20.

Numerous Senators and Members of the House of Representatives had publically stated before Wednesday their intent to challenge certain states allocation of electors.

Local Muskingum County U.S. Congressman Troy Balderson (R) said he would not contest the vote while the countys other U.S. Congressman Bill Johnson (R) said he would.

Due to the drawing of districts following the 2010 U.S. Census, Muskingum County is split and residents, depending on where they live, have either one of the two aforementioned representatives.

Both of Ohios U.S. Senators, Rob Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D), made clear before Wednesday that neither of them would contest the vote.

While rare, and often lacking the necessary momentum to move forward, votes have been contested before such as in 2000 following issues within counties in Flordia having complications with hanging chads on voting cards.

In many cases, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives will object but lack a sponsoring Senator, which is required to allow further discussion on the topic.

In 2004, Democrats were able to delay the final certification process by objecting to Ohios selection of electors alleging numerous, serious election irregularities that led to an alleged significant disenfranchisement of voters.

That issue was overturned by a full vote of each chamber of Congress.

This year was different however in that while Democrats controlled the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate likely would have been split on partisan lines leaving Vice President Mike Pence in a precarious position to overturn the election.

Had that occurred on Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives would have chosen the next President and Vice President of the United States, however, each state would each only receive one vote, likely securing the next term for the incumbents, President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence.

The last time Congress selected a president was in 1877 soon after the Civil War.

As history would have it however while the certification process was ongoing individuals began to storm the U.S. Capitol.

During that siege, Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers were overrun as large groups broke past barriers and onto the Capitol steps before breaking windows and doors to gain access to the physical building.

One concerning sign of trouble, individuals chanting their intention to hang the Vice President on Capitol Grounds as they advanced, coincided with a noose and structure that had recently been constructed nearby.

Secret Service quickly extracted the Vice President and within the following minutes other congressional leaders, such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D), was taken away to a secure bunker under the Capitol Building.

Some members, including local representative Johnson, were unable to escape, forced to shelter in place as attackers got closer.

In an interview shortly after the incident, Johnson spoke on Fox News about his experience.

According to Johnson, during debate security came in and took Pelosi as well as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R) out of the House Chambers.

Soon after, security informed the representatives that the capitol had been breached and asked them to remain quiet.

Tear gas was being deployed in the Capitol rotunda and members were instructed to reach under their seats and retrieve masks.

The special CBRN Escape Hoods, designed to protect wearers from chemical, biological and radiological events was one of many security enhancements installed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In a photo retrieved by Y-City News, Johnson can be seen sitting on steps in the House Chamber holding his escape hood.

You could actually hear the beating on the door, said Johnson, who spent a large portion of his career in the U.S. Military.

Johnson elaborated to the host on Fox News that the door that was being attacked was the very one the President of the United States would enter through when coming to present the yearly State of the Union address.

Soon after members were also extracted from the chamber, while Johnson didnt disclose where he was taken, other members he was near reported being taken to an underground bunker beneath the Capitol building, which until that day had yet to been publically proven to even exist.

Both Balderson and Johnson issued public comments, like many of their colleagues, condemning the act of violence and destruction.

Balderson, who did not respond to a request for comment from Y-City News on his experience during the siege, said he was deeply disheartened by the violence that occurred.

While I am a firm believer in the First Amendment and Americans right to protest, what our nation has witnessed on Capitol Hill today is not protected by the First Amendment, said Balderson in a written statement. These behaviors are deeply un-American and threaten the very foundation of our Republic.

Following his statement, Balderson issued another letter Friday where he called for a full investigation into how the events Wednesday were allowed to transpire and request for assurances that they would never occur again.

Johnson, like Balderson, thanked the heroic actions of Capitol Police and gave their sympathies to the family of Officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed Wednesday.

Following the events Wednesday afternoon, Congress reconvened and finalized the certification of the election.

The siege caused many representatives who had previously said they would contest the election to cease their objections citing the need for a peaceful transition of power.

Johnson however continued to object to the certification of both Arizonas and Pennsylvanias certifications citing what he said he saw as an unconstitutional act in those states.

Further explained during his interview with Fox News, Johnson said his constituents felt their voices were being silenced by officials and judges in other states.

It was not about an attempt to overthrow or overturn the electoral college election, said Johnson. It was about bringing light to the fact that some states had violated their own constitution and that is wrong.

Citing Trump as the reason for the siege on the Capitol, almost every digital account held by the president was suspended or removed.

Most notably his Twitter account, which had the largest following, was one such account taken down, often the presidents chosen medium of communication.

Multiple members of his cabinet and staff resigned in protest, with the possibility of the invoking of the twenty-fifth amendment being enacted by the Vice President being alleged to be considered by Pence.

Sunday evening, Pelosi said the U.S. House of Representatives would move forward on Monday with a resolution giving Pence 24-hours to take control of the presidency.

If action is not taken, Pelosi said the House would move to impeach Trump by mid-week.

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Local leaders respond to siege on capitol - Y-City News

Over and over, he gave Trump cover and vouched for him with the evangelical voters who were a crucial part of Trumps governing coalition. He stayed when families were separated at the border and when the president pressured a foreign leader to find dirt on Biden. He stayed through the tweetstorms and tantrums and false claims of election fraud. He tends to seek approval from something bigger and more powerful than himself, Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister who prayed and read scripture with Pence when he was in Congress, told me. And in this case, its the president.

Read: A survival guide for the Trump White House

Embracing Trump was always a gamble. As Brendan Buck, a former House Republicanleadership aide, told me, There are no happy endings when it comes to Trump. In this partnership, the president got more out of the bargain. Pence comes away damaged, while Trump, at least, got a vice president who ran a functioning operation.

Pences office was a corner of the Trump administration that actually resembled a working executive office. His staff didnt turn over every three days. There was little public drama and, whatever you may think of his politics, a sense of mission. Career government officials with no love for the president told me that Pence was a fair intermediary whod listen to their arguments. Joseph Grogan, who left his job as the director of the White Houses Domestic Policy Council in the spring, said that when people ask him who they should call at the White House with a question or problem, he suggests Pences office. I tell them that thats the only place you can really go right now, because theyre still working, he said. Now that Trump is holed up in the White House nursing his grievances, Pence is, in some respects, stepping into the role of acting president. Yesterday, he went to the Capitol to thank the National Guard troops deployed to protect the building ahead of Inauguration Daythe sort of gesture a president would normally make.

Until the elections grisly aftermath, Trump seemed positioned to become a GOP kingmaker whod hold considerable sway over the political fortunes of any West Wing aspirants, including his vice president. (That is, if he himself didnt run in 2024.) Now the party faces a reckoning. Trumps inexcusable behavior likely blew himself up politically, which may become a huge gift to the Republican Party, said a former senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly. The official framed Pence as a casualty of Trumps recklessness. His recent treatment of Pence showed a complete lack of character. What Trump was imploring Pence to do by rejecting the elections certification was not legal and not constitutional Its ridiculous.

Yet Pence has no obvious place in GOP electoral politics even if his party repudiates Trump. Grateful though they might be that Pence honored the popular vote, independents and Never Trump Republicans have plenty of plausible alternatives when the 2024 primary season rolls around. Consistent and unapologetic critics of the president, such as Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, would most likely attract those voters. In the meantime, the Trump base is more likely to gravitate toward one of the presidents adult children, or maybe one of the two GOP senators who pushed to reject the electoral-vote count: Ted Cruz of Texas or Josh Hawley of Missouri. Pence was never a lock for the presidency, but now he simply has no lane left.

The hardest core of the Trump crowd is going to turn on himand Trump is going to make sure that they do, Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesperson, told me.

This week, Pence offered Trump one last act of service, rejecting House Speaker Nancy Pelosis call for him to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and bounce the president from office. But come January 20, hell be in the same position as he was after the Capitol riot: out in the cold.

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Mike Pence Has Nowhere to Go - The Atlantic

Item 1.01. Entry Into a Material Definitive Agreement.

On January 8, 2021 (the "Effective Date"), Good Times Restaurants Inc. (the"Company") and each of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, as guarantors, enteredinto a Fifth Amendment to Credit Agreement and Waiver (the "Amendment") withrespect to the Company's Credit Agreement with Cadence Bank, N.A., as lender("Cadence") entered into on September 8, 2016, as amended on September 11, 2017by the First Amendment to Credit Agreement (the "First Amendment"), as furtheramended on October 31, 2018 by the Second Amendment to Credit Agreement (the"Second Amendment"), as further amended on February 21, 2019 by the ThirdAmendment to Credit Agreement (the "Third Amendment"), and further amended onDecember 9, 2019 by the Fourth Amendment to Credit Amendment (the "FourthAmendment" and, together with the First Amendment, the Second Amendment and theThird Amendment, the "Credit Agreement").

The Amendment, among other things, modifies the Credit Agreement as follows: (a)extends the Maturity Date (as defined in the Credit Agreement) to January 31,2023; (b) provides that the commitments of the lenders will be reduced from$11,000,000 as of the Effective Date of the Amendment to: (i) $10,000,000 onMarch 31, 2021; and (ii) $8,000,000 on July 1, 2021; (c) provides that therequired Consolidated Leverage Ratio (as defined in the Credit Agreement) as ofthe end of any fiscal quarter is greater than 5.15 to 1.00; and (d) providesCadence's formal waiver of the event of default caused by the Company's failureto comply with the required Consolidated Leverage Ratio then in effect for thefiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020.

The forgoing description of the Amendment is qualified in its entirety byreference to the full text of the Amendment, a copy of which is filed in Exhibit10.1 to this current report on Form 8-K and is incorporated by reference herein.

The information contained in Item 1.01 regarding the Amendment is incorporatedby reference herein.

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

*Filed herewith

Edgar Online, source Glimpses

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GOOD TIMES RESTAURANTS INC. : Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, Creation of a Direct Financial Obligation or an Obligation under an...

A judge has denied a request by former West Linn Dr. David Farley to put a two-year hold on a civil case filed against him by 29 patients who allege he sexually abused them.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Melvin Oden-Orr noted in his ruling Monday that for some plaintiffs, 17 years have already passed. This consideration weighs heavily against granting the stay.

Four women initially filed a lawsuit against Farley and then another 25 women joined it last week. Together, the 29 women seek a total of $290 million in damages, alleging Farley performed unnecessary pelvic exams and engaged in sexual battery while they were in his care.

The Oregon Medical Board stripped Farley of his state medical license on Oct. 2 for dishonorable and unprofessional conduct and gross or repeated negligence. He remains under criminal investigation by West Linn police. A majority of the plaintiffs have made statements to police, according to their lawyers.

Karen OKasey, Farleys lawyer, argued that postponing the civil suit would protect Farleys Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the police investigation.

My client is facing a criminal investigation based on the same conduct, if not more, alleged by these same defendants, she told the court.

OKasey also argued that a delay wouldnt prejudice the women suing, noting the alleged conduct occurred five to 17 years ago.

But the judge found the arguments werent sufficient to grant a hold on the civil suit.

Citing case law, Oden-Orr wrote, Defendant has no absolute right not to be forced to choose between testifying in a civil matter and asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege.

Further, Oden-Orr said Farleys request isnt to simply delay a civil trail but also to delay gathering evidence in the case.

Farley can still protect himself by asserting his Fifth Amendment right when necessary, the judge wrote.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs told the court that theyve heard from dozens of other women who have come forward since the initial lawsuit was filed.

Allowing a stay in a civil matter whenever there is a pending criminal proceeding would render these civil cause of actions worthless and would deny victims of sexual assault the right to seek and obtain compensation for their pain and suffering, the plaintiffs lawyers wrote to the court.

The judge said he agreed, allowing the civil case to proceed.

Tom DAmore and John Manly, lawyers for the plaintiffs, said they have been contacted by more than 70 women who have reported alleged abuse by Farley.

Obtaining documents and testimony from Dr. Farley and those who worked with him at West Linn Medical Center, Legacy Meridian Park Hospital and Providence Health Services is crucial to hold those responsible for the pain and suffering of the young women we represent, DAmore and Manly said in a statement.

No criminal charges have been filed against Farley.

Farley moved to Idaho after leaving the West Linn Family Health Center and sending a retirement letter to his patients Aug. 12. He failed to mention he was under board investigation at the time.

As the civil case proceeds, Farley also is fighting to keep confidential the investigative records from the Oregon State Medical Board.

The plaintiffs lawyers had petitioned the Oregon attorney general to order the medical board to release its investigative records involving Farley. The attorney general ordered some released but not all. Farleys lawyers have argued in court papers that the records should remain confidential and are exempt under state law from public disclosure. Theyre seeking a temporary restraining order that would block the records release.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

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Lawsuit filed by 29 women can proceed against former West Linn doctor while criminal investigation continues, - OregonLive