Opinion ID: 4034251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Herring Litigation

Text: In late 2007, AMR transported a female patient, Herring, to a hospital. During Herring’s transport, Haszard placed his hand on Herring’s hand and shoved their hands down inside the front of her pants. Later at the hospital, Herring screamed to staff about the incident, which prompted a call to AMR. An employee of AMR’s spoke with Herring at the hospital and later called police to report that Herring wanted to make a complaint about ambulance staff. Cite as 360 Or 211 (2016) 215 Police responded and, as part of their investigation, discovered in their database a prior complaint about Haszard. Three days later, police arrested Haszard. The arrest resulted in publicity, which prompted other women to come forward and report similar incidents to the authorities. Haszard was eventually charged with various crimes and pled guilty to attempted first-degree sexual abuse as to four women. Not long after the Herring incident, Herring and a number of other former patients filed individual commonlaw battery and negligence actions against both Haszard and AMR. Herring eventually obtained a jury verdict in her favor. See Herring v. American Medical Response Northwest, 255 Or App 315, 327, 297 P3d 9 (2013) (affirming judgment), and the other former patients settled.