PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered a state agency Tuesday to drop its lawsuit against a newspaper that sought public records about a man charged in the kidnapping and killing of his ex-wife.
The records pertain to Anthony Montwheeler, who was discharged from the state mental hospital in December after telling the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board that he faked mental illness for 20 years to stay out of prison following the 1996 kidnapping of his first wife and son.
Montwheeler, 49, is now charged with murder after police say he killed a different ex-wife in January after kidnapping her in Idaho. He then collided head-on with a vehicle while fleeing police in Oregon, killing the driver.
The Malheur Enterprise, a weekly paper based in Vale, Oregon, broke the story of Montwheeler’s ruse last month and sought additional public records about the board’s decision to release him, including risk assessments made by staff at Oregon State Hospital.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum had ordered the review board to release the records. The board disagreed with Rosenblum’s order and, because of a quirk in state law, sued the newspaper to block the release.
The governor cited the “extraordinary circumstances” of the Montwheeler case in telling the review board to drop the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon.
“This issue highlights improvements that need to be made to the public records law when it comes to getting a legal determination from a court when the law is ambiguous,” Brown said. “An agency that has legal concerns about an Attorney General’s order is currently forced under state law to sue the requestor. This is plain wrong.”
Jim Mountain, the attorney for the review board, declined comment on the case. The now-dropped lawsuit said releasing the documents would violate Montwheeler’s medical-privacy rights.
Les Zaitz, who publishes the Malheur Enterprise and wrote the article, said he expects to have the records by Tuesday night.
“It’s a victory for public records. But frankly it’s more about the right of people to know what their government is doing,” he said. “This is such a grievous case; there are so many questions.”
A Malheur County grand jury indicted Montwheeler on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and assault.
The incident unfolded in Weiser, Idaho, where ex-wife Annita Harmon’s car was found abandoned in the middle of the road. Later, across the state line in Ontario, Oregon, a convenience store clerk reported that a woman in a pickup had been kidnapped and was being stabbed.
During the ensuing police chase, Montwheeler’s Dodge pickup crossed a centerline and collided with a SUV, killing a 38-year-old man.
A month earlier, Montwheeler told the review board he faked mental illness in the 1990s because going to the state hospital and, later, outpatient treatment was better than the prison term he would have otherwise received.
“And all I got to do is make myself sound like I’m crazy. And that’s the route I took,” Montwheeler testified, according to the Malheur Enterprise, which obtained a recording of the December 2016 hearing.
Montwheeler, who was injured in the crash, is scheduled to enter a plea April 17. His attorney, David Falls, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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