USDC (D. Oregon), Case No. 6:22-cv-00451
by Matt Clarke
On June 5, 2024, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) filed a notice of settlement in court indicating that it paid $135,000 to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit accusing a guard of intentionally allowing other prisoners into his cell so they could assault him.
In October 2020, Kevin Walls, 63, was returning to his cell in Unit 4 at Oregon State Correctional Institution after lunch, when he signaled guard Kevin Bowser to remotely open his cell door. Browser was the only guard on Unit 4 at that time and was charged with supervising its prisoners. He opened the door. But instead of closing it again immediately, as was customary, he left it open, allowing two or three other prisoners to enter the cell and violently assault Walls.
The beating lasted at least five minutes, Walls said. At one point during the assault, he tried to crawl to the cell door, and his assailants yelled, “Don’t let him get up! Don’t let him out!” and “Grab him!” After the beating, the assailants left, and Bowser remotely closed the cell door. Walls was left with injuries to his face, head and body, including internal injuries to his ribs that required medical attention.
Although the assault was noisy, neither Bowser nor any other DOC official intervened to stop it. The assailants also appeared unconcerned about being locked into the cell during the assault or any consequences for committing it, even though numerous other prisoners witnessed the beating. Furthermore, there had been numerous reports that Bowser helped prisoners commit assaults dating back as far as 2012.
With assistance from Portland attorneys J. Ashlee Albies and Maya Ring of Albies & Stark LLC, Walls sued the DOC, Bowser and other guards in the United States Court for the District of Oregon on June 30, 2022. Less than two years later, they were in settlement negotiations with the DOC, which resulted in an agreement on May 10, 2024. See: Walls v. State of Oregon Dep’t of Corr., USDC (D. Oregon), Case No. 6:22-cv-00943.
The state’s online database of employees returned no results to a search for Bowser in January 2025. But two more prisoners have also accused him of helping other prisoners assault them. Rickey Exe said that he was a European Kindred prison gang “dropout” in August 2020 when Bowser opened his cell while he was sleeping to let gang members enter and viciously beat him. Dustin Clark accused the guard of opening his cell to allow an attack by fellow prisoners the following month. A suit was filed making both claims with the aid of attorneys John D. Burgess and Carl L. Post of the Law Offices of Daniel Snyder in Portland. It remains pending, and PLN will report on developments as they are available. See: Exe v. Bowser, USDC (D. Oregon), Case No. 6:22-cv-00451.
Additional source: Oregon Live
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Related legal cases
Exe v. Bowser
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (D. Oregon), Case No. 6:22-cv-00451 |
| Level | District Court |
Walls v. State of Oregon Dep’t of Corr.
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (D. Oregon), Case No. 6:22-cv-00943 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |
| Damages | 135000.00 |