Oregon DHS employee charged with kidnapping woman, depriving her of her rights
An Oregon Department of Human Services employee has been charged by a federal grand jury with kidnapping a woman in his care and depriving her of rights.
The employee also faces charges in Marion County, including rape, sexual abuse and kidnapping.
According to the federal indictment, Zakary Glover, 28, of Lebanon, allegedly drove a woman with severe cognitive disabilities to a remote, dead-end road in Aumsville and "engaged in sexual misconduct."
A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Portland returned the indictment of Glover Feb. 17, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Oregon.
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Glover was a crisis support specialist for the department's Stabilization and Crisis Unit, which operates 24-hour residential care programs throughout western Oregon. According to DHS, Glover had worked for the state since Feb. 5, 2018 and was employed through Jan. 20.
He underwent a criminal background check, as all DHS employees are required to do, spokesperson Tom Mayhall Rastrelli said.
In early December, Glover was indicted by a Marion County grand jury on four counts: rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping and official misconduct, court records show.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Marion County DA's office confirmed that the more recent federal charges correspond to the same woman referenced in the county indictment.
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The Stabilization and Crisis Unit program serves about 100 people, providing services that span from "intense crisis-level support needs to lower levels of care," according to DHS.
The woman involved has severe autism and "communicated mostly through the use of pictures, videos and drawings," according to the indictment.
Mayhall Rastrelli said the agency, the agency's office of developmental disabilities services and the Stabilization and Crisis Unit, "condemn all acts of abuse and take all allegations of abuse seriously."
On Nov. 12, unit leadership "learned about an incident of alleged sexual assault perpetrated by Mr. Glover on Nov. 2, 2021," Mayhall Rastrelli said.
They "immediately reported the alleged incident to the Office of Training, Investigations and Safety (OTIS), state police and ODHS Human Resources (HR). Management immediately coordinated with HR to put Mr. Glover on unpaid administrative leave. ODDS and SACU are cooperating with law enforcement and the Marion County District Attorney."
Claire Withycombe is a reporter at the Statesman Journal. Contact her at cwithycombe@statesmanjournal.com, 503-910-3821 or follow on Twitter @kcwithycombe.
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This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: DHS employee charged kidnapping woman, depriving her rights
