PORTLAND — A shelter volunteer has filed a $675,000 lawsuit against the Gospel Rescue Mission of Grants Pass, alleging it should have done more to protect her from an enraged man who wanted to see his wife and daughter.
The lawsuit and a police report from the 2013 incident say Toni Sue Burrows was pepper sprayed and beaten by Matt Cortez. A grand jury indicted Cortez on assault and other charges, and a warrant is out for his arrest.
The lawsuit filed this week in Grants Pass says the mission lacked adequate security and ignored Burrows’ request to establish a locking-of-doors procedure. It also contends that a man should have been the one to tell Cortez he couldn’t enter the shelter to see his wife and child.
“Some men, especially those prone to domestic violence, will not respect the rights and voices of women, but will listen to men,” wrote Burrows’ attorney, Kelly Andersen.
Mission executive director Ken Amelio did not immediately return a call for comment.
Police responded to the shelter Nov. 20, 2013, after getting a call that Cortez pepper sprayed a woman before leaving in a pickup.
Officer Robert Shaw wrote in his report that he found Burrows lying on the floor, holding her head. She told him that Cortez sprayed her face, then chased her into a back room, where he punched her, kicked her and pushed her into a sliding-glass door. Another witness corroborated her account.
Shaw asked Burrows to rate the pain from 1 to 10, with the low number meaning no pain. Burrows rated the glass-door slam an 8, the kicks an 8.5, the pepper spray a 9 and the punches an 8 or 9. She gave the last four punches to the face a 4.
Burrows initially said she didn’t need to be taken to a hospital. The pain increased during the interview and she decided to go, the officer wrote.
The lawsuit states Burrows lost consciousness because of the attack and suffered a torn rotator cuff, an ulnar nerve injury, a broken tooth, blurred vision, broken ribs, knee pain and burns and blisters from the pepper spray. She wants $175,000 for current and future medical bills, and up to $500,000 in non-economic damages.
Burrows also fears for her safety because Cortez remains on the loose, the lawsuit states.
Court records show a warrant was served on Cortez while he was in a Florida jail in May 2014, but he was released without being returned to Oregon.
“Due to Mr. Cortez’s medical conditions it was not feasible to transport him to the Josephine County Jail,” Deputy District Attorney Anne Marie Turner wrote in an affidavit seeking a new arrest warrant on Sept. 10, 2014. A judge signed the warrant the following day.
Turner on Thursday declined to provide more details about why Cortez was not extradited 18 months ago, saying it’s against policy to discuss open cases.
