DEREK & ME

On February 2, 1982 the Federal Class Action lawsuit titled D.B. vs Tewksbury went to trial in downtown Portland, Oregon in the Gus Solomon Federal Courthouse.

The lead plaintiff of the five youngsters involved was 16-year-old Derek Bennett (to which the D.B. in the case's title, D.B. vs Tewksbury, stands for). 

For years (perhaps decades) children had been abused in the jail in the small town of St. Helens, Oregon in Columbia County. When two enterprising young lawyers, Susan M. Svetkey and David B. Hatton, got wind of this travesty, they brought the Federal Class Action case under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution to put a stop to this intentional abuse of children and their legal rights.

In an effort to muzzle the main plaintiff, the Sheriff of this small community wanted to put Derek in the state's home for dangerous juvenile criminals until such time as Derek would turn eighteen or twenty-one years of age.

The reason Derek, one of the kindest kids ever, had wound up in the Columbia County jail was not for any criminal behavior at all. But rather because, at the age of fourteen, he had run away from home. 

It is the law of the State of Oregon that if arrested (for any reason), juveniles must not be placed in a jail facility where they have, either by sight or sound or both, any interaction with adult inmates. But in Columbia County, Oregon there was but one jail. And so, in direct violation of Oregon State Law, fourteen-year-old Derek was placed in a cell right next to an adult inmate.  Here, in the dead of night, in a cell with no windows and nothing but a single lightbulb, young Derek witnessed the adult inmate in the adjacent cell make a suicide attempt by breaking his lightbulb and slashing his wrists.

When young Derek screamed for help, the callous guard, with no respect for a child in distress, told Derek that if he did not shut up he would be beaten and put in isolation.

Knowing that against this background young Derek's testimony in D.B. vs Tewksbury alone could be so damaging, Sheriff Tom Tennant began a campaign to put Derek away for as long as he could in order to undermine the Federal case.

To escape the fate the Sheriff had in mind and determined to be the major part of this case, on Thanksgiving day of 1981, Derek, just turned 16, ran away from St. Helens to Portland and the safety of his 25-year-old friend of seven years, Christian Seaborn. Figuring that the only solution was to become Derek's legal guardian, much to the dismay of Columbia County and their plans for Derek, Christian petitioned and was awarded legal guardianship of Derek. It was now Christian's call, as Derek's legal guardian, if the boy should testify in a trial-of-the-century (in terms of juvenile rights and protections).

It is against this background that is the story of the true landmark case of D.B. vs Tewksbury in the live action short film, DEREK & ME. The emotional and breathtaking courtroom drama of a boy who took on the system of abuse of children in a small Oregon town. A decision that 42 years later is lauded on the internet for changing for the better the lives of youngsters not merely in Oregon but, as a Federal case, for millions of youngers across the United States.