My Life as an Immigrant in Portland, Oregon. And My Journey to Find Justice

Hi, I’m Ela Howard. I was born and raised in Poland, Europe. I moved to Portland, Oregon, USA, in 1996.  As of today, June 2017, I still live in Portland area.

Below is the text of the lawsuit I filed against my former employer Cascadia Behavioral Health.  Cascadia didn’t respond to my lawsuit.  In the court of law, when the defendant doesn’t respond, it means a “default.” At this point the plaintiff files a motion for the court to “enter a default” and then the judge rules on behalf of the plaintiff.  I filed a motion asking the court to enter a default.  The procedure is that the court MUST DO IT.  But the Portland court ignored my motion. The court dismissed my case.  I “have no rights at all.”  Just like in the “Alien Boy/Alien Girl” song.

“Alien Boy” is a pseudo-documentary co-produced by Cascadia about a brutal killing of James Chasse on September 17, 2006, on the anniversary day of the American Constitution. For years, James Chasse’s death was used by Portland provocateurs to build tension between the community and the police and to stage terror and civil unrest.  

On September 17, 2006, James Chasse was walking from church. A Portland Transit Police officer and a  Sheriff’s deputy, who normally don’t patrol the streets, followed him for several blocks, threw him to the ground and subsequently caused him injuries compared to him being in a high-speed car crash. Bits and pieces of information about his death were released, including a horrifying footage from jail, showing James Chasse being dragged into jail cell, and talking, asking for water, then, minutes later, being dragged out, howling in pain.  The footage from the jail cell was not released to the public. As it turned out, press releases, legal documents from the grand jury hearing, the three civil and one federal lawsuits were greatly twisted, forged and/or selectively edited.  Cascadia, who had been paid for delivering care to James Chasse, is barely mentioned and was not held responsible. The disturbing information produced during these proceedings was and is continuously fed to the public, fueling the provocation.

Seven years after the death of James Chasse, Cascadia, a “mental health advocate” Jason Renaud, the filmmakers Brian Lindstrom and his famous wife Cheryl Strayed released the film “Alien Boy, the Life and Death of James Chasse.” The film is a compilation of twisted, selective and/or forged info and excruciating painful footage, put together into an extremely disturbing provocation film.  In the film, the officers who killed James Chasse smile or act blaze as they describe his death.  The lawyer asks them questions that evade the main question – at which point was James Chasse subjected to these horrific injuries?  The persons presented in the film as key witnesses are professional actors. A woman who in the “legal” documents put online was presented as Chasse’s Cascadia case manager, in the film is shown as a mentally ill friend of James Chasse and is now deceased. There are further mind-bogling inconsistencies and shocking hidden references. I. E, those presented in the film as “friends” of James Chasse, in real life are a Nazi/Satanist punk rockers, whose output include songs calling for war, terror and “pure hate.”

To my shock, the film presents me, Ela Howard, as somebody responsible for James Chasse’s care, and somebody responsible for his death.  The scene is based on forged testimony procured by the Portland Police officer who was on the scene of the welfare check two days before the killing of James Chasse and on forged testimony from Portland Police detective. For the seven years it took the filmakers and Cascadia to make this film, nobody made a peep that they were going to use me as a target.  After the film came out, I started asking my Cascadia managers questions.  I discovered that Jason Renaud, who was presented to the community and to me as a “mental health advocate,” a person who provides “peer support” to people with mental illness, was actually the Assistant to the President of Compassion and Choices, a powerful organization that promotes and delivers euthanasia.  Cascadia intimidated me, threatened and fired.  Ever since, in my private life, I’ve been subjected to what seems like an organized hunt in my private life, intimidation  and gruesome death threats towards me as an “Alien” and severe anti-Semitic threats.

Please protect our core human values – Life, Liberty, Mercy and – Love One Another.

Ela Ella Howard Poland Portland James Chasse Alien Boy Cascadia Behavioral Health

James Chasse was killed on September 17, the anniversary of signing the American Constitution.  The “Ela Howard” scene occurs on September 15, the anniversary of signing racial exclusion laws in 1935 in Nazi Germany under Hitler.  Cascadia . employs so called “Process Workers.” Process Workers claim to be capable of staging so called “synchronistic events,” or “political witchcraft” based on what they refer to as ritualistic “synchronicity.”  Process Workers were heavily involved in the events surrounding the death of James Chasse, the neglect of his care and the subsequent re-shuffling of power and money in Portland, Oregon. After the death of James Chasse a Process Worker named Liesbeth Gerritsen, my former teamate at Cascadia was put in charge of training Portland Police.

The involvement of Process Work and the work in euthanasia done by Jason Renaud has been kept from the public. In Portland, Oregon, Process Workers are in leadership positions in all kinds of places. The media keeps the dots disconnected. Process Work presents as school of a New Age “psychology” or a cult that teaches people to access an elusive “dreaming process” aka became shamans. While all this time Process Workers go around the world, mainly into wars zones and zones of terrorism, including 9/11, zones, politically charged hot spots like Ukraine, Russia, South-East Asia etc. Process Workers conduct to what their founders refer to as “fishing,” that is, finding gullible followers, victims, and young angry men.  One of the Process Workers is currently training the army in the Philippines under Duterte. “Process Work” was originally started in Switzerland, in 1970s. By now, they claim to have tens of thousands of members.   What my employer Cascadia and the Process Workers did to me equals subjecting me to complete removal of civil rights.

No lawyer in Portland agreed to help me.  The Circuit Court dismissed my lawsuit. Before that, the Civil Rights Division of Portland BOLI (Bureau of Labor and Industries) dismissed my case.  BOLI interviewed me on the same day when BOLI seized assets of the bakery “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” – the bakery that refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.  It was December 28, 2015.  As BOLI was seizing assets of the bakery, collecting $135,000 as a fine for not backing the cake, the BOLI investigator who was interviewing me was giggling and laughing as she spoke with me. She told me that she was going to dismiss my case.   Bizarrely, there was another cake involved too.  Before Cascadia fired me, they hired a lawyer under the pretense to provide mediation. During the interview with me the lawyer held a death-reference in front of me – a picture of a cake decorated with gravestones a Cascadia supervisor had brought to work, a “Death Cake,” as the supervisor called it.  Cascadia’s lawyer stated that I wasn’t a “credible person” because “everybody else” found the death cake “hilarious.”   By the way, Cascadia promoted the “Death Cake” supervisor  to a position of a director. 

It’s a horrible deadly deadly.  Process Workers. Provocations. Demonstrations. Death threats. Chasing after “Aliens.” Corruption of legal system. That’s how the Portland Chapter of the global war industry implemented a dictatorship.

Here’s the lawsuit I filed with the Multnomah county circuit court.

case 16CV15856
May 12, 2016
Elzbieta (Ela) Howard
————-
————-(address kept private in the internet version)
I am filing a lawsuit in the Multnomah County Court
against
Cascadia Behavioral Health (Cascadia BHC)
Lloyd Corporate Plaza Building
847 NE 19th Ave. Suite 100, Portland, OR 97232
I’m seeking $ 1.6 million in damages from my employer Cascadia Behavioral Health (BHC) to compensate me for the wrongful discharge and the pain and suffering and loss of safety caused by Cascadia’s subjecting me harassment, discrimination, retaliation, to death references/threats and threats of harm as an employee at work and Cascadia BHC causing/generating sustained and severe harassment and death-threatening intimidation in my private life that caused me loss of my safety. I allege that this harassment, discrimination, retaliation and death/references/threats were hate motivated because of my minority status, religious status and my national origin from Poland.
I allege that I was wrongfully discharged from Cascadia BHC. I allege that the discharge was conducted in a hostile manner and as an act of retaliation and discrimination and that the process included harassment and threats.
I allege that as an employee of Cascadia BHC I was subjected in Cascadia BHC to harassment, discrimination, retaliation and threats on basis on religion, minority status and national origin from Poland and subjected to harassments, discrimination, retaliation and threats if I exposed/whistle-blew on Cascadia BHC.
I allege that as an employee of Cascadia BHC I was subjected to harassment in Cascadia BHC and discrimination, retaliation and threats if I whistle-blew on Cascadia’s role in providing crisis services with Portland Police and other police departments in Multnomah county, especially if I whistle- blew on them in regards to Cascadia BHC phasing out the sub-team of culturally diverse clinicians that was hired improve crisis services to Portland minorities and was created as a part of Project Respond Cascadia in 2002 after the death of a community member Jose Santos Mejia Poot. I was originally hired as a part of this team to implement culturally-appropriate crisis response. My focus were minority groups from Eastern Europe who settled in Portland, mostly religious refugees, mostly Evangelical Christians.
I allege that I was subjected to hate-motivated harassment, discrimination and threats by Cascadia BHC because of my minority status, my religious status and because I was supportive and protective of religious freedoms and because I opposed the anti-religious practices, slurs, religion-bashing in Cascadia BHC and opposed the practice of Cascadia BHC under-serving ethnic and religious minorities.
I allege that as an employee of Cascadia BHC I was subjected in Cascadia BHC to harassment, discrimination, retaliation and threats if I whistle-blew on them in regards to Cascadia’s role the highly publicized case of the death of a community member James Chasse, who died at the hands of police in 2006.
I allege that I was subjected in Cascadia to harassment, discrimination, retaliation and threats to stop me from whistle-blowing on Cascadia’s role in providing crisis response services to the community with Portland Police, for which Cascadia receives public funding, and in Casadia’s role during the Federal investigation by DOJ (US v City of Portland), that investigated Portland Police and the crisis response system after the death of James Chasse.
I allege that as an employee of Cascadia BHC I was subjected to being misrepresented in the press in the days after the death of James Chasse. I was one of three Cascadia BHC clinicians who conducted a welfare check on James Chasse two days before his death, but the articles in the press were misleading, misrepresented my role, were inconsistent with practices/policies of crisis response and with the course of events.
I allege that this misrepresentation was a form of harassment, discrimination and a way to place me under community retaliation for the death of James Chasse. I believe that I was singled out because of my minority national origin and religious status. There were three Cascadia BHC clinicians on the scene of the welfare check described in the media, but the media wrote only about one police officer and me, Ela Howard.
The two other Casadia BHC clinicians present on the scene were American-born. I was the only minority, an immigrant from Poland.
I allege that I was singled out as a part of hate-driven harassment.
I allege that subsequently Cascadia BHC management intentionally, purposefully and repeatedly mislead me into believing that the articles in the press were irrelevant and that their content would be forgotten and that I should not react. I allege that Cascadia’s actions were intentional and hate-motivated as a part of harassment and discrimination of me as a minority from Poland.
I allege that after the death of James Chasse Cascadia BHC intentionally misrepresented to me the role of Jason Renaud, who was leading the post-Chasse public outcry and was publishing media about Chasse’s death, including organizing events, demonstrations and making webpages encouraging action and retaliation towards the ones represented as responsible for the death of James Chasse, referred to as “Chasse killers.”
I allege that Cascadia BHC misrepresented to me their involvement with Jason Renaud and did not disclose to me the scope of their collaboration with him. Cascadia BHC presented Renaud to me as a “member of a mental health support group” and asked me to speak with him under such representation.
I allege that Cascadia BHC intentionally misled me by not disclosing that Renaud works to promote assisted suicide and is the leader of the organization “Compassion and Choices,” formerly the “Hemlock Society,” that promotes Death with Dignity all over the country and internationally, and delivers assisted suicide, or, what the organization calls, “aid in dying.” I allege that Cascadia BHC mislead me by not disclosing to me Cascadia’s history intersecting/collaborating with Renaud in a variety of projects, including Renaud leading mental health groups and leading social causes without a proper disclosure.
I allege that Cascadia BHC violated my civil rights, compromised my safety and put me under sustained harassment and ongoing, life-threatening intimidation by violating my choice to not give permission to be involved/used in the film “Alien Boy, the Life and Death of James Chasse,” which was produced by Jason Renaud with Cascadia BHC as assistant-producers. I explicitly said that I didn’t give my permission to have my name used in the “Alien Boy” film. I allege that my choice was violated intentionally and that this violation was a part of hate-driven harassment.
I allege that Cascadia BHC repeatedly and intentionally misled me over the years following the death of James Chasse, as the highly publicized post-Chasse politics developed, including DOJ investigation, the public outcry, demonstrations, criticism and targeting of “Chasse killers.”
I allege that Cascadia misled me during my numerous conversation with my Cascadia BHC supervisor, who kept telling me that my only remaining role in the process was to provide depositions for the Chasse family court case, but otherwise, my role had ended. I allege that Cascadia BHC intentionally misled me and withheld from me for years that my name was going to be used in the film about James Chasse without my knowledge and without my permission.
In 2013, seven years after the death of James Chasse, the film “Alien Boy, the Life and Death of James Chasse,” came out, produced by Jason Renaud, with Cascadia as assistant-producers. The film contains a distorted, fictionalized, highly misleading “Ela Howard scene.” The scene describes a mental health worker named Ela Howard and a police officer conducting a welfare check on James Chasse. In the scene, narrated by text, here’s only one mental health worker present, Ela Howard. The “Ela Howard scene” is placed shortly after a graphic description of James Chasse’s death. The scene contains a statement “investigation is continuing” and “Deaths call for accountability,” suggesting that Ela Howard contributed to the death of James Chasse.
I allege that Cascadia BHC engaged in collaboration with Renaud and other filmmakers of “Alien Boy” and produced the distorted, fictionalized “Ela Howard scene” as an act of harassment, discrimination and retaliation and that this action was hate-motivated and a part of the ongoing harassment of me as religious and national origin minority from Poland.
I allege that the I was shunned, discriminated against, harassed and threatened and in Cascadia as a part of hate-motivated harassment as a religious and national origin minority because I refused to join the “cause” of some of employees of Cascadia BHC, who verbalized their cause as wanting to “make Oregon religion-free” by pushing religious people out of Oregon and make them move out and “live in the South.” I was harassed, shunned and threatened for opposing this ideology and shunned for being “religion-friendly,” “Christian-friendly” and “Jew-friendly,” and was targeted/exposed to slurs ridiculing/bashing Christianity and Christians and to anti-Semitic statements and slurs. I.E, I was harassed with statements that Polish Christians were anti-gay and that Jews were anti-gay, and that “Jews want to stone gay people.” I was exposed/subjected to teammates reading the Book of Leviticus in the office as their “proof.”
I allege that the I was shunned, discriminated against, harassed and threaten after I engaged in some religion-related activities in my private life and subjected to a wave of severe harassment at Cascadia BHC. The harassment I was subjected to included death references/threats, and a references to having me shot. I was told that I “knew too much about the cause”, that is the “cause” to make Oregon “religion-free” and that I “knew too much” about some persons’ involvement in drugs. I was called a person who is too conservative to live in Oregon, and who should leave. As I was walking into the office, one of the persons behind these threats kept a picture of herself shooting a gun displayed on her computer monitor. I was subjected to threats of having me “f-d up,” “finished” and “hauled away.”
I allege that I was discriminated against, harassed, threatened and retaliated against because I complained about this harassment to Cacadia BHC management. Cascadia Human Resouces (HR) did not investigate my allegations. Cascadia’s only response was approve an FMLA leave for me to recuperate and to move me to a different office.
I allege that I was discriminated against, harassed, retaliated against and threatened for voicing my concerns after the film “Alien Boy, the Life and Death of James Chasse” came out. I believe that my Cascadia BHC supervisors misled me when I spoke with them on numerous occasions about my concerns about the implications of the film and the “Ela Howard scene” to my personal safety as the demonstrations and community actions were being organized against the “Chasse killers.”
I allege that my Cascadia BHC supervisor misled me in telling me that this was “social activism” and that “things would blow over,” while he also harassed and retaliated against me by voicing veiled threats towards me.
I allege that I was discriminated against, harassed, retaliated against and threatened in Cascadia BHC by another supervisor who repeatedly made bizarre death references and slurs towards me, including, “why don’t you just kill yourself.”
I allege that I was harassed and retaliated against and put in danger of losing life and safety as an employee of Cascadia BHC due to Cascadia BHC management withdrawing supervisory support from me in a manner that compromised crisis response during crisis calls. I allege that I was put in situations when my supervisor misinformed me about the incoming crisis calls and thus compromised the course of crisis response, including crisis calls that involved acute crisis situations. I allege that Cascadia BHC compromised my safety and safety of vulnerable individuals in crisis and police officers on the scene.
I allege that I was harassed and retaliated against after I voiced my concerns to the Chief Medical Director/Officer of Cascadia BHC.
I allege that I was discriminated and retaliated against in Cascadia BHC by being singled out by having to have supervisions with a supervisor who yelled at me behind closed doors and laughed at my use of English as a second language.
I allege that I was retaliated against and eventually fired for opposing the practice of Cascadia BHC management creating false paper tracks and false documentation and misleading information. Cascadia BHC management told me that the harassment and threats of harm based on religion and national-origin, never happened,” and I had never been harassed, I “never went” on FMLA leave and that Cascadia HR had “never moved me,” to a different office. I opposed the practice of Cascadia BHC management producing fabricated documentation from conversations and meetings with me. As a way of opposing this practice, I started documenting events from my perspective and sending emails. “Writing emails” was given to me as one of the reasons I was given for being fired.
I allege that I was retaliated against by Cascadia BHC for contacting Multnomah County Adult Protective Services for inquiring whether Cascadia had reported a case of what seemed to be client abuse under ORS. I learned that Cascadia did not report it. Multnomah County services forwarded my inquiry to the State of Oregon, who dropped the case. Subsequently, I was retaliated against in Cascadia BHC for contacting these authorities.
I allege that I was retaliated against, harassed and fired for advocating that Cascadia BHC improve their services to ethnic and religious minorities. I.e, a few months before I was fired, there was a case of involving a Eastern European minority member from a local religious refugee Christian minority group who was suicidal. I raised concerns that his case was handled inappropriately, in a manner that compromised his safety. I asked to speak with the Cascadia BHC minority coordinator to discuss ways of improving services to ethnic minorities and religious groups. The meeting was not granted and I was fired.
I allege that I was retaliated against for expressing intent to contribute to the DOJ investigation and the public hearings held by Judge Michael Simon. I was subjected to harassment and retaliation in Cascadia BHC and threats that if I whistle-blew on Cascadia, I would be discredited and harmed. Shortly after, I was fired.
I allege that I was retaliated against by Cascadia for seeking clarification about the film “Alien Boy, the Life and Death of James Chasse” and for asking why my name was used without my permission and why the scene was distorted to mis-represent me as somebody accountable for his death. I contacted the producer of “Alien Boy,” Jason Renaud who didn’t give me an answer. Subsequently, I was retaliated against and threatened by Cascadia BHC management for seeking information and subjected to threats of being discredited and harmed. Shortly after, I was fired.
I allege that I was fired in a hostile manner. Cascadia BHC hired a lawyer whom they misrepresented to me as a mediator. During a meeting with me, the lawyer held a death referencing picture in front of me, of an object a supervisor brought to the office. It was a cake decorated with gravestones inscribed “gone but not forgotten.” The lawyer told me the cake was “hilarious.” The layer told me that what I was saying was “not true,” as she put it, because of the “cake thing.” I believe that Cascadia BHC misrepresented the role of the lawyer, who was not receptive to what I was saying and didn’t provide mediation.
I allege that Cascadia BHC misled and harassed me when they placed me on an administrative leave without giving me an explanation and subsequently asked me to come in for a meeting where Cascadia BHC management yelled at me in an intimidating way, “Don’t talk about the past or be terminated!”
I allege that Casadia BHC produced false/fabricated and incomplete documentation to deceive the course of justice. During a meeting with me the HR Head handed me a stack of documents without giving me a chance to read them. I asked the HR Head to speak with Casadia’s CEO and the board of Directors about the repeated usage of death references towards me. As I spoke, my supervisor took the documents from me and gave me the documents at the end of the meeting. At home I read the documents and discovered that one the documents was a “written warning” and it had “refused to sign,” written in by my supervisor. The other document was written by the Cascadia-hired lawyer, 9 pages; it contained fabrications and ended mid-sentence.
I allege that Casacdia BHC misled me and retaliated against me because I asked to meet with Casadia’s board about the death references/threats Cascadia BHC management had been making towards me. HR Head told me that she would check in about such meeting. But I was not granted a meeting. I was fired.
I allege that my life and safety has been compromised by the mis-portrayal of my role in the case of James Chasse as somebody who is accountable for his death and that this mis-portrayal caused me to be subjected to acts of intimidation and community retaliation in my private life, as part of the organized actions against the “Chasse killers.”
I believe/I’m alleging that Cascadia BHC compromised my safety intentionally and that it was a part of hate-driven harassment. I believe/I’m alleging that Cascadia BHC mislead me for years by withholding for years the information that my name was going to be used in the film “Alien Boy.” Cascadia BHC didn’t respond to my repeated pleas to address the issue of me being mis-portrayed as accountable for the death of James Chasse and me being subjected to retaliation and intimidation. I believe/I’m alleging that Cascadia BHC subjected me to additional threats of harm to and pressured me not to whistle-blow on Cascadia’s role.
I believe/I’m alleging that Cascadia BHC, by generating, misleading and not addressing the problem of the mis-portrayal of my role in the death of James Chasse put me in a sustained life-threatening harassment. I continue to be subjected to death-threatening intimidation. The intimidation of me seems like an organized hunt. Immediately after I was fired from Cascadia BHC the intensity of intimidation increased. I’ve subjected to a wave of gruesome intimidation, including individuals hanging out outside of my house and approaching me on the street, engaging in intimidation. I have been assaulted. I was told that I would be “finished with no trace.” Objects were put in my backyard, including feces and dead animals. Strange letters were put in my mail. A letter pointed to violent internet videos, some with my name in the title, depicting murder and graphic violence, mostly towards Jews.
On the ninth anniversary of the death of James Chasse (September 17, 2015), there was a demonstration in downtown Portland called a “night of rage” where the demonstrators were burning objects and yelling, “Chasse killers.” Subsequently, in my backyard, somebody placed a swastika sign. I have been subjected followed/approached by individuals acting in threatening manner, including making threatening gestures of throat-slicing and evisceration.
I allege that Cascadia BHC violated my privacy and continues to do so by communicating with Jason Renaud without my permission. I. E. I contacted Renaud by email to ask him again why my name was used in the film “Alien Boy.” I did not give Renaud my permission to discuss my legal matters. Renaud sent me an email saying “Derald (Derald Walker, Cascadia CEO) etc.. do not care if you filed a suit. If you do, and their lawyers think it has merit, and you can get a lawyer to represent the suit, they will likely offer you a settlement – a percentage of your annual salary, like a couple of months.”
I also allege that:
Cascadia fired me as I was on an FMLA leave (medical leave), which is illegal.
Cascadia violated my privacy by making an inquiry into my medical record without asking me for a release of information. Also, Cascadia might have engaged in illegal communication about my medical record.
Wage claims: Cascadia BHC payroll unexpectedly removed a number of hours of my paid vacation, an equivalent of six weeks of wages without letting me know and for no reason (without me taking vacations).
I was not been paid properly on some occasions for extra shifts or bonuses and had to ask for adjustments.
I was not paid for a day of jury duty.
Right to sue:
I filed a BOLI complaint.
BOLI dismissed my complaint and gave me the right to sue.
I am filing this lawsuit as self-representing.
As soon as I find a lawyer who will represent me, I will include a lawyer in my case.
Elzbieta (Ela) Howard