St. Johns Review says it ‘did not write’ Charlie Hales’ disputed letter

Hales’ accusation came several days after The Oregonian published a story about the April 27 letter, which also plagiarized two passages from a 2009

Hales’ accusation came several days after The Oregonian published a story about the April 27 letter, which also plagiarized two passages from a 2009 story in The Oregonian.

Last week, the neighborhood newspaper’s owner, Gayla Patton, declined to talk at length with The Oregonian about the accusation, saying “I’m innocent in this.”

But someone using the community newspaper’s Facebook account went online Saturday and denied responsibility for the incident.

“The Review did not write the article,” the Facebook message on the St. Johns neighborhood page reads. “It was written by the staff in Charlie Hales office. The Review edited the letter for corrections and sent a copy back for approval and the staff gave their approval and asked that it be run in the April 27 issue. I did not want to run it at all but because he intimated that he would like to help reopen North Precinct, I agreed to accept his letter.”

Hales has blamed a campaign volunteer for the passages that plagiarized The Oregonian.

Monday, Hales declined to comment on the Facebook message. His campaign manager, Evyn Mitchell, said “I don’t see why we would continue to talk about it.”

Calls to Patton were not immediately returned.

— Beth Slovic