[0:00]Hi there. I'm Sam.
[0:04]Bear with me. I didn't really plan this.
[0:07]Just hiking in the forest. Something I
[0:08]do all the time. And I need to make a
[0:11]video
[0:13]that I'm going to embed into a website,
[0:16]opdv volunteerabuse.org,
[0:18]that discusses abuse that I experienced
[0:20]at Oregon State Parks for two months.
[0:26]Um, I did record one, but I was still
[0:30]processing Oh, almost up there. I was
[0:33]still processing um a recent revelation
[0:37]I had about
[0:39]supervisory betrayal where I discovered
[0:43]there's a technique that people can use
[0:45]to elicit empathy from people
[0:49]uh in order to extract information from
[0:50]them. I had only recently put that piece
[0:53]of the puzzle together
[0:56]and
[0:58]couldn't really talk about it without
[1:01]just being flabbergasted by by the lack
[1:03]of ethics.
[1:05]So, there's there's two times where I
[1:09]use a little bit of profanity. Main one
[1:11]being
[1:13]not ashamed of it. Uh it's up on that
[1:16]website right now, but I do want to
[1:17]replace it. I want you to get to know
[1:20]me. I want you to know what happened.
[1:23]So, let me try.
[1:26]It's been nine months.
[1:29]Last year, about a year ago, in October,
[1:32]I traveled across the country from
[1:34]Kentucky to Oregon in an RV
[1:40]to embark on a new chapter in my life.
[1:42]I'm nearly 50 years old. I had a very
[1:44]successful career as a freelance
[1:46]programmer,
[1:47]but it felt empty and I wanted something
[1:49]new. A big part of me had always
[1:54]enjoyed being outdoors. I was a boy
[1:55]scout as a kid and I just didn't like
[1:58]being locked up in a house all the time.
[2:00]It just felt like containment that was
[2:03]just draining the drain the life out of
[2:05]me.
[2:07]So, I made a choice. I decided to move
[2:08]into an RV.
[2:10]And 6 months after I did that, I came to
[2:13]the Oregon coast and fell in love with
[2:15]the ocean, Pacific Ocean, and the parks
[2:19]here. The Oregon State parks are [ __ ]
[2:20]beautiful. Well, I did it again.
[2:26]Okay,
[2:28]whatever. You know,
[2:33]I could beep it out, but why? I use that
[2:36]word there because
[2:38]because they're that extraordinary to
[2:40]me. The Oregon state parks are
[2:42]incredible
[2:44]and I decided to volunteer for them in
[2:46]January.
[2:48]First month was fine. I was at Tugman
[2:49]State Park. My boss was amazing. Uh
[2:53]coolest person I could have ever
[2:54]imagined being a park ranger. So, uh, I
[2:57]felt really good that,
[3:00]um, there would be a place for me within
[3:02]that institution
[3:05]because we had certain attributes in
[3:06]common and if they made room for her,
[3:09]they could have made room for me. That's
[3:11]how I looked at it.
[3:14]And
[3:18]couple weeks into that, a different
[3:20]volunteer told me about Honeyman State
[3:22]Park and the the organ dunes and how
[3:25]people um rode ATVs on them, you know,
[3:29]uh dirt bikes and quads and his side by
[3:32]sides. And I was very curious, very
[3:34]interested because I've um I'm an owner
[3:37]of a Jeep Wrangler.
[3:39]It's one of my most it is my most
[3:41]important thing that I own.
[3:43]And
[3:46]so I got it transferred there for
[3:48]February and March.
[3:52]One weekend there was a power outage.
[3:56]And this happened
[3:58]after the supervisor there had um shut
[4:02]the water off the day before and caused
[4:04]uh an issue with one of the guests who
[4:06]confronted me.
[4:09]And then that night the power went out.
[4:12]Same guest confronted me again 3:00 in
[4:13]the morning. And I reached out to her at
[4:17]6:00 a.m. trying to get clarification on
[4:19]what I'm supposed to do. And she
[4:22]responded dismissively.
[4:24]And something told me in that moment
[4:26]that I needed to protect myself from
[4:28]her. I don't know what it was. I just
[4:29]felt it. And the next two months would
[4:32]prove I was right. So I documented it
[4:35]like any professional would.
[4:38]And
[4:40]from that moment on, they started
[4:42]escalating. That day, the park manager
[4:44]showed up at the welcome center while I
[4:46]was working alone, confronted me with
[4:48]first week mistakes I had made. Simple
[4:50]things that anyone new to a position
[4:53]would make that I corrected myself
[4:56]because I self correct all the time, but
[4:59]they were just putting me on notice. How
[5:01]dare you? um
[5:04]note the tone of someone in our
[5:06]leadership
[5:08]there. I noticed that's what they were
[5:09]telling me. I recognized it.
[5:13]My drug supervisor,
[5:16]someone that I really respected and
[5:18]liked as a person, disappeared
[5:22]for 4 days. There was silence. And I was
[5:25]worried. So, I sent them an email asking
[5:29]if we could reset, telling them that I
[5:31]would be a model volunteer. I would
[5:38]I would conform.
[5:41]Um, big deal for someone like me.
[5:45]They pretended that they would reset,
[5:49]but the escalations did not stop there.
[5:52]I didn't know this though. I thought
[5:53]that we truly had things went back to
[5:56]normal for a couple days. I applied for
[5:57]a job there as a seasonal park ranger
[5:59]because that was one of the things I was
[6:01]really interested in becoming was a park
[6:03]ranger instead of a computer programmer
[6:05]like I've been for the first half of my
[6:07]life. And that just happened to go to
[6:10]the same supervisor um that I had the
[6:12]issue with
[6:14]and she responded badly.
[6:17]So I withdrew it. I withdrew the
[6:20]application. I didn't explain why.
[6:23]Um I just knew that it was better to
[6:25]just get through my time there and maybe
[6:27]I'll find a different a different jobs,
[6:29]you know, a different uh park. You know,
[6:31]I just wanted to get through my time
[6:32]there.
[6:34]And from that moment on, my direct
[6:38]supervisor came into the welcome center
[6:39]one night
[6:41]um and spent an hour and a half talking
[6:44]about himself, eliciting empathy from me
[6:47]in order to get me to start talking
[6:48]about why I had withdrawn that
[6:49]application.
[6:51]I didn't that night, but I was really
[6:54]shocked by how vulnerable he had been
[6:56]with me. And I sat with that overnight.
[7:00]And the next day I took him on a walk
[7:02]with me and I told him
[7:04]and then they started weaponizing it
[7:06]all. They weaponized why I had moved to
[7:07]the coast. Uh they weaponized my
[7:10]sexuality. They implied that I had a
[7:12]crush on him. I did not. I had even set
[7:15]a boundary with this man before we went
[7:17]on that walk and told him it was not
[7:18]romantic for me. This was a married man.
[7:21]I had absolutely zero interest in a
[7:23]romantic relationship with this person,
[7:26]but they implied otherwise.
[7:29]And
[7:33]after that walk, about a week goes by, I
[7:36]don't see him. It's the end of February.
[7:39]It's my last day in the welcome center.
[7:40]After that, I'm going to start cleaning
[7:41]dirts for March. I'm asked to work a
[7:44]double. And I do by myself. 8 hours is
[7:47]free labor. And then an hour past that
[7:48]to help uh somebody who just needed
[7:51]needed a place to stay, didn't have
[7:53]reservations, and was having trouble. I
[7:55]spent an hour working with her to get
[7:57]her a spot, a campsite. So, you know, I
[8:00]worked nine hours that day because I was
[8:02]there to serve, truly there to serve.
[8:05]And
[8:07]the next day, I was going to be trained
[8:09]by a ranger that I just
[8:13]didn't mesh well with. Every time I saw
[8:15]this person, I could, he was just very
[8:17]condescending all the time. And I
[8:19]thought if this person trains me at the
[8:21]next role that I have, you know, he's
[8:24]going to be in a position of authority
[8:25]over me and his condescension is going
[8:27]to be worse. So I tried to prevent the
[8:30]problem.
[8:31]Tried to prevent a recurrence of what
[8:33]had happened at the beginning.
[8:36]And I asked my direct supervisor, could
[8:38]somebody else train me? Actually, he
[8:40]suggested that. I didn't. He suggested
[8:42]that. I just told him of the situation.
[8:44]He said, I can have somebody else train
[8:45]you. How does that sound? I said,
[8:46]perfect. And then the next day,
[8:49]um, this person didn't know anything
[8:51]about it. So, I'm texting that person
[8:54]saying, "Well, wait a minute. You know,
[8:55]I was promised this. This is important.
[8:57]If you can't, then I'm just going to
[8:58]wait until I can talk to my direct
[8:59]supervisor about it." And so, they make
[9:02]a um, they ask me, "How about if I just
[9:05]go with you and, you know, while that
[9:07]other ranger is also there, how about,
[9:09]you know, we're both there." I'm like,
[9:10]"Okay, it's a compromise. I can live
[9:12]with that." And I did, and everything
[9:13]was fine. But I saw what they were
[9:16]doing. I knew what they were doing at
[9:17]this point. It was just so obvious. Uh
[9:20]they were they were trying to they were
[9:23]trying to get rid of me. They were
[9:24]trying to create a paper trail or
[9:25]situation or something that that would
[9:28]justify them just kicking me out.
[9:32]So I sent an email to my direct
[9:33]supervisor called trust and I told him
[9:35]why I didn't trust him and I um
[9:38]enumerated all the reasons why that had
[9:40]happened in the past month. And then a
[9:42]couple days later, uh, the two
[9:44]leadership positions, the manager and
[9:46]the supervisor, sat me down at the DU
[9:48]area at a picnic table and spent over an
[9:50]hour abusing me, telling me that I would
[9:53]never be given the benefit of the doubt,
[9:54]telling me to chew glass and swallow it.
[9:57]Um,
[10:00]telling me that I was the problem,
[10:01]nobody liked me, I made everyone
[10:03]uncomfortable, you know, just treating
[10:06]me real badly. Uh, telling me that I
[10:08]could just leave if I felt
[10:09]uncomfortable.
[10:11]and I recorded it. That is that is part
[10:14]of the archive. There is a video where
[10:17]you can watch that entire hour of them
[10:20]abusing me. You can even hear the
[10:23]supervisor jump in at the end when the
[10:25]manager starts making mistakes cuz she's
[10:28]trying to um salvage what he's doing.
[10:32]And then she brings up my job
[10:34]application and all these things. And um
[10:38]you can just and during that whole whole
[10:41]conversation they're talking about how
[10:44]um always comes back to that first event
[10:46]with her. They couldn't name one thing
[10:49]that I had done wrong.
[10:51]It just was all insinuation
[10:54]plausible deniability. It was a pattern.
[10:57]This is a very common institutional
[10:59]pattern that should not be possible
[11:01]anymore. It's straight up psychological
[11:03]abuse.
[11:05]But I recorded it and then I told them I
[11:08]recorded it
[11:10]because I thought, "Okay, this will make
[11:12]them stop. Finally, I have the leverage
[11:15]I need to make them stop abusing me.
[11:18]That's why I recorded it."
[11:21]A couple days later, the regional person
[11:24]who's responsible for the volunteer
[11:25]program caused to intimidate me about
[11:27]recording that
[11:29]does not really tried to engage with me
[11:31]on any type of substance. I record this
[11:34]too, by the way. Um, I call her back
[11:36]though. This call I don't record. I just
[11:38]call her back because I want her to feel
[11:40]comfortable. I'm not trying to create a
[11:42]problem here, you know. Um, and I try to
[11:45]tell her what's happening. And she says,
[11:47]"Get through your time there. Every park
[11:49]is different."
[11:51]And so I put my head down and do exactly
[11:53]what she says.
[11:55]And then a couple weeks later, a man
[11:57]that I didn't know showed up while I was
[11:59]cleaning the yurts by myself. All of
[12:01]them open, propped open with trash cans
[12:03]in front of the doors, a sanitizer
[12:05]running inside of them. I'm just sitting
[12:07]here and um
[12:10]clearly mid clean. And this man says,
[12:13]"I'm with the park service. I'm my team
[12:16]and I need to take pictures of these
[12:17]shirts for the photos on our website."
[12:19]And then he immediately starts
[12:21]questioning me about um my thoughts on
[12:24]leadership. And it's intimate and forced
[12:27]and wild. It's just absolutely wild. And
[12:29]I'm thinking to myself, this is a state
[12:31]park. I am a volunteer. I'm free labor.
[12:34]This cannot be what it looks like. It
[12:36]just it can't like it was too over the
[12:38]top. But that's precisely what it was.
[12:41]After that, I email the park supervisor
[12:45]because I want it on record. I know this
[12:47]is going to be important later. So,
[12:51]I do that and she confirms, yeah, he's
[12:52]from it. Never says who he is. This man
[12:55]had no identification. He was not in
[12:57]uniform. He just showed up while all the
[13:00]rangers were gone at a regional event.
[13:01]All of this can be verified, by the way.
[13:03]Everything I've said. Um,
[13:07]so they actually sent someone to surveil
[13:10]me and to get me to incriminate myself.
[13:12]They wanted me to say something they
[13:14]could use to get rid of me, but that
[13:16]didn't happen. I actually misinterpreted
[13:18]it like because I'm like, "This is way
[13:20]too over the top. This cannot be what it
[13:22]looks like." And it's so intimate. I
[13:24]think this man's flirting with me. I
[13:26]actually make a video about that um
[13:28]after the fact just talking about my
[13:30]experiences from the day and um what
[13:32]what it felt like. You know, I never
[13:34]said that this was a person from um
[13:36]Oregon State Parks or anything like
[13:37]that. I was very vague. It's just a man,
[13:39]you know, that I cuz he never identified
[13:41]himself. I didn't know who he was.
[13:43]Um, so that's
[13:45]proof that in the moment,
[13:49]um,
[13:50]this happened to me.
[13:54]From there,
[13:56]couple days later,
[13:59]park manager calls me up on the phone
[14:01]while I'm doing my job and tells me that
[14:04]they want to have another meeting with
[14:05]me one day before I'm supposed to leave.
[14:09]I ask why and he tells me
[14:13]it's because so we originally had the
[14:15]storm. I got to get around stuff. Um and
[14:17]he tells me
[14:19]um
[14:21]I'm still being a problem still.
[14:25]And I'm just like wow. Like this man
[14:27]never stops. Like I've got a video of
[14:30]you um abusing me. Like there's no way
[14:33]that you could be doing this right now.
[14:34]This is just this is just
[14:42]I mean this man is a a walking liability
[14:44]as far as I'm concerned. And so I'm
[14:46]listening to him and I'm like what do
[14:48]you mean I still being a problem? And he
[14:51]mentions uh this saying about a homeless
[14:53]man's journal that I turned in and uses
[14:55]that as a pretext. And then finally, you
[14:58]know, cuz he keeps going on and on. I
[14:59]say, "You're a bully." I don't say it
[15:02]loud or anything like that. I just I
[15:03]just uh I name it. This is what's
[15:05]happening. He's being a bully right now.
[15:07]And then he he kicks me out of the park
[15:10]right then and there on the phone. Hour
[15:12]later, he shows up in my RV, ask for the
[15:14]keys. I record this on camera. He tells
[15:16]me he has no documentation for this act
[15:19]that he's doing on camera.
[15:22]And I've got 24 hours to leave the park.
[15:24]And I have no money. I'm, you know,
[15:27]completely restructuring my life, you
[15:29]know, around this whole volunteer thing.
[15:31]We've got uh plans all year long with
[15:33]this state parks. They know this, you
[15:35]know, different places. And
[15:38]this jeopardized everything, which was
[15:39]the point. And
[15:42]so I get on camera and I tell my
[15:44]audience what happened to me for the
[15:45]first time. And then I share that with
[15:48]the regional person so that she knows
[15:50]what's going on. And then the next day
[15:53]or the day after that, we have our
[15:55]interview together and she starts
[15:57]pathizing me. Um, she just twists
[16:00]everything that happened to me, made me
[16:02]the problem. And that's on camera. I
[16:04]recorded that, too. That's in the
[16:06]archive.
[16:08]And then she does the most amazing
[16:10]thing. She puts in writing that the
[16:12]reason I'm being expelled from Oregon
[16:15]State Parks, never to be allowed to
[16:16]volunteer again, is because of my
[16:18]speech, because I recorded that video
[16:20]telling my audience what had happened to
[16:22]me. And I did that because I had 24
[16:25]hours to get out of there and no money,
[16:26]and I needed help. and I was just trying
[16:28]to
[16:30]explain what was happening in my life at
[16:31]that time. So
[16:36]that's what happened to me at Oregon
[16:38]State Parks. I mean,
[16:41]I I travel across the country, you know,
[16:45]to
[16:46]Whoa, this is a slippery bridge. I
[16:48]forgot about that. I really need to fix
[16:50]this. I'm actually kind of responsible
[16:51]for these now. Well, I'm not
[16:53]responsible. I shouldn't say that. That
[16:54]came out way wrong. Um, I just I have a
[16:57]thing about um
[17:00]I I did this at at Tugman and so I'm
[17:02]kind of partial to it. It's technically
[17:04]I don't I'm not responsible for trails.
[17:06]I work for a different agency now. Um
[17:09]but I had been meaning to talk to them
[17:10]about these bridges just to
[17:13]um just because of that right there. Um
[17:21]look, I'm an honest person. I just am.
[17:24]You know, I don't I don't filter the
[17:26]truth.
[17:30]I anchor myself to reality. And they
[17:33]spent a very long time trying to
[17:36]trying to overwrite my reality. I won't
[17:39]let them do that because that's eraser
[17:41]and it's unacceptable and it shouldn't
[17:44]happen especially as a volunteer where
[17:46]you are literally just
[17:50]um
[17:52]working for a state agency, you know, uh
[17:55]government like public works
[17:58]and just trying to be a valued asset to
[18:00]them. And a couple of people who are
[18:03]abusive get in the way of that and
[18:05]there's no recourse. There's nothing you
[18:07]can do about it. There's no one you can
[18:08]go to.
[18:10]It's just
[18:14]shocking. I tried to fix it. So, several
[18:18]months later, I write an open letter to
[18:20]the director of Oregon State Parks,
[18:22]lease assumption.
[18:24]Wonderful letter. And within 12 hours,
[18:26]she responds to it with procedural
[18:28]language and deflection. And I hear
[18:30]nothing for many, many months. I had
[18:33]also submitted a public records request
[18:35]because very good at looking at patterns
[18:38]and if they had given me those documents
[18:40]I would have been able to prove that
[18:41]this isn't just about me. This is this
[18:43]is how they operate. But they spent 90
[18:46]days uh pretending they had replied um
[18:51]but they had put it behind a portal that
[18:52]I didn't have access to that they didn't
[18:54]tell me about for 90 days.
[18:57]So
[18:58]I withdrew that because that became
[19:00]evidence as far as I'm concerned. And
[19:01]that was obstruction right there.
[19:04]And then in December, I contacted her
[19:06]again and she tried to reframe my
[19:09]documentation, my archive as emotional
[19:11]processing, that is the laundering of my
[19:13]experience into pathization
[19:15]in order to discredit it. That's what
[19:18]she did.
[19:19]From that point forward,
[19:23]I contacted the governor. I haven't
[19:24]heard from her.
[19:26]Um, not even an acknowledgement. And
[19:28]that's where we are now.
[19:32]For nine months,
[19:35]I have been directly next door to where
[19:38]this all happened at Honeyman State Park
[19:39]on the Oregon coast
[19:42]in the Oregon Dunes
[19:46]as a volunteer for nine months. Promoted
[19:47]twice. Been on several different
[19:49]campgrounds, promoted to caretaker. Uh
[19:52]given a work truck, a route uh that I
[19:55]have to complete every day. Trust
[20:02]which just shows
[20:05]I mean
[20:08]it is so black and white what happened
[20:10]to me and they're just trying to ignore
[20:13]it because they have they have no def
[20:16]defense for this. So they're just being
[20:18]quiet. There's nothing they can say. Uh
[20:21]they're shielding everybody. Everybody.
[20:24]The ones who abused me, the ones who
[20:26]covered it up, the ones who won't
[20:28]acknowledge it.
[20:34]I want you to ask yourself,
[20:37]say how you want our government to
[20:38]operate.
[20:43]I was not treated fairly.
[20:45]I was abused for two months.
[20:49]I know my language is very direct, but
[20:53]when you are describing things like
[20:54]this, you need to be you need clarity.
[20:58]You need to be able to speak about them
[20:59]with clarity.
[21:01]Um
[21:03]or it gets laundered
[21:05]into something it never was. Flattened
[21:08]into something it never was.
[21:12]So,
[21:15]this is not going away. I've already
[21:18]built the archive. It is comprehensive
[21:20]and I invite you to go look at it.