Tag: Oregon

Steve Duin: The curious disappearance of Wayne Faulk Other Victims of Ana Yela Susan King Abusers Ann Yela Fiduciary As the snow piled up last week and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler begged us to be vigilant about our most vulnerable neighbors, people began calling me about Wayne Faulk. He is a gentle 72-year-old, ferociously attached to the 40-acre Oregon City farm where he has lived most of his life. In the years since his parents died, he has made almost daily two-mile walks from that farm to the Redland Store, often picking up cans so he can afford soda pop or a packet of lunchmeat. But after Kenneth Stewart, a Clackamas County circuit judge pro tem, assigned him a limited guardian and conservator in October, Faulk vanished from that daily routine. Because Faulk has for years expressed so much anxiety about leaving the farm, many of his friends and neighbors were frantic. When someone spotted him at the Best Western Rivershore Hotel in Oregon City, 10 people showed up just before Thanksgiving, hoping to talk to Faulk and his caregivers. That didn’t sit well with Ann Yela, the new guardian. When Bob Norton later asked Yela if his family could host Faulk at their home for Christmas dinner, he said, “We were told, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do that. For his safety.’ “The secrecy and hostility is the first red flag,” says Norton, who works for Clackamas Fire District No. 1. “If everything is on the up-and-up, why wouldn’t they allow folks to see him and visit him? Why are we seen as a threat?” Looking for answers, the Redland community called me. They called me because I wrote about Yela’s firm, Farley Piazza LLC, five years ago in the… Read More