Survivors Say Oregon Youth Prison Doctor Abused Them for Years as Staff Looked Away

Another 11 men were added to the federal lawsuit, filed in Portland, against the MacLaren Youth Prison in Woodburn. The 73 Plaintiffs allege that Dr. Edward Gary Edwards, nicknamed “Dr. Cold Fingers,” groped them during exams.

Oregon Youth Prison Abuse Allegations Revolve Around Doctor Groping Prisoners

Dr Edwards, who died in February at 87, worked in the medical clinic of MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility, Oregon’s largest youth prison, for more than 40 years—nicknamed ‘Dr. Cold Fingers’ because he routinely groped boys with his ungloved hands,  73 men alleged that the doctor abused them while they were examined.

The plaintiffs also say that staff working at the Woodburn prison ignored complaints about Edwards and sometimes threatened to send prisoners to Edwards as punishment. The allegations in the Maclaren lawsuit include:

• Alleged sexual battery by Edwards and negligence and civil rights violations by Oregon Youth Authority leaders.
• That one 14-year-old boy was as young as 14
• At least one boy or a family member of that boy had reported alleged abuse to the Oregon State Police in 2007. Yet, Edwards remained in his job at the youth prison for another 10 years.
• One abuse was reported to a female employee and another to a security guard, but both failed to intervene or alert others in the prison.
• Staff “would ridicule and humiliate” boys who spoke up instead of taking steps to investigate the complaints, leading to bullying or assaults by other youth.
• A plaintiff, identified as B.W.H., alleged Edwards threatened to send him to solitary confinement, aka the “hole,” if he reported that the doctor had tried to force him to touch the doctor’s genitals.
• A former MacLaren gym teacher, Susan Baumgartner, now 51, has also been accused of sexually abusing a boy in 2001 and 2002 when he changed clothes in the bathroom for gym. Baumgartner was eventually removed from her job and later married a prisoner before moving to Arizona.

A magistrate judge will oversee potential settlement negotiations should either side seek to resolve their case before trial. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane has set Nov. 1, 2026, as the start of the first trial, although it is still unclear whether the complaints will be consolidated into a single trial or there will be multiple separate trials.