HRC Co-founder Charged with Boy's Sex Abuse

A board member and co-founder of the national Human Rights Campaign with connections to San Francisco is facing charges that he and his ex-boyfriend had sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Terrence "Terry" Patrick Bean, 66, the HRC co-founder, and Kiah Loy Lawson, 25, were booked into custody last week after Lane County, Oregon grand jurors indicted them on two counts of sodomy in the third degree and sex abuse in the third degree, Sergeant Pete Simpson, a Portland, Oregon police spokesman, said in a news release.

Simpson said detectives from the Sex Crime Unit arrested Bean Wednesday, November 19 at his Southwest Portland home "after a Lane County Grand Jury indicted him on charges related to a 2013 incident with a juvenile male."

Bean was booked into Multnomah County (Oregon) Jail Wednesday, Simpson said. He was released the same day on $50,000 bail, according to Lieutenant Steve Alexander, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Sherriff's office. He is expected to be arraigned December 3 in Lane County.

Simpson said Lawson, who according to media reports is Bean's ex, "turned himself in to police" and detectives booked him into Multnomah County Jail Thursday, November 20.

Lawson pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday, according to a Lane County court staffer. Alexander said records indicated he was extradited to Lane County last Thursday. Information from the Lane County Sherriff's office wasn't immediately available Monday.

Kristen Winemiller, Bean's attorney, said in a statement, "Over the course of several months in 2013-2014 Terry was the victim of an extortion ring led by several men known to law enforcement. This current arrest is connected to the ongoing investigation of that case in which Mr. Bean has fully cooperated. No allegations against Terry Bean should be taken at face value."

Asked for more details about the extortion ring, Alexis Dane, a spokeswoman for Winemiller, said in an email, " All I have to give you right now is that statement. ... [W]e can't answer any questions that could interfere with the investigation."

The public defender representing Lawson didn't immediately respond to an interview request. Neither Bean nor Lawson directly responded to requests for comment.

Jimmy Green, Bean's personal assistant, said Bean "is not taking any press calls at this time."

'A One-Day Event'

According to media reports, the juvenile victim was 15. As the Advocate magazine noted, the Oregonian (Portland) newspaper reported that Bean and Lawson met the boy through the Grindr hookup app and had sex with him in a Eugene hotel in September.

Lori Deveny, the boy's attorney, told the Bay Area Reporter that the hotel meet-up "was a one-day event." She wouldn't say where the teen lives, and she couldn't comment on whether there are any other victims.

"I only represent the 15-year-old boy," Deveny said.

She wouldn't discuss what the boy had been doing on Grindr.

"Frankly, that's not the focus," she said. "That's making it about the victim. It's not about the victim."

Deveny said the boy's "been traumatized because two adults had sex with him. ... Those adults need to be held accountable."

Attorney Jeffrey Dickey represented Lawson in a civil action against Bean for invasion of privacy after Lawson discovered Bean had made "surreptitious recordings of everything in his bedroom." According to Dickey, those filmed activities included Bean engaged in sexual acts with Lawson and other men.

Dickey, who said Lawson led police to the 15-year-old victim, confirmed a June Willamette Week newspaper report that Bean had been paying Lawson.

"He paid Kiah $400 a week, on average," he said, adding, "Some would call it a salary."

Asked whether some would call it prostitution, Dickey said, "Kiah had true feelings" for Bean. "He was so torn up over this when he found out Terry cheated."

Lawson made that discovery in January after seeing security footage on Bean's iPad that showed Bean with another man, he said. Dickey said there had been "half a dozen other victims" who were "all pretty young." According to Willamette Week, an agreement was reached in May in the civil action.

"Kiah was really enamored by Terry," and "the power and privilege, and getting private tours of the White House," and other perks, Dickey said. Lawson "would have done anything" Bean wanted.

Copies of indictments and affidavits in the case, which would likely provide details supporting the allegations against Bean and Lawson, weren't immediately available. Simpson, of the Portland police, didn't respond to emailed questions Monday about the case.

A Lane County court staffer said Friday that Lawson had previously faced charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle, and possession of methamphetamine, but those had been dismissed in September due to a lack of evidence.

According to Bean's website, he co-founded the Gay Rights National Lobby and the Human Rights Campaign Fund, which merged to become the Human Rights Campaign. He was also a major fundraiser for President Barack Obama and others.

HRC said that Bean has stepped down from the organization's board.

"Mr. Bean has decided to voluntarily take a leave of absence from the HRC board until the matter is resolved," HRC said in an email sent from staffer Jason Rahlan.

Grindr sent the B.A.R. a statement that said the company "treats the age restriction per our terms of policy very seriously and require users to be at a minimum age of 18 years old. ... However, as a matter of policy, Grindr does not disclose details of specific incidents that are pending investigation."

San Francisco Connections

Locally, Bean is also known as the executor of the estate of Charles "Chuck" Holmes, the founder of the Falcon Studios porn company. Holmes died in 2000.

Gay San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener worked with Bean when Wiener was on the board of the city's LGBT Community Center. The center's campus was named after Holmes in 2002. Wiener also served with Bean as an HRC board member.

Wiener didn't know about the allegations against Bean, who was also a friend of late B.A.R. co-founder Bob Ross, and declined to comment on the charges.

However, he said, "I always experienced [Bean] to be a wonderful person." He was "very smart and generous and engaged, someone who was a true leader in the national LGBT community."