Did Kulongoski know?

Gov. Ted Kulongoski walked out of a news conference about a terrorism drill on Tuesday after a television reporter asked him if he knew anything about former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sexual abuse a of 14-year-old girl before it became public in 2004.

Kulongoski was part of a briefing on the progress of TOPOFF, a national exercise to test the readiness of state, local and federal agencies to respond to a terrorist attack or a national disaster.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency had told reporters the governor and other officials were only going to take questions about the drill, and any other matters would be referred to the individual officials.

But Pat Dooris of KGW-TV in Portland asked Kulongoski if he had any prior knowledge about Goldschmidt, complaining the governor had refused to return calls or appear on camera.

Kulongoski did not respond and told aides he was leaving, angrily walking off the makeshift stage set up at the TOPOFF exercise at Portland International Raceway and leaving FEMA Chief David Paulison and Portland Mayor Tom Potter to finish the press conference.

On Monday, Portland talk radio host Lars Larson of KXL-AM filed a complaint with the Oregon State Bar, asking it to investigate whether Kulongoski–a lawyer and former state Supreme Court justice–knew about Goldschmidt but did not report it.

Kulongoski has denied knowing anything about Goldschmidt having sex with a girl when Goldschmidt was mayor of Portland in the 1970s.

The Oregonian newspaper has reported that former Goldschmidt speechwriter Fred Leonhardt claims he told Kulongoski about the abuse as far back as 1994. Kulongoski has said repeatedly that Leonhardt made no such comment to him.

Leonhardt said he learned about it from Bernie Giusto, a former state police officer when Goldschmidt was governor in the late 1980s, serving as his bodyguard and driver.

Giusto, now the Multnomah County sheriff, is under investigation by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to determine whether he lied about his knowledge of the abuse. Leonhardt’s testimony is key to that investigation.