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Teen, parents hit with state lawsuit SAIF seeks funds paid to electrocuted worker By CHRIS BRISTOL A teenager who was convicted of booby-trapping a light switch that severely shocked a North Medford High School employee has been sued by the state for more than $24,000 in medical damages. An Oregon assistant attorney general filed the complaint April 4 in Jackson County Circuit Court on behalf of SAIF Corporation, the quasi-public workers' compensation agency that paid North Medford employee Pat McLinn's medical bills and lost wages. The complaint also names the teen's parents, Don and Stephanie Martel, as co-defendants. However, their liability is capped by law at $7,500. McLinn, a campus monitor, was nearly electrocuted April 7, 1998, when she stuck a special key into a bathroom light switch. Authorities later determined the key slot inside the switch had been tampered with, exposing live wires. After school officials offered a reward, the defendant and his locker partner were identified as suspects in a number of vandalism acts around school, including the McLinn incident. The boys were 16-year-old sophomores at the time. A Jackson County juvenile judge convicted the defendant last year of third-degree felony assault and two counts of second-degree criminal mischief. The boy was expelled from school and sentenced to 16 days in detention, plus four months at a private boys ranch to be paid for by his parents. In addition, the judge ordered the defendant to perform 150 hours of community service and pay $2,250 in restitution, including $1,000 in compensation to McLinn. The lawsuit seeks just over $24,000 in medical damages -- McLinn suffered lingering neurological damage from the 277-volt blast -- and nearly $1,500 in lost wages. The state also wants future costs. McLinn remains on the job. Testimony at trial indicated the boys pried latches and faceplates from fixtures around school, which they kept as souvenirs. They shared a locker because someone else had vandalized the defendant's own locker. Although the boys admitted tampering with a fixture that nearly zapped a school janitor, the defendant insisted at trial that he had not booby-trapped the light switch that injured McLinn. Instead, he accused the police of coercing incriminating statements from him. After the trial, the Martel family placed posters in the neighborhoods near the high school seeking information that could exonerate the boy, now 18. To date McLinn has not sued the defendant or his family. Throughout his interview with police, the boy repeatedly worried aloud that his parents could lose their house if he confessed. The boy's name has been voluntarily withheld by the Mail Tribune, which typically identifies youthful suspects and defendants only in cases involving Measure 11 felony offenses. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA