Oregon State Hospital faces a $2.5 million wrongful death lawsuit after a patient died at the hospital in 2024 of a fentanyl overdose, allegedly after a visitor slipped it to him and staffers failed to stop the exchange.
Diane Jennison, the mother and estate representative of Roy Bennett Jr., filed the lawsuit in Marion County Circuit Court Monday, May 18.
The May 2024 death is among five unexpected patient deaths at the facility since November 2023, including a death in April 2025 involving Kenneth Hass, a patient from Lane County. The unusually high number of patient fatalities, including the overdose, is acknowledged in a confidential internal report into the Lane County patient’s death that Lookout Eugene-Springfield obtained and previously reported. In that report, staff said there was a “culture of complacency.”…