Investigative reporter Nigel Jaquiss '84 received a Pulitzer Prize April 4 for exposing former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt's sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old female babysitter. Jaquiss unearthed the incident in May, after an emotionally harrowing two-month pursuit of the story that had been concealed for three decades.
Jaquiss' paper, The Willamette Weekly, with an editorial staff of 12, is only the third weekly paper in history to receive journalism's top award.
"It was completely unexpected," Jaquiss said. "The only similar feeling I've ever experienced was when my children have been born, when you have this strange mix of shock, fear and excitement."
An unofficial list of Pulitzer finalists leaked out last month, but Jaquiss said he was "very superstitious about the whole thing" and did not tell any of his colleagues that his name was on the list.
On the morning of April 4, the day the winners were to be announced, Jaquiss said he dropped his children off at school and tried to stay calm as he waited for the noon notification. Rumors were buzzing that he had won, and other papers called to congratulate him, but the official statement was slow in coming.
"A photographer from the Associated Press had come over and was standing behind me, and I was really nervous," Jaquiss said. "12:15, 12:30, and no news, and I had this awful feeling that maybe it wasn't true."
His fears were soon assuaged when the phone finally rang, and Western Union read him a telegram from Columbia stating that he had won the prize. Jaquiss said his family members, who were in the editor's office when the news arrived, were tremendously excited.
"My daughter, who is three, was probably kind of confused by the whole thing, wondering why people were dumping champagne on her father's head," Jaquiss said, laughing.
Jaquiss said that his wife, whom he met on the DOC's Canoe Trip to the Sea during his senior year at Dartmouth, has made tremendous sacrifices for Jaquiss to work as much as he does. She encouraged him to change careers seven years ago, at age 35, from oil trader to journalist, Jaquiss said. During his two-month investigation, Jaquiss said he worked on the story every waking hour, seven days a week.
"I lived in a state of constant fear that I would get beaten," he said. "There was also the danger that Goldschmidt could go after us in court or he and his friends could have influenced advertisers. It's hard to describe how influential [Goldschmidt] is in the state."
Jaquiss was almost beat to the story. As a last-ditch effort to contain the damage to his reputation, Goldschmidt confessed the scandal to a large daily paper, The Oregonian, days before the Willamette Weekly could go to press. The Willamette Weekly, however, hurriedly published a summary of the story online in order to avoid "getting scooped." Television and radio stations picked up the article immediately.
The superior coverage of the Willamette Weekly was further recognized after The Oregonian blundered in its reporting. The paper referred to the three-year sexual relationship as an affair, even though the abuse is considered rape in the state of Oregon due to the age of the female involved.
"It seemed things would turn out badly when [Goldschmidt] went to The Oregonian, but in retrospect it couldn't have gone better," Jaquiss said.
Jaquiss' story spurred Goldschmidt's immediate resignation from the state's board of higher education and the Oregon Electric Utility Co., but the story's impact will resonate for years to come. The current governor of Oregon is a protg of Goldschmitt's, and the announced Republican candidate for the next gubernatorial election is one of his associates.
"Two of three announced gubernatorial candidates for 2006 are former close Goldschmidt associates; that means there will be a lot of mudslinging in the next election," Jaquiss said.
