A negotiated settlement has ended a legal fight between the operator of CAHOOTS crisis services and a nonprofit founded to restart mobile responder services in Eugene.

The long-running CAHOOTS program in Eugene ended April 2025 after decades of responding to people in mental health crises.

Financial struggles involving the nonprofit White Bird Clinic, which started CAHOOTS in 1989, led the city of Eugene and White Bird to end their contract. White Bird CAHOOTS still operates in Springfield.

Former White Bird employees last year launched a nonprofit called Willamette Valley Crisis Care to bring back to Eugene mobile integrated health community responder services. 

White Bird alleged in a lawsuit, however, that one of the new nonprofit’s founders, Alese “Dandy” Colehour, just before resigning from White Bird downloaded computer files onto a personal device without permission.

The lawsuit alleged the files contained patient information along with in-house materials such as training manuals. White Bird asked a judge to block the use of the files and to order their return.

A joint status report filed Wednesday, May 13, in U.S. District Court in Eugene said the organizations “negotiated a settlement of this dispute.”

No other details were given, and attorneys for Willamette Valley Crisis Care declined to comment. An attorney for White Bird Clinic did not respond Thursday to an email and phone message asking about the settlement.

Since the filing of the lawsuit, Willamette Valley Crisis Care submitted a bid for mobile response services to the city of Eugene, but in April was passed over in favor of a peer navigator pilot program run by Ideal Option.