Posted January 2021
Staff Editor
When 15-year-old Franklin High School sophomore Fallon Smart was killed on Aug. 20, 2016 by 20-year-old Portland Community College student Abdulahraman Sameer Noorah, a Saudi national who then fled to Saudi Arabia, the story went viral, including a story by 60 Minutes, leading to an extended legal battle still being fought today.
Fallon Smart had been shopping in Southeast Portland when her mother, Fawn Lengvenis and two younger siblings, came to pick her up. She was crossing Hawthorn Boulevard and 43rd Street when she was hit by Noorah’s car. Lengvenis left her younger daughter with a stranger and ran to Fallon, with her other young son in her arms.
“So, I threw my body onto the cement next to her and was holding her hand, looking her in the eye,” said Fawn to 60 Minutes. “And we, Fallon and I, made eye contact. And she was just looking back at me kind of in shock. And, at first, I remember saying her name softly. You know, like, ‘Fallon, it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay.’ But then when her gaze turned from acknowledgment and eye contact, and then kind of faded away into emptiness. I remember shouting her name louder and louder, as if maybe perhaps it would wake her up or something, I don't know. Because when the ambulance finally made it there, I still had it in my head that we would get in the ambulance and go to the hospital. Like, that's what we were going to do. So, when the ambulance came, the original man who was giving CPR to my daughter came over to me and told me that she was dead. And I remember trying to negotiate with him, like, ‘No, you don't understand. She's—she's not dead because she is about to graduate. And she's going to graduate high school with a year of extra credits. And then I remember, like, wailing for a while.”
Noorah was speeding, driving between 55 and 70 mph, 30 to 35 mph above the speed limit when Fallon was hit crossing Hawthorne. Noorah was allegedly passing vehicles illegally in the center lane in a Gold Lexus. He fled the scene, but returned later and was arrested. Fallon died on the scene. Noorah was a Saudi citizen who was in the U.S. on a school scholarship. He was held on $1 million bail on the charges of manslaughter, a felony hit-and-run, and reckless driving. Noorah only had to pay $100,000 to be released. He bailed out of jail on Sept. 9, 2016, and was placed on house arrest.
“Well, I don't believe that Mr. Noorah had any access to that kind of money [in reference to Noorah’s bail],” stated Shawn Overstreet, the case prosecutor, to 60 Minutes. “Saudi Consulate provided the $100,000 to Mr. Noorah so that he could bail himself out.”
This bail payment was allowed to transpire due to Noorah’s public defender, saying that Noorah should be released because he wasn’t a flight risk. This statement was proven incorrect after Noorah disabled his GPS ankle monitor, was picked up by a black SUV in June 2017, and fled the country. U.S. marshals have confirmed that Noorah is in Saudi Arabia, but it is unclear how he got there. Marshalls, along with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Office of International Affairs, have continuously investigated the travel path of Noorah and who assisted him to flee the states, though it is suspected that Norrah’s flight was assisted by the Saudi government.
Portland City Council members were set to vote on the approval of a $395,000 settlement with Fallon’s family in April of 2020. The settlement is being offered because the City of Portland could be liable for damages in Fallon’s death. Portland, through the Bureau of Transportation, was accused of negligence for not making the intersection of Southeast Hawthorne and 43rd safer for pedestrians. At the time of Fallon’s death, the intersection did not have a marked crosswalk. City officials had reported 420 previous crashes that resulted in nine people seriously injured and one person killed along the one-mile stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard between Southeast 30th Avenue and 50th Avenue, from 2005 to 2014. The city has added marked crosswalks, a center median, and a pedestrian crossing sign at the intersection, along with lowering the speed limit along the streets from 25 mph to 20 mph.
Along with Portland, the company American Homestay Network (AHN) located in Redmond, Washington, is also being sued by the estate of Fallon Smart. AHN was the company that Noorah used to get housing during his studies in Portland. AHN made multiple missteps that contributed to the hit-and-run. Noorah’s driving record wasn’t monitored by AHN as it should have been. Noorah had 17 parking violations and a suspended license for driving without insurance. The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM), which financed Noorah’s studies and living expenses, was also not advised on the dangers that Noorah posed as a driver, nor was there provided safety rules or training for student clients or host families. According to the Smart estate’s lawsuit, American Homestay, “knew, or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known, of the multiple instances of Saudi students fleeing prosecution in this country.” The estate seeks $2 million for Fallon Smart’s pain and suffering; $12 million for her parents’ loss of a daughter, and $1.75 million for estimated losses to the estate. Read the full lawsuit here. Attorneys J. Randolph Pickett, Christopher Larsen, and Kimberly Weingart represent the estate.
As of Jan. 2020, the intersection of Hawthorne and 43rd, where Fallon was hit and killed, still has a memorial in her honor. Flowers, letters, and other small gifts commemorate Fallon and remind passersby of the changes her family has strived to make—and the legal battle they continue to fight.
