Portland Police Bureau's July
report on police misconduct cases heard before its Police Review Board shows
several officers resigned while facing discipline, including a captain. (The
Oregonian/File)
By Maxine Bernstein |
mbernstein@oregonian.com
Several Portland police bureau
members resigned in the face of discipline in the last year, according to the
bureau's latest quarterly report on internal Police Review Board hearings.
Capt. Ed Hamann resigned as he
was under investigation for unwanted sexual contact with a female officer while
off-duty in 1997. The 1997 encounter was witnessed by other off-duty Portland
officers, who were questioned as part of the internal inquiry.
The matter arose more than a
decade later after a female officer questioned Hamann's assignment to lead the
bureau's Family Services Division last summer, in light of her complaint about
Hamann's inappropriate behavior 16 years earlier.
"There is no statute of
limitations written into the directives, which is why it was thoroughly
investigated through the PRB (police review board) process,'' the bureau's
summary said.
The Police Review Board found
that although the incident occurred nearly two decades ago, the officer's
behavior "was not only a violation of policy but runs counter to the
professional culture of the PPB.'' Several voting members called Hamann's
actions "reprehensible.''
The matter came before the
board after Hamann already had resigned. The board said it would recommend
"significant discipline'' if Hamann was still employed. If he had been
investigated and disciplined at the time of the incident, he'd likely face
either a demotion, significant suspension or possibly termination, the board
said.
The bureau does not identify
the officers involved in the disciplinary actions, but in cases that its
familiar with, The Oregonian will name the officers.
In other cases summarized:
-Officer Jason Lobaugh resigned
following multiple internal affairs investigations. He got into an argument
over the phone with his ex-wife's husband, and called him a coward. Lobaugh
then proposed meeting the ex-wife's husband at a Fred Meyer to fight. They met
at a Fred Meyer, and the officer confronted the ex-wife's husband and taunted
him to hit him. The husband declined and left. The Police Review Board found
the officer was unprofessional and said he had directly violated Cmdr. Donna
Henderson's expressed orders in a written memo from November 2012. The board
also found the officer's actions were part of an "extensive pattern'' of
sustained misconduct, not an isolated incident. In a separate inquiry, the
board also found Lobaugh had inappropriately talked to a juror while he was a
witness in a case at trial, saying something like, "' I wanna let you
know, the detective on this case is outstanding.' ''
-An officer resigned while
under investigation for not being truthful about having other employment while
he was on an educational leave of absence. The board would have recommended the
officer be terminated if he hadn't resigned, the bureau summary said.
-The board unanimously
recommended the firing of an officer who it found had been untruthful to a
sergeant about when she submitted a burglary report. The officer also claimed
to have been treated for memory loss at the time, but the documentation of the
medical ailment did not support that assertion, the board found. The same
officer had gone to a call in a remote part of the city and approached an uncooperative
suspect without waiting for a back-up officer, and was assaulted. The chief
instead gave the officer an 80-hour suspension without pay, finding on his own
that the untruthfulness allegation had been unproven.
-The board unanimously
recommended the firing of an officer who inappropriately deployed a Taser when
a suspect already was under control, injuring both the suspect and another
officer. The board found the officer used the Taser "out of nowhere,'' and
its use was inappropriate. The chief, instead, gave the officer an 80-hour
suspension without pay with a last-chance agreement, meaning if the officers
messes up again, the officer will be discharged.
-An officer, following his or
her fourth preventable accident on duty, resigned before facing discipline.
-Lt. Jeff Miller, a 25-year
bureau employee, was found to have been doing a "considerable amount of''
personal business on his bureau computer while on duty. Another lieutenant
competing for a captain's promotion reported the alleged misconduct. Miller
made an effort to find out who reported his actions and confronted his
colleague as an internal affairs inquiry was pending, according to the bureau's
summary. Miller was given a letter of reprimand.
