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"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Several Portland police resigned while under investigation, bureau's quarterly discipline report shows



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.