Twenty-two new documents were released to the media on August 8, 2010 from discovery for Chasse v Humphreys et al, settled by the City of Portland for $1.6 million dollars on about July 28. More will be released soon.
The 22 documents are listed below. Each are non-searchable PDF documents.
The newly-elected Portland police union president released a statement this afternoon, citing his association’s support for the officers involved in the death-in-custody case of James P. Chasse Jr.
“The officers and supervisors who responded to the incident followed their Portland Police Bureau training according to the policies and procedures at that time. Since then, Bureau policies have changed, attempting to adapt to law enforcement’s changing role in society,” wrote Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association. “The PPA will continue to support Officers Chris Humphreys and Bret Burton, and Sergeant Kyle Nice. We will work to vindicate their names, careers and integrity.”
The statement was released a day after the City Council voted 4 to 0 to pay $1.6 million to settle the Chasse family’s federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
The union’s full statement is below:
“Since 2006, the Portland Police Association has seen the death of James Chasse as a tragic accident. His family was devastated and the lives of the officers involved have been changed forever.
The officers and supervisor who responded to the incident followed their Portland Police Bureau training according to the policies and procedures at that time. Since then, Bureau policies have changed, attempting to adapt to law enforcement’s changing role in society. The PPA will continue to support Officers Chris Humphreys and Bret Burton, and Sergeant Kyle Nice. We will work to vindicate their names, careers and integrity.
Vilifying law enforcement masks the real issue of the broken mental health system in Oregon. The system has been stripped of its staffing, funding and resources by local and state government. A 2010 study by the Treatment Advocacy Center ranks Oregon 36th in the nation in per capita expenditures by its state mental health authority.
Across the country, law enforcement management is all too aware that jails and prisons have become modern-day mental hospitals, returning our mentally ill to conditions of the early nineteenth century where 15-20% of incarcerated inmates suffered serious mental illness.
We look forward to participating with the community and the City to find innovative and appropriate solutions to better protect and care for our mentally ill citizens.”
Outside consultants shared with the Portland City Council Wednesday night the gaps and unasked questions in the police investigation of James P. Chasse Jr.’s death in custody, hours after the council approved a settlement of $1.6 million, the city’s largest, in a federal suit.
Police Chief Mike Reese apologized for Chasse’s death and said officers must do their jobs in a “more thoughtful and collaborative manner” with outside agencies. He called the three-year delay in the Police Bureau’s internal review “completely unacceptable.”
“We cannot change the outcome of what happened Sept. 17, 2006,” Reese said. “I’m very sorry for this tragic event and for the suffering that it caused.”
The chief said he agreed with the majority of the 27 recommendations offered by the California-based OIR Group and hoped they would help mend the rift between the bureau and the community.
Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade ordered that report. It recommended a range of reforms, among them requiring police to conduct face-to-face interviews with civilian witnesses and sending internal affairs investigators out to a scene immediately.
But the attorney who brought the wrongful-death lawsuit against the city for Chasse’s family said the consultants’ report got facts wrong and overlooked the bureau’s systemic failure to hold its officers and supervisors accountable.
Attorney Tom Steenson said the facts of the case were that officers who were involved in Chasse’s death changed their accounts of what occurred during the inquiry. They were not upfront with medical personnel about their use of force, they falsely suggested bread crumbs that Chasse dropped were cocaine when he had no drugs on him, and they lied to witnesses about Chasse’s past.
“There has been a consistent and repeated effort, conscious or otherwise, resulting in a failure to discipline officers,” Steenson said. “As a result, I believe they can act in impunity in the use of excessive force and can lie about it and attempt to cover it up.”
Other community members agreed, saying they were disappointed there’s been no serious accountability for the three officers who confronted Chasse. Officer Chris Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice received two-week unpaid suspensions. Bret Burton, a Multnomah County sheriff’s deputy at the time, was not disciplined and has since been hired by Portland police.
Community members also disputed police suggestions that Chasse’s death marked a failure of the mental health system.
“In almost four years of review, no police officers were held accountable. No indictment, no crime, no personal accountability … ,” said Jason Renaud, a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland who knew Chasse.
“Until you have the powers to act publicly and decisively in response to a critical incident, you cannot give assurance what happened to James Chasse will not happen again,” Renaud said. “What happened to James Chasse was not a failure of the system, of the institution, of the city. It was an unforgivable failure of three individual officers.”
Earlier Wednesday, city commissioners approved the $1.6 million settlement to Chasse’s family by a 4-0 vote. The agreement had been announced in May. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was not present. Mayor Sam Adams, ill at home with strep throat, voted by phone; he also participated by phone in Wednesday evening’s session.
On Sept. 17, 2006, police thought Chasse, 42, who had schizophrenia, might have urinated in the street in the Pearl District and tried to stop him. They chased him and knocked him to the ground, then wrestled with him to arrest him.
Multnomah County jail staff refused to book him because of his medical condition. He died in police custody en route to a hospital.
An autopsy found he died of broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest. He suffered 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured his left lung.
The consultants said the three-year pace of the internal investigation was a “letdown” to the community. They found Multnomah County refused to allow its employees to be interviewed by internal affairs investigators until after they were deposed in the civil suit. Also, AMR ambulance staff refused to speak to homicide detectives until they faced grand jury subpoenas.
The report indicated that command staff steered internal affairs investigators away from looking into allegations that officers at the scene misinformed a witness by falsely claiming Chasse had 14 drug convictions. Also, the inquiry never delved into the apparent lack of supervision of the officers by then-Transit Cmdr. Donna Henderson.
Derald Walker, chief executive officer of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, stunned observers when he told the council that Henderson is now on the agency’s board of directors.
“I’m sort of surprised the commander of Transit (then) is now on the board of Cascadia. There’s some irony there,” said Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch.
Consultants also found investigators failed to question why officers carried Chasse in maximum restraints to a car, which exacerbated his injuries, and kept him there while they did paperwork across the street from jail before booking him.
Chasse’s family released a statement Wednesday, saying their decision to settle the case was not easy. However, they felt there was little to gain by going to trial, even though their lawyers advised them against the city’s final offer.
“We are relieved that the case has settled, but it is a very rough form of justice: the truth is that a civil suit seems to be the only form of justice that our local system will allow when police are involved in a killing,” their statement said.
They ended their statement with a tribute to Chasse, a “painfully shy” man who preferred comic books about superheroes over talking.
“James, may you rest in peace. We love you and miss you.”
In general, the Mental Health Association of Portland supports and appreciates this report on what happened to James Chasse. It’s what we expect from a diligent police commissioner in response to a critical incident.
The OIR report has a tiny, potent argument, designed to defuse criticism surrounding the brutal death of James Chasse.
The argument is this, “it must be recognized that the Portland Police Bureau of 2010 is not the Portland Police Bureau of 2006.”
Nice rhetoric, perhaps meant to illuminate the wound to bureaucracy, but entirely superficial to the interest of justice. The interest of justice remains fixed on September 16, 2006.
In review, police officers were not held accountable. No indictment, no crime, no personal accountability. The mayor, the police commissioner, the police chief were irrelevant, without powers, without the ability to act.
Almost four years and no one has been held accountable for the brutal death of James Chasse. No human being. No person. No person who was directly responsible for his death. No person who tackled him, kicked him, punched him, Tasered him. No person named Kyle Nice. No person named Bret Burton. No person named Christopher Humphreys.
No persons.
Until you have the powers to act publicly and decisively in response to a critical incident – you cannot give assurance what happened to James Chasse will not happen again.
Understand this – James Chasse had a mental illness. That’s why our organization has followed this case for over three years. But Jim did not die from his mental illness. It played no part in his death. To blame him, to blame his illness, to blame the mental health system for his death is intentionally misleading.
What happened to James Chasse was not a failure of the system, of the institution, of the city. It was an unforgivable failure of three individual officers. You’ve tried to shoulder some of this burden, because of a police contract, concern over a civil lawsuit, because of your personal uneasiness with authority, because of the antagonistic relationship between the police and civilian oversight. But it’s not a burden to be shouldered – it’s a stain.
What Humphreys, Burton and Nice did is unforgivable. They will never be trusted as police officers. Their colleagues who work with them are all stained. When you speak to their right to privacy, to a career, when you represent them legally, you are stained.
The task of a politician is to give a human voice to law, to policy and procedure, to speak to the community about the actions of the city. You and your predecessors were ill-advised to be silent. That duration of silence eroded trust and confidence. That seems to be changing – and accepting the recommendations of the Report to the City of Portland Concerning the In-Custody Death of James Chasse is really your first step forward.
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman issued an apology this afternoon to the family of James P. Chasse Jr. as he announced the $1.6 million settlement the city reached with the Chasse family in their federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against Portland police.
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and deputy city attorney Jim Rice hold a press conference
The city of Portland and the Chasse family reached the deal — the largest settlement of a tort claim in the city’s history — about 4 p.m. Monday after a full day of negotiations with U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken mediating. It still must be approved by the City Council, possibly as early as next Wednesday.
“I believe this proposal to be in the best interest of our city and community,” Saltzman said, speaking in the atrium of City Hall. “I would like to express my deepest apology on behalf of the city to the Chasse family for the loss of their son and brother.”
Saltzman said both sides wanted to avoid a trial, and acknowledged that had the case gone to trial in U.S. District Court, “probably the city’s image would be tarnished.”
Under the terms of the settlement, the city is expected to release the Portland police internal affairs investigative report and its training division’s examination of the Sept. 17, 2006, death in-custody case.
Both documents had been part of a court protective order while the lawsuit was pending. Saltzman said the documents would be released “soon,” noting that certain personal information has to be redacted before their release.
“I believe the public needs to see and fully understand the events leading up to Chasse’s death,” Saltzman said.
Tom Steenson, the Chasse family attorney, said the family is hopeful that sharing the police investigative reports and training documents from the Chasse case will “help the public in its quest for a more open and accountable Portland Police Bureau.”
The family believed that James Chasse Jr. “would have wanted the truth to come out by settling the case now” and thanked the community for supporting the family over the past 3 1/2 years, according to a statement Steenson released today.
Police Chief Rosie Sizer, in a prepared statement, said she was “relieved” by the settlement.
“And I believe that the Chasse family deserves compensation for their loss,” Sizer wrote. “I hope that James Chasse’s family also takes some comfort in the changes that the Portland police has made.”
But Sizer, who said she felt frustrated by not being able to publicly address the death-in-custody case because of the pending litigation, said today that she believes the police bureau and officers involved “have been unfairly demonized.” She called Chasse’s death a “horrible accident and not a ‘beating death,’ as Chasse’s family lawyer has argued.
Saltzman said he hopes with the settlement that the city can “begin to heal from the tragic death” of Chasse. He said the case pushed the city and county to look at how to improve services to the mentally ill, and the police bureau to improve its medical transport policy and extend crisis intervention training to all officers.
The city’s self-insurer will cover the initial $1 million, and its secondary insurance carrier will cover the remainder. None of the settlement award will come from the general fund, Saltzman said.
City Attorney Linda Meng said the city has spent more than $1 million in labor, and about $220,000 in external costs, such as paying for experts, travel, and depositions.
In a document filed in court Monday, U.S. District Court clerk Mary L. Moran filed an “order of dismissal” in the case.
The excessive force and wrongful death case involving Chasse, a 42-year-old who suffered from schizophrenia, was scheduled to go to trial next month before U.S. District Judge Garr King.
Two other defendants, Multnomah County and ambulance company American Medical Response Northwest Inc., previously settled with the family.
The county settled last summer for $925,000, removing the county and its employees as defendants. The employees included deputy Bret Burton, now a Portland police officer, who was involved in the initial struggle with Chasse and jail nurses who were accused of failing to examine or treat Chasse or call an ambulance.
AMR settled its part of the case last December for a reported $600,000. Its paramedics were accused of failing to follow their own procedures and protocols in dealing with patients who have trauma or are in altered mental states.
An April filing by the Chasse family said the city had not made an independent offer to settle since October 2007.
In addition, the city had insisted that any settlement would aim to keep secret the investigations into Chasse’s death and related training issues, family attorney Tom Steenson wrote.
The city had said in an earlier filing that the Chasse family had “declined reasonable efforts to settle.”
The original incident began when officers, including Sgt. Kyle Nice and Officer Chris Humphreys, chased Chasse down, believing he had urinated in the street. Officers knocked him to the ground at Northwest Everett Street and 13th Avenue, and struggled to handcuff him.
AMR paramedics were called to the scene but said his vital signs were normal.
Chasse was taken to the Multnomah County Detention Center and appeared to suffer a seizure while in a holding cell. The jail nurse said the jail would not book him.
Police then decided to take him to a hospital. He died in the back of the patrol car.
An autopsy revealed that Chasse died of broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest. Among the injuries, he had 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured a lung.
Asked today if the city still believes Chasse died of excited delirium, as city court papers had suggested, Saltzman deflected the question. “I think the point is we’re not going to trial.”
In response to a question about the Chasse family’s allegation that the officers tried to cover up an assault of Chasse by suggesting they found cocaine on Chasse, Deputy City Attorney Jim Rice said, “I don’t think there’s any cover up shown in this case.”
When asked where the mayor was, Saltzman looked from side to side, and quipped, “I don’t know.”
Later, Mayor Sam Adams released a prepared statement, saying the settlement closes a “very troubling chapter” in the relationship between the Police Bureau and the residents of the city.
“The Chasse family has had to endure a very public examination of what is, at the end of the day, a very personal matter – the death of a loved one and the ability to know the facts, grieve the loss, and begin to move on. Likewise, the Portland Police Bureau has operated under increased scrutiny, especially in cases involving mental illness. And while there have been positive developments in how the police manage issues of use of force and medical transport, we need to be more proactive in making additional improvements, ” the mayor said.
Steenson attended the City Hall news conference. At the end, as he walked off, Saltzman told him, “I appreciate the settlement.”
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has overruled Police Chief Rosie Sizer and ordered the suspension of Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys, after he shot a 12-year-old girl in the leg with a “less-lethal” beanbag round on Saturday night.
The action has outraged the Portland Police Association, whose president, Scott Westerman, stood in front of 37 fellow cops outside the Justice Center on SW 2nd, to protest against Saltzman for “trying to be the police chief.”
“When the Police Association first heard about this, the idea was to remove Officer Humphreys from the street, but Saltzman overrode that,” Westerman told the media this afternoon. “With no police experience, he overrode a 25-year bureau veteran and ordered the suspension of Officer Humphreys.”
WESTERMAN: OUTRAGED ON BEHALF OF THE POLICE UNION
Saltzman has declined comment on the move, personally, instead, leaving Police Chief Rosie Sizer to read from a written statement on the 15th floor of the police bureau this afternoon. Sizer also released video of the incident to reporters.
Sizer issued the following statement:
“After reviewing the video, I am troubled by it. Officer Humphreys has been placed on administrative leave and I have directed the Internal Affairs Division to conduct an immediate and full investigation into whether the use of force was justified under the totality of circumstances and whether the application of the beanbag at close range was consistent with the bureau’s training.”
Saltzman issued the following statement:
“The actions I witnessed on the video are not consistent with my expectations and what I believe are the community’s expectations for a Portland Police Officer. I directed that Officer Humphreys be immediately removed from the street and placed on administrative leave.”
Humphreys, along with Sergeant Kyle Nice and Officer Bret Burton, was one of the officers involved in the 2006 death in police custody of James Chasse, a man with schizophrenia. A lawsuit is ongoing in that case, and Chasse’s attorney, Tom Steenson, was present at the press conference as an observer this afternoon. He declined comment, but his law firm also announced its intention to sue Humphreys again earlier this year, following his alleged assault of a mentally ill woman at a Gresham MAX stop.
Sizer told the press that on Saturday night, November 14, Officer Aaron Duchy and Officer Humphreys responded to a call to assist with a large party that had just broken up involving several known gang members. Information provided to officers stated that a gun had just been recovered in bushes near the party and that 75-100 male and female teens were walking in the area of 162nd and Northeast Halsey.
The chief continued:
“Several teens went to a nearby bus stop and were angrily shouting about wanting to fight. Portland Police and Gresham Police Officers began to follow the groups to ensure they disbanded without violence. Officers Dauchy and Humphreys arrived at the MAX platform on 162nd and observed about 20-30 teens board a westbound MAX. Officer Dauchy recognized a juvenile female whom he knew to be excluded from MAX.”
Police officers on the steps of the justice center later told me that the girl had been excluded for “stealing a purse,” earlier. The chief continued:
“The officers followed the train to 148th, and went on to the MAX platform. They were the only officers on scene at that point, as other officers were responding to fight calls in the area of 162nd. As the train pulled in, Officer Dauchy recognized a juvenile male whom he also knew to be on the TriMet exclusion list. After placing the male in handcuffs, Officer Duchy called to the excluded juvenile female to also get off the train. As he began to take her into custody, she swung at him, striking him in the face and began aggressively resisting. Officer Dauchy told the female to stop resisting and he continued to struggle with her.”
“After giving repeated warnings to stop resisting or he would shoot a beanbag gun, Officer Humphreys deployed the beanbag gun to the female’s thigh at close range. She became compliant and the officers began to take her into custody when she began to resist again. Another officer arrived and the officers were able to handcuff her. Medical personnel were called and advised officers that the girl had a bruise on her thigh and did not need to be medically transported. Both juveniles were taken to the Transit Police Division for further processing and then to JDH.”
Westerman repeatedly stressed that Humphreys had shot a “170 pound person,” during his press conference in response to Sizer’s, outside the Justice Center.
Humphreys had “quickly, effectively ended a violent confrontation,” said Westerman. “This is exactly what the citizens of Portland expect police officers to do.”
Westerman was asked whether he thought Saltzman’s decision to discipline Humphreys was “political.”
“I have absolutely no doubt that the Commissioner and the Chief’s actions are as a result of the conflict at city hall,” said Westerman—City Commissioner Randy Leonard recently called Police Commissioner Saltzman a “parrot for the police chief” after he gave just two weeks off to Officers Humphreys and Nice over the Chasse incident.
“The police union can no longer tell its officers that politics do not play a part in discipline,” Westerman said. “Officer Humphreys’ action was appropriate, justified, warranted, and necessary.”
Are there any rules about shooting 12-year-olds, or shooting people with beanbag guns at close range?
“Not in the torso, but the extremities are fair game,” said Westerman. “There are no restrictions on children when a person is inflicting injury on the officer.”
Police oversight advocates are pleased with the decision.
“The people give great power to the police, the power to use force, and the people also reserve the right to revoke that power use absolutely, without argument, and at any time,” said Jason Renaud, with the Mental Health Association of Portland—an outspoken critic of Saltzman’s response to the Chasse incident, so far. “I’m glad to see the chief is acting quickly.”
“We’ve been worried about this man for three years, and we don’t think he should be a police officer,” Renaud continued, referring to Humphreys.
“Why did it take two officers wrestling with a 12-year-old girl and a third one circling her with his shotgun to take her into custody?” asks Portland Copwatch activist Dan Handleman, who has been concerned about so-called “beanbag guns” for several years.
“These aren’t beanbag guns, these are lead-pellet bag guns,” he says. “They’re filled with the pellets that you would put into a shotgun shell, except they are wrapped in a Nylon sack. Being hit by one is like being hit by a line-drive baseball at 90 miles an hour. It’s not like sitting in a beanbag chair.”
“Humphreys has several high profile use of force incidents that have been controversial,” says Handelman. “This latest incident has only occurred because of the police bureau’s failure to adequately discipline any officer that repeatedly uses excessive force.”
“Given the totality of the circumstances, Officer Humphreys should not be a police officer,” Handelman concludes.
The District Attorney’s office is prosecuting the 12 year-old girl for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and interfering with public transportation.
Meanwhile, it’s unlikely that they will be disciplined for it, but Westerman’s fellow officers may have violated police bureau directives about appearing on media and in their uniform on the Justice Center steps this afternoon. There’s also a question about the political criticism of Saltzman, who is up for re-election next year. From the cops’ rule book:
Saltzman is due to speak to the community this evening at a two-hour community event at Jefferson High School, along with Senator Chip Shields, Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, and State Representative Lew Frederick.
Update, 8:56pm:
“It’s not political,” says Police Commissioner Saltzman, in response to the Police Union’s accusations. “It’s based on what I saw on the video tape, and what I understand about policies and training, and procedure. There’ll be an investigation, and then we’ll determine if there’s going to be discipline.”
Saltzman made his comments to the Mercury after addressing a community audience at Jefferson High School this evening, on public safety. Asked by one audience member at the meeting whether he might support drug testing for officers after controversial use of force incidents, Saltzman said he “didn’t know about that.” State Senator Chip Shields said “such decisions are best left to bargaining units,” meaning the city, and the police union, in the upcoming negotiations between the police union and the city—due to begin in 2010.
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s decision on November 4 to give two weeks unpaid leave to the two of the three officers who beat James Chasse and then stood by while he died makes a mockery of justice.
His actions don’t make us any safer, or protect us from unprovoked assaults by police officers who think we look or act strange, suspicious, or merely odd.
For three years, we’ve waited patiently for a decision from Saltzman and his predecessors. Until now, they have remained silent in the midst of a legalistic game with the media, the police administration and the police union. And the civil lawsuit from the Chasse family has remained unresolved.
Meanwhile, Saltzman’s failure to act has led many of us to doubt our city officials, and mistrust their processes for defining and servicing justice.
In the next stage of the game, the police union will dispute Saltzman’s slap on the wrist. It will call his decision disrespectful, punitive – a violation of their contract. There will be huddled negotiations behind closed doors. Public relations flacks will hustle to the white board and the media will interpret smoke signals. Someone will lose their temper and say something rash. More nonsense will be presented in the form of press releases.
And the two officers will go duck hunting during their two weeks off.
Police union President Scott Westerman says that Saltzman is proposing discipline for political reasons. He’s right. Saltzman appears to be trying to appease the Portland Police Association by refraining from recommending appropriate and just findings for people who applying deadly force when they deliberately kicked a man in the head and broke nearly all his ribs.
So what options do we, the public, have when an obvious injustice has occurred and our representatives fail us?
We can get angry. And some of us are angry, but anger is an easy step toward despair. We can become apathetic, like slipping beneath ice water as a quick way to erase pain. We can pray for James’ family, and also for the officers who hurt him and failed to help him.
Or we can demand intelligence and accountability and justice from our elected officials. And we must remember who failed to act when leadership was expected.
On September 30 the Mental Health Association of Portland made seven reasonable and inexpensive suggestions to City Council to begin to repair the damage that had been done.
1. Release the full internal investigation about what happened to James Chasse. The police bureau press release is not an internal investigation.
2. Move the three officers involved with the death of James Chasse – Humphreys, Nice and Burton - off patrol duty. We don’t take seriously Westerman’s claim that, given the opportunity any or all officers would also beat and ignore Chasse, but we have no reason to expect Humphreys, Nice and Burton won’t.
3. Make a goal to reducing the use of Tasers on persons with mental illness by 50% per year for the next five years. The use of these tools has escalated to be common practice against persons with mental illness.
4. Reopen the Chief’s Forum, a scheduled open and sincere conversation about police business.
5. Form a joint effort by local governments and local police bureaus with mental health advocates to seek full funding for mental health services from the state legislature. We can all work together toward common goals which protect everyone.
6. Create a sincere, staffed and ongoing public meeting between police senior staff and persons with mental illness. The honest sharing of information builds trust and respect, regardless of differences.
7. Release the Crisis Intervention Team curriculum to public inspection, and release data about police encounters with persons with mental illness. We need to know if the fix has taken hold.
These seven suggestions were ignored. We’ve asked for public explanations, and been denied.
In addition, we call on Council to:
8. Publicly discuss replace the role of a single police commissioner with a commission including all five elected city council-members. We need more hands on deck here, more experience, more intelligence and more aptitude.
9. Expand the powers of the Independent Police Review Division to include initial investigations of police shootings and deaths in custody.
10. Negotiate the new Portland Police Association contract to allow the discipline of officers regardless of civil suits, and compel cooperation with Independent Police Review investigations.
11. Publicly encourage Humphreys, Nice and Burton to voluntarily resign their positions.
The minimum we can do, when presented with injustice, is understand the truth. James Chasse was killed by police officers because he acted strangely and he didn’t comply with their commands.
Until police officers, their administrators and political bosses understand this, too many of us are in constant danger.
Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman announced today [Nov. 5] the 80-hour suspension of two Portland police officers in association with the death of a man who died in police custody three years ago.
[James] Chasse died in police custody September 17, 2006.
Saltzman, who is in charge of the police bureau, made the decision to suspend Sergeant Kyle Nice and officer Christopher Humphreys for two weeks without pay.
“I deeply empathize with the Chasse family’s grief and the impact this has had on their lives,” a statement from Saltzman said Wednesday. “I understand how some might see this as an overreaction to a seemingly minor infraction, or look ay the outcome and conclude that the officers engaged in misconduct … I have concluded that with one exception, the officers’ conduct did not violate the Bureau’s policies and procedures in effect at that time.”
Officers said Chasse appeared to be urinating outdoors and when he tried to get away they tackled him. Medics were called to the scene and Chasse showed normal vital signs, then officers took him to the Multnomah County Detention Center according to officers.
Police Union spokesperson Scott Westerman said the decision was a slap in the face for Chief Rosie Sizer.
“No police officer believes that James Chasse deserved to die,” Westerman said. “We are here today because the discipline recommendation … is nothing more than a politician playing politics” with the lives of the officers.
Westerman added Saltzman was “unable to discipline medical crews or jail nurses, so he is taking aim at these officers for political posturing.”
According to the autopsy report, a nurse at the jail advised officers to take Chasse to the hospital. Police said he died as they were transporting him there, according to the report.
The autopsy revealed that Chasse suffered 26 rib fractures and a punctured lung. The autopsy concluded the death was caused by blunt force trauma to the chest.
The decision comes more than a month after Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer recommended suspending Sgt. Nice for not calling the paramedics after he used his Taser on Chasse.
Other than that issue, Sizer says the Use of Force Review Board found officers acted in line with police bureau policy.
Chasse was 42 years old and suffered from schizophrenia.
His death has launched a firestorm of criticism, from mental health advocates, who are concerned how police treat those with mental illness.
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has upped Chief [Rosie] Sizer’s recommended discipline in the Chasse case, proposing two weeks off for Sergeant Kyle Nice and Officer Christopher Humphreys, instead of Sizer’s recommended week off for Nice, on September 23.
The Oregonian had the story an hour ago, with Portland Police Association boss Scott Westerman seeming to be the source. Westerman is yet to return a call for comment, but told O reporter Maxine Bernstein he was “absolutely disgusted” with the recommendation.
Nice and Humphreys have the opportunity to appeal the discipline.
“I’m disgusted as well,” says Jason Renaud, with the Mental Health Association of Portland — a friend of Chasse’s and advocate for people in similar situations, who has called on Saltzman and the city council to do seven actions to repair damage associated with the death.
“This shows a basic lack of courage,” says Renaud. “And maybe a lack of the tools needed to discipline officers. This is the lightest possible discipline imaginable. This doesn’t make us safer, this doesn’t protect us better. James Chasse is still dead.”
“We need the tools to discipline officers more readily, instead of waiting three years,” Renaud continues. “The commissioner seems to be rather powerless at this point.”
Renaud says he has offered Saltzman and Sizer the opportunity to speak publicly to the community about the incident, and they have refused. “Their actions and decisions need explaining,” he says.
Saltzman is yet to return a call for comment on the news.
Speaking earlier, before the discipline was recommended, city commissioner Randy Leonard spoke out about Saltzman’s relationship with Police Chief Rosie Sizer, describing him as “a parrot” for the chief.
“He is a captive of the culture as much as anybody else is, on the 15th floor of the police bureau,” Leonard said, referring to the chief’s office. “The place needs a house cleaning.”
Leonard spoke out two weeks ago on the Chasse incident, describing it as “unjustifiable and inexcusable,” and said the city should move quickly to settle its lawsuit with Chasse’s family.
“This isn’t just about Chief Sizer,” Leonard continued. “I had the same issues with Chief [Mark] Kroeker and Chief [Derrick] Foxworth, when it came to defensive hostility.”
Leonard would not specify a preference for an alternative chief, but did say Central Commander Mike Reese is “one of the most thoughtful human beings I’ve ever known in my life and an outstanding public servant.”
Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman is proposing that two officers involved in the stop of James P. Chasse Jr. , who died in police custody in 2006, be suspended without pay for 80 hours each for failing to have Chasse transported by ambulance to a hospital, both before and after he was taken to jail.
The Pearl District intersection where James P. Chasse Jr. was knocked to the ground and handcuffed on Sept. 17, 2006.
Saltzman’s recommendation, which goes beyond the proposed discipline that Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer had suggested in September, was presented to police union representatives and the two officers involved this week.
Saltzman has recommended that both Sgt. Kyle Nice, and Officer Christopher Humphreys be suspended for their actions in the Chasse case. Like Chief Sizer, Saltzman agreed that Nice should be suspended for failing to require Chasse be taken to a hospital after he was stunned with a Taser, and for not briefing ambulance paramedics appropriately or fully about the police struggle and use of the stun gun against Chasse.
Saltzman, though, went beyond the chief’s recommendation, proposing discipline as well for Officer Christopher Humphreys, for failing to require medical transport for Chasse after police stunned Chasse with a Taser during the initial struggle, and after Multnomah County jail staff refused to book Chasse because of his injuries.
Both Nice and Humphreys have a right to a mitigation hearing, to challenge the proposed discipline.
Saltzman, who has been facing criticism for not taking a more forceful stance as police commissioner, said only, “I’ll have a written statement on it later today, but I’m not making any comments.”
Sizer’s spokeswoman, Detective Mary Wheat said, “We’re not commenting anything at all. That didn’t come out of our office. This is not coming from the Portland Police Bureau. I can’t comment for Commissioner Saltzman.”
Police union president Sgt. Scott Westerman, of the Portland Police Association, said he told the police commissioner he was “absolutely disgusted” by Saltzman’s proposal when he learned of it.
At the time of Chasse’s death, the police bureau nor the county had any written policy that required an ambulance transport sick or injured people from jail to a hospital. Since Chasse’s death, the county and police adopted a clear policy that restricts officers from carrying suspects whom the jail refuses to book because of their physical condition or injuries from jail to a hospital in a police car. Under the new policy, it’s up to jail staff to determine whether to transport the person to a hospital by ambulance.
Humphreys and Nice, and then-Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton, who is now a Portland officer, arrested Chasse, 42, on Sept. 17, 2006, after one of the officers said he appeared to be urinating in the street. Police said he ran when they approached. They chased him, knocked him to the ground and struggled to handcuff him.
Ambulance medics called to the scene did not take him to a hospital, saying Chasse’s vital signs were normal. But jail staff members refused to book him because of his physical condition. Chasse, who suffered from schizophrenia, died while being taken to the hospital in a police car. The medical examiner said the cause of death was broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest.
In late September, Sizer released a statement saying she found that only Nice violated bureau policy, for failing to insist Chasse be taken to a hospital after police stunned Chasse, as bureau policy required in such instances.
Had Chasse received proper medical attention at the scene or been taken to a hospital right away, he probably would have lived, state medical examiner Dr. Karen Gunson said in a deposition filed in federal court this summer.
The autopsy found Chasse suffered 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured his left lung. Gunson said he suffered 46 separate abrasions or contusions on his body, including six to the head and 19 strikes to the torso.
Chasse’s family has a civil-rights lawsuit pending in federal court that accuses Portland police officers and American Medical Response paramedics of using excessive force and denying Chasse appropriate medical attention. A trial is set for March 16. Multnomah County, representing jail staff, this summer settled its part of the lawsuit for $925,000.
On Sept. 17, the Mental Health Association of Portland delivered a letter to Mayor Sam Adams, Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Police Chief Rosie Sizer requesting the release of the internal investigation on the fate of James Chasse on Sept. 17, 2006.
Because the district attorney failed to file charges against the officers who brutally beat James and then stood by while he died, Rosie Sizer’s investigation into whether officers violated bureau rules would decide whether the officers kept their jobs.
We had waited for three years.
On Sept. 23, the Portland Police Bureau distributed a news release about the findings of the internal investigation, a timeline of important events since James died, a list of changes PPB has made made since he died, and PPB efforts intended to resolve apparent problems with their own policy and procedures.
But a news release is not the sum result of an internal investigation. A press release is not what we asked for. We asked for a thorough investigative report of James Chasse’s death in police custody. The bureau’s news release was designed to address the issue of why the internal investigation is three years overdue.
Perhaps it would satisfy an insurance agent or a court clerk, but it is entirely inconclusive to anyone concerned with essential questions about the case and falls pitifully short of substantial answers.
The substantial question is: Are people with mental illness safer now than before James Chasse died?
The answer is: We still don’t know and the police can’t (or won’t) tell us.
The findings recommend Sgt. Kyle Nice’s suspension for an unknown duration because he failed to transport James to a nearby hospital after being Tased.
The results of these specific findings: Whether Sgt. Nice will be suspended is unknown, the duration is unknown, whether he will be paid or not while suspended is unknown, whether his suspension limits his future service is unknown, and the official accountability applies only to the most specific of circumstances.
According to witnesses, Sgt. Nice kicked James in the head while his partner Christopher Humphreys’ knee drops to James’ back caused the fatal injury. Deputy Bret Burton unloaded his Taser into James.
Accountability for the tackling? None.
Accountability for the punches, the kicks, the Taser? None.
Accountability for not informing emergency medical technicians Chasse has been beaten? None.
Accountability for arresting James instead of taking him to the hospital? None.
Accountability for James’ death? None.
Nice may be suspended from service, with or without pay, for an unknown duration of time. But his suspension is a technicality, not a proactive response to what happened to James. The message from the Chief is clear — officers are free to respond with deadly force when someone struggles.
The Bureau and the Portland Police Association — the union for patrol officers — will call the suspension justice and accountability.
Ultimately, the suspension is immaterial to the larger question.
Does punishing Kyle Nice make people with mental illness safer? There is no evidence to show that it does. And we believe it does not.
Rosie, who guards the guards? You do. That’s your job. And you didn’t do it. Not acceptable.
And can we make one thing perfectly clear? Our advocacy is not about the character of police officers. We are not critical of police officers in general. Good police officers are important partners for any community concerned with safety, and we value them as such. We are singularly interested in Kyle Nice, Christopher Humphreys and Bret Burton — the officers who brutally beat James Chasse and did not get him medical attention before he died 100 minutes later.
The bureau’s response to our letter includes a list of policy and procedure changes made since James’ death. The most acclaimed is giving all officers Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). Our organization initially applauded the bureau’s decision to hire a civilian psychologist, provide training for all officers, and shake up a stodgy curriculum.
But since James’ death, the contents of the CIT program became a secret. The curriculum is no longer public record — it’s hidden within a complex civil lawsuit. Data about police encounters with people with mental illness is no longer made available. The CIT advisory committee no longer meets. The Chief’s Forum has been canceled.
Three years later, we don’t have data to show these changes have a positive effect. But imagine this: You’re in a jam. Suddenly your peaceful community is upset and shaken and you need help from someone who is trained and equipped and prepared and supported to take control of a difficult situation; your normally normal neighbor is acting strange; your brother-inlaw is acting crazy; your boyfriend is drunk and out of control.
The question is: Just how long will you pause before calling the police, knowing that Officers Kyle Nice, Christopher Humphrey or Bret Burton might show up and act according to policy?
Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard said Thursday he can no longer hide his feelings about police handling of the James Chasse case just because the city is facing a federal lawsuit in the death.
“That has nothing to do with justice, worrying about legal positioning when a man like Mr. Chasse is dead,” Leonard said. “If the Police Bureau caused Mr. Chasse’s death and the county denied him medical care, we should pay his family and we shouldn’t have to have a judge tell us to do it.”
Chasse, 42, died of massive internal injuries in police custody after he was chased down for urinating in public. The death in 2006 triggered a cascade of public outrage and criticism of how police treated the mentally ill man.
During a City Council meeting Wednesday, Leonard called Chasse’s death inexcusable. He said the Police Bureau’s three-year internal investigation, which eventually cleared all but one officer, should have taken 90 days.
Then Thursday, Leonard said he should have stood up before now. “If I, as a city commissioner, view an injustice, I should speak out about the rightness and the wrongness of people under my control,” he said.
Leonard’s comments come after recent public disagreements with City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Police Bureau. While the remarks expose a simmering rift between the two leaders, they also put the city and police in an uncomfortable position in the lawsuit filed by Chasse’s family.
Mayor Sam Adams declined to address Leonard’s statements. He said he supports an independent review of the case by City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who plans to hire an outside expert to evaluate the quality of the police investigation.
“I am waiting for that before I draw my own conclusions,” Adams said.
Multnomah County settled its part of the lawsuit this past summer for $925,000, but the city’s part of the case is set for trial in March. The suit accuses officers of excessive force and the police and paramedics of failing to provide adequate medical attention.
Two Portland officers — Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice — and then-Multnomah County sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton, who is now a Portland officer, arrested Chasse after he appeared to be urinating in the street. Chasse ran, the officers chased him, knocked him to the ground and struggled to handcuff him.
An autopsy showed Chasse suffered 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured his left lung; 46 separate abrasions or contusions on his body, including six to the head; and 19 strikes to the torso.
Medics at the scene said his vital signs were normal and he was taken to jail. But jail staff members refused to book him because of his physical condition. He died while being taken to the hospital in a police car.
In the internal investigation, Police Chief Rosie Sizer found that Nice violated bureau policy when he failed to have Chasse taken to the hospital as required for certain people once they’ve been stunned by a Taser.
Leonard and the Police Bureau have long been at odds. Last year, he clashed with Sizer when she said she wouldn’t work for him if he got the job overseeing the bureau. Adams then had Saltzman become police commissioner.
Now, Leonard and Saltzman are squabbling. Saltzman won’t back Leonard’s desire to train Water Bureau security guards as police officers and give them guns and Saltzman voted last week against Leonard’s proposal to buy a new high-speed rescue boat for the Portland Fire Bureau.
Then Wednesday, the two again disagreed during a council debate over releasing the names of people arrested by the city’s special force of police officers who go after drug dealers and chronic drug users. Saltzman wanted to keep the list secret, but Leonard pushed for its release and the rest of the council backed him.
Saltzman has suggested alternatives to armed water guards: using existing police, contracting with another police agency such as the Sheriff’s Office or perhaps creating an interagency task force, much like the collaborative effort among metro area police to patrol MAX trains.
“We don’t need more guns in Portland parks,” Saltzman said. “We don’t need another Chasse case in the city parks.”
Overall, he said, he and Leonard agree more often than they disagree. He’s just doing the job he was elected to do, he said.
“Commissioners have the right to ask questions on any policy matters,” Saltzman said. “I’m sorry that certain people take offense at that.”
Leonard will delay a council discussion on the Water Bureau security guards for two weeks to look at alternatives.
The death of James Chasse is a tragedy, and the members of the Portland Police Association deeply regret this loss of life. James Chasse died because of a terrible series of events, not because of any malice in the actions or hearts of the police officers involved.
Like the Chasse family and its friends, these good and honorable public servants need and deserve our compassion, understanding and support. Unnecessary finger-pointing and unfair portrayals of police officers accomplishes nothing and only makes it more difficult to heal the community and make whatever changes are appropriate to Police Bureau policies and training to try to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
Consider the facts: Officer Chris Humphreys and Deputy Bret Burton approached Chasse when there was reasonable suspicion he was urinating in public. When Chasse fled, the officers and Sgt. Kyle Nice pursued him on foot and, following procedure, used force to take him to the ground and into custody when he resisted. This is what every officer is trained to do. When it was discovered that Chasse was in distress, those same officers performed CPR on him as they transported him to the hospital. Unjustly punishing an officer or sergeant for doing exactly what we have been trained to do in this circumstance won’t undo what has happened.
The city auditor has now opened up a bidding process to conduct a formal review of the investigation. We welcome this review. There are some in the community who believe Police Chief Rosie Sizer is whitewashing this case. This type of formal review of the investigation will demonstrate that the investigation was thorough, complete and unbiased. Hopefully, it will also answer the questions of why we are still dealing with this case three years later. Most everyone believes this has dragged on far too long.
The urge to place blame is nearly unavoidable. And it’s easy to try to blame police when the facts are obscured and with the realization that there is, in fact, no one to blame. But unfair blame, doesn’t bring James Chasse back, doesn’t comfort those who grieve his passing and doesn’t lead to greater understanding and trust between police officers and the community.
We can learn from this tragedy only through thoughtful communication and hard work. If the community and police chief desire change, we should look first at the policies we are trained to adhere to, not the officers and sergeants who follow those policies. The Police Bureau has taken the first step, already changing policies, training and more clearly defining expectations for injured prisoners in an effort to prevent another tragedy.
Every day, 900 men and women of the Portland Police Bureau go to work to serve and protect the rest of us. Police work is tough, but it is work we love. Loss of life is always terrible, no matter the circumstances. But in the Chasse case, it is a terrible series of events — not the hearts and actions of the honorable men — that are to blame.
OUR COMMENT – Who the heck does he mean by “us” in the title of this editorial? The persons the author represents? Other police officers? So, “Punishing the police won’t let the police heal?”
This is added insult to injury; the classic stage of serial violence called rationalization. How depressing.
“The late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King said we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation,” said the Reverend Doctor Leroy Haynes, vice president of the Albina Ministerial Alliance this morning. “James P Chasse, Junior, who died in police custody of blunt force trauma, cries out today from the grave for justice, justice for the weak, the voiceless, and the victims,” he continued. “We stand today giving voice to the cry for justice for James P Chasse, and others who were victims of excessive force by the Portland Police Bureau.”
“Our city administrators and leaders have demonstrated they lack the political will to enforce accountability on this issue,” said Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. “We have more confidence that the officers will voluntarily resign than that the City will terminate their employment, and we hope they do.”
Four mental health advocates were joined by a host of community members this morning on SW Fifth to call for the resignation of Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Kyle Nice, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Officer Bret Burton. “It’s good that the Independent Police Review has ordered an outside review of the investigation into Chasse’s death,” said Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, who also attended the press conference. “But where were they during the investigation?”
“We ask that these three men, who have probably contemplated their actions more than anyone, take on a new, positive, restorative role, and begin to repair the damage they did on September 17, 2006 by resigning from the Portland Police Bureau immediately,” said Renaud.
“For more than three years, our city has dissected, debated, and bemoaned what happened to James Chasse, but this discussion remains inconclusive and inadequate when no one has been held responsible for his death,” Renaud continued. “For the vast majority of our community, these actions and the bureau’s findings are unacceptable.”
Haynes called for more serious discipline for the officers who participated in the action, and the call for voluntary resignation of the officers.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon; Reverend Doctor LeRoy Haynes, vice president of the Albina Ministerial Alliance; Jason Renaud, Board Secretary of the Mental Health Association of Portland, and Beckie Child, Board President of Mental Health America of Oregon
“I want to ask Police Commissioner Saltzman, Mayor Sam Adams and city council, what are you going to do to repair the trust that’s been broken in our community?” said Beckie Child, board president of Mental Health America of Oregon. “People who have mental health issues already have a pretty significant fear of police officers. People are afraid of law enforcement officers, and the decision that Chief Sizer came to has done nothing to help that trust. Families who are concerned about their loved ones will not want to call the police.”
“He allegedly peed on the lawn,” Child continued. “And he’s dead because of that. I don’t understand how that makes any sense, and I don’t understand how we teach our children that they will be held accountable for their actions when we don’t hold the people in power accountable.”
“For people in the mental health community, success is living in the community,” said Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights of Oregon. “James Chasse was a success. He participated in treatment, but unfortunately for him he did not have the protection he needed.” “I’m here to talk about the pain that the mental health community has experienced as a result of what happened to James, and to ask for healing,” Joondeph continued. “Not only does the mental health community need healing, but the whole community, too.” “We are asking for the officers to look within themselves and do the right thing.”
“The officers themselves haven’t had the chance to do the right thing,” said Renaud. “They can simply resign and be heroes.”
On September 17, 2006 Portland Police Bureau’s Sergeant Kyle Nice, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton tackled, Tased and beat James Chasse. He died in their custody 100 minutes later.
For more than three years, our City has dissected, debated, and bemoaned what happened to James Chasse, but this discussion remains inconclusive and inadequate when no one has been held responsible for his death.
On September 17, 2009, the Mental Health Association of Portland said that three years was long enough to wait for the Portland Police Bureau’s decision whether the two officers, Nice and Humphreys, followed Bureau policy, and long enough to wait for appropriate discipline.
Six days later, after a series of hurried meetings, Chief Rosie Sizer announced that the officers had complied with Bureau policy in the vast majority of their actions: The tackling, the knee drops to the back, the kicks to the head, the punches to his face, the repeated Tasering. Sizer found all acceptable within Bureau policy.
For the vast majority of our community, these actions and the Bureau’s findings are completely unacceptable.
On September 23, the Mental Health Association of Portland gave the Portland City Council a list of seven actions they could take to begin to repair the trust and respect dissolved by the actions of the officers, and the relative inaction by those who guard our guardians. These suggestions were quick and free to implement. City Council ignored these suggestions.
Our City administrators and leaders have have demonstrated they lack the political will to enforce accountability on this issue. We have more confidence that the officers will voluntarily resign than that the City will terminate their employment. And we hope they do.
We ask that these three men, who have probably contemplated their actions more than anyone, take on a new, positive, restorative role, and begin to repair the damage they did on September 17, 2006 by resigning from the Portland Police Bureau immediately.
SPEAKERS
Reverend Doctor LeRoy Haynes, Pastor of the Allen Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, speaking on behalf of the Albina Ministerial Alliance. Beckie Child, MSW, Board President of Mental Health America of Oregon Jason Renaud, Board Secretary of the Mental Heath Association of Portland Bob Joondeph, Executive Director of Disability Rights of Oregon
