Mental Health Association of Portland

Testimony presented to the Portland City Council, July 28 in response to the OIR Report to the City
of Portland Concerning the In-Custody Death of James Chasse

From the Mental Health Association of Portland – www.mentalhealthportland.org

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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.

PRESS RELEASE – May 11, 2010
From: Tom Steenson of Steenson, Schumann, Tewksbury, Creighton & Rose
Re: Tentative Settlement of Chasse v. Humphreys, et al.

The family of James P. Chasse, Jr., is confirming the information contained in various media reports that a tentative settlement has been reached with the City in their case against Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys, Portland Police Sergeant Kyle Nice, and other City defendants, arising out of James’ tragic death, on September 17, 2006.

If you will recall, in late 2006 and early 2007, the family undertook their own investigation looking for the truth as to what the police did to James and why he died. In order to get access to necessary information which was not deemed public, they filed their lawsuit in February, 2007. During the course of the lawsuit, the family’s attorneys took over 75 depositions of witnesses, Portland Police Bureau employees, and others, obtained over 40,000 pages of documents, retained a police expert and spoke with countless other individuals to assist the family in evaluating what caused James’ death on September 17th.

During the case, the City and the other defendants sought a protective order which the family and the media opposed. Once the order was entered, the family repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to vacate the order in the interest of allowing the public access to information which was subject to the protective order. As a result of the protective order and other considerations in the case, the family has not been able to share much of the information they have gathered during the litigation, including important training information and information about the City’s internal investigations into James’ death.

As part of the tentative settlement of the case, the family insisted upon and the City has agreed to vacate the protective order as it applies to training information relevant to James’ death, the City’s internal investigations into James’ death and any resulting reports or discipline. The family is in the process of organizing the information as part of a full release of it to the public and hopes to have it available soon. The family is hopeful that by sharing this information and telling the true story of what caused James’ death, they will be able to help the public in its quest for a more open and accountable Portland Police Bureau.

The family will be issuing a statement which will more directly comment on the tentative settlement once it is finalized. All that they can say about the additional details of the settlement at this time is that James would have wanted the truth to come out by settling the case now. Lastly, the family wants to thank the community for the tremendous support it has provided the family over the past 3 and ½ years and to encourage the community to be ever vigilant in monitoring the Portland Police Bureau to ensure that it actually serves and protects us.

From the The Oregonian, May 11, 2010

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.

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.”

Attorneys for the City of Portland will pursue an aggressive blame-the-victim defense strategy in the James Chasse case, according to court documents filed on March 29.

Chasse, who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, was in Northwest Portland in 2006 when officers thought they saw him urinating in public. Terrified, he ran from police, but they caught up to him, tackled him, Tasered him, beat him, and kicked him, ignoring his pleas for mercy. Officers then took the dying man to jail rather than a hospital. Struggling for breath, bleeding from his mouth, his head covered with a blood-soaked “spit sock,” Chasse finally went into convulsions and died. He was 42 years old.

It took three years for the city to produce an investigation, and no Portland officer has been disciplined or held accountable for the death. Ensuing lawsuits by the family have led to a string of settlements prior to trial. Now, the only remaining defendants are the City of Portland, Officer Christopher Humphreys (who later beanbagged a 12-year-old girl), and Officer Kyle Nice (who recently pulled a gun on a civilian in a road-rage incident).

The newly filed documents include 50 pages of proposed jury instructions, in which city attorneys seek to hold Chasse responsible for his own death.

Lawyers want the jury advised that “Chasse’s pre-existing physical and mental condition, his resistance to the officers’ lawful orders and his inappropriate conduct is what caused his death.”

Further, they say, “The force used to gain physical control of Chasse and take him into custody was reasonable.” Officers also deny that their use of lethal force caused severe emotional distress.

Apprehending Chasse, who was not committing a crime, resulted in 16 broken ribs, internal injuries, a punctured lung, 46 contusions caused by kicks or punches, and, ultimately, his death.

But that level of force, claim the defendents, was not only reasonable, it was justifiable and “privileged.” They assert that they are not liable under federal or state law.

Oregon’s medical examiner, Dr. Karen Gunson, found that Chasse died of blunt-force trauma to the chest. Defense experts dispute this, offering a variety of other reasons for his death. One of these is “excited delirium,” a condition often used to explain deaths in police custody, even though it is not recognized in medicine or psychiatry. Another expert, Tillamook radiologist Dr. Michael Veverka, suggests that Chasse’s bones snapped because he had osteoporosis.

Defense expert Ken Katsaris, a law enforcement consultant from Florida, writes that “Chasse’s actions precipitated the police response.”

And that response, Katsaris adds, “should be expected by the police bureau and the public.”

City’s request for change of venue to the U.S. District Court of Oregon

From OPB News, January 12, 2010

From KGW, January 12, 2010

From the Portland Tribune, January 12, 2010

From the Portland Mercury, January 12, 2010

From the Portland Mercury, November 18, 2009

Attorneys working for the City of Portland are claiming a surprise new defense in the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse jr, a man with schizophrenia: That Chasse died of “excited delirium.”

“Excited delirium” is a controversial medical term often associated with deaths in police custody where a Taser has been deployed. We quoted state medical examiner Karen Gunson on it last year, in preparation for a lengthy feature on Taser use by Portland cops:

Likewise, there is controversy around the existence, or otherwise, of “Excited Delirium,” a cause of death often associated with Taser deployment, but not recognized by the American Medical Association. Oregon State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson tells the Mercury “I don’t actually think the term is controversial,” meanwhile Dalia Hashad, director of the USA program for Amnesty International, says “we need to ask why the person died, not make up the term to explain the situation.”

Indeed, Gunson has ruled, in the past, that people died of excited delirium, despite controversy around the term. For example, she did so in the 1998 death of Richard “Dickie” Dow, a man suffering with schizophrenia who was crushed by a pile of police officers. The city ended up paying out $380,000 in that case.

In the Chasse autopsy, however, Gunson ruled out excited delirium as a cause of death, ruling instead that Chasse died of blunt force trauma to the chest, caused by another person or a fall. Gunson has since been quoted in depositions saying Chasse’s 26 breaks to 16 ribs were most likely the result of kicks or a “dropped knee” by cops. Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse’s body, including 16 possible blows to the head. Chasse would most likely have lived if he had been given proper medical care, Gunson said.


If the city has procured experts of its own who are willing to say that Chasse may have died of excited delirium, then their testimony will run against that of the state medical examiner.


The city’s new excited delirium defense also appears to have come as a surprise to Tom Steenson, attorney for the Chasse family. Court documents show that Federal Court Judge Garr King granted Steenson extra time to consult with his own medical experts during a phone conference on November 12 — Steenson now has until December 18 to respond with expert testimony of his own, with a trial still tentatively scheduled for next March.


It is against the city attorney’s policy to comment on ongoing lawsuits, and Steenson declined comment this morning.


“It looks like the city is grasping at straws,” says Jason Renaud with the Mental Health Association of Portland, an outspoken critic of the city’s response to Chasse’s death. “It’s fairly clear from the forensic evidence that Chasse died of blunt force trauma, resulting from the brutal beating by the three police officers. We can also see from the video evidence and testimony that he was unconscious at times after the Tasering, and that he was denied proper medical attention.”

“Continuing to defend the indefensible erodes and degrades the authority of our leaders in city hall,” Renaud continues.

Update, 3:34pm

“Excited delirium was a term invented to try to blame deaths in custody on something other than police interaction, but in almost all cases the people would not have died if the police had not used violence on them,” says Dan Handelman with Portland Copwatch.

READ – City may try new defense in Chasse case, KATU.com, November 18. 2009

From the Oregonian, November 3, 2009

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.

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.

READ – Everything about James Chasse

Guest opinion from the Oregonian, October 23, 2009


Scott Westerman, president of the Portland Police Association, gets the case of James Chasse wrong from beginning to end in his recent commentary in The Oregonian (“Punishing the police won’t help us heal,” Oct. 13).


Just whom does he mean by “us”? The police officers he represents?

On Sept. 30, the Mental Health Association of Portland asked the City Council to remove from patrol duty the officers who chased down and brutally beat Chasse, leading to his death. Three officers. Not all officers. Just three. “Off patrol duty” is not punishment. Ten years in prison for manslaughter involving a mentally ill person is punishment. We asked for accountability.

After a week of silence from city commissioners, we called for the three officers to voluntarily resign. We don’t want them to be Portland police officers any longer, and resignations, we believe, offer a path toward redemption: a positive, healing first step in rebuilding trust and respect, one that only the officers could make, failing action from leadership. The three officers did not resign.

Reasonable, well-trained police officers are vital partners for those who care for the welfare of persons with mental illness. They hold an irreplaceable position in the continuum of our care. We’ve supported additional training for officers to understand mental illness and anticipate crises. We appreciate the many changes made at the state, county and city level to address this issue. But to confuse the trust and respect needed for effective policing with the brutal actions of Sept. 17, 2006, is irresponsible.

I knew James Chasse in high school, and my father also had schizophrenia. So I’ve paid close attention to the issue from the beginning. But the lengthy and inadequate response from the city of Portland transformed me from an interested observer to an active advocate.

Since Chasse’s death, I’ve wondered about officers’ opinions: Do they see the actions of their peers as excusable? As being within normal procedure? Do they think they would have done the same thing? Does police training skew one’s humanity?

Westerman asks Portlanders to equate the behavior of the three officers with the many hard-working men and women on the force who help us make better communities. He asks us to believe that all other Portland officers would cruelly beat a slight, frightened and nonthreatening man — and then fight to justify the beating as “within policy.” In doing so, Westerman degrades the entire Police Bureau.

Westerman’s role as a union spokesman puts him in the unenviable position of defending the indefensible. My mother was a shop steward. I know unions play an important role in providing a balance of power for individual employees. I feel genuine sympathy for officers whose union dues are spent defending the indefensible actions of three of their colleagues.

I’m no longer shocked by the absurdities of what Westerman had to say, but his words will not move our city forward. For our city’s sake, it’s critical that we hear from leadership unconstrained by union demands. We all need to hear now from Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the bureau.

Last week the Mental Health Association of Portland got a call from the city asking for a private meeting with Saltzman and Sizer. We declined. Impunity is a subject best discussed in the bright light of public access. Instead, we offered to host a public meeting so both Saltzman and Sizer can be heard and understood directly. So far they haven’t responded.

Mary Wheeler is a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

From OPB.org, October 12, 2009

The joint Portland-Multnomah County Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness first saw the light of day in December 2004.

City commissioner Erik Sten rolled it out.

Erik Sten: “I think most people laugh when the government comes out with a plan that says ten years from now, we hope to end homelessness – but we’re doing it anyway because we believe it could happen. It could happen if we all do the work we want to do.”

The event drew the Bush Administration’s top homelessness official, Philip Mangano.

Phillip Mangano: “We already knew that chronic homeless people – the ten to twenty percent of the homeless population, consumed more than half of all the resources we spend on homelessness. But recent studies show that this is a disproportionately expensive population in mainstream healthcare.”

In the first two years of the plan, OPB tracked a handful of chronically homeless people who received shelter and services through the Ten Year Plan.

People can be stuck on the streets for a variety of reasons, often related to mental illness or drug problems.

Steve Powell was homeless because of a physical disability. Powell’s rheumatoid arthritis means he can’t use his hands to work.

He spent 15 years living outdoors. Much of that time, he was camping on a hill in Portland’s Forest Park. On a drizzly morning four years ago, Powell had just moved into an apartment, and was settling into his new life.

Steve Powell: “It’s nice to look out there and know I don’t have to get in it. Like up there in the hills in my tent, sometimes I’d be cuddled up in some blankets, just to stay warm and now, I can sit back and look at it, instead of cuddled up under something.”

Four years later, Powell still enjoys living indoors.

Steve Powell: “Yes, I’m still here, and unless something happens, I’ll stay here, you know.”

The 58 year-old Powell has two homeless friends, he refers to just as Mike and Mark, who come by occasionally. Powell says Mike wants to move inside.

Steve Powell: “As far as Mark, uh, I have no idea what he has in his head. I mean if I was him, I’d be getting off that hill because he’s getting visited by the rangers and the police, and he’s going to wind up in jail.”

Powell says he might’ve wound up dead, if he’d stayed outside. He’s heard that falling trees struck his favorite camping spot in a recent storm.

The Ten Year Plan has housed more than 2000 chronically homeless people like Steve Powell in the last four and a half years.

Powell might still be homeless if not for one of the priorities of the Ten Year Plan: permanent, subsidized shelter.

But building those places is expensive and complicated. To understand just how hard it is, let’s go back to where the Ten Year Plan was announced: the musty lobby of an old Ramada Inn in Portland’s Rose Quarter.

Again, former federal housing czar, Phil Mangano.

Phil Mangano: “And here – right here, in the building, the promise of the future isn’t it? Permanent housing for the homeless at Rose Quarter Housing.”

Ed Blackburn with the housing and treatment non-profit, Central City Concern, was optimistic in 2004, that the Ramada would soon become Rose Quarter Housing.

Ed Blackburn: “So we hope to start that renovation and have it ready, I think some time in late summer for occupancy. It may be a little sooner than that, or a little later than that.”

Fast-forward almost five years, and Rose Quarter Housing is still a construction zone, with hard hats required. Ed Blackburn says there are two big reasons the project has taken so much longer than expected.

One is best demonstrated on the top floor. It’s been completely gutted.

Ed Blackburn: “The leaks were coming through the roof, down into the walls, and because they had so many layers of vinyl wall paper on it, it wasn’t leaking out, you didn’t see it, until you started tearing the walls apart. And once you found that, we had to replace the walls, because they’d had too much water in them for too long.”

Those construction problems became even costlier, when problem number two surfaced last year. The financial meltdown that forced hundreds of Oregonians into homelessness, also tightened up the credit needed to finish housing projects.

Now, some of the rooms on a lower floor are finished. Ed Blackburn can stand on the new tile floor and admire a river view and the fall colors of Portland’s west hills. Blackburn says Central City’s five-year slog to turn this hotel into housing mirrors the struggles of the Ten Year Plan.

Ed Blackburn: “It’s not easy ending homelessness and this building wasn’t easy to keep financed. We found all things we weren’t expecting when we started tearing things apart. We worked real hard to keep things together, but it’s moving. And there are going to be setbacks but you keep moving. It’s kind of like a metaphor for the whole Ten Year Plan, this building.”

Ultimately, Blackburn agrees with city officials who don’t see much need to change the Ten Year Plan, halfway through. Portland’s new housing bureau director, Margaret Van Vliet, says the Ten Year Plan might need tweaking, but not a fundamental change.

Margaret Van Vliet: “Are we exclusively looking at the chronically homeless, or primarily looking at chronically homeless versus the newly homeless, because of the explosion in the number of newly homeless, to some extent, we’re still reacting.”

Blackburn says even though the economy has made matters worse, the Portland area is better off, thanks to a countywide focus that started when the Plan to End Homelessness was still just an idea.

Ed Blackburn: “You know that metaphor of water coming into the bathtub, and you’ve got a spoon, but it’s coming in faster than you can get it out, so the tub keeps filling up. Well, we got a big bucket about six years ago, and we started getting out the water faster than the homeless population was increasing. But now that spigot’s been turned on higher. So we’re going to have to work harder.”

Meantime, folks like Steve Powell, are grateful to have a bath tub to come home to – even as he thinks about his friends, who don’t.

READ – Don Clark / Roger Shiels Agreement, 1989
READ – Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, – Portland, Oregon
READ – City of Portland – Sit / Lie Ordinance
READ – City of Portland – Sidewalk Management Resolution final draft, October 12, 2009

OUR COMMENT: Chronic homelessness is not a result of misfortune. The chronically homeless are substantially made up of persons with an untreated – or mistreated – mental illness or addiction.

The city has made some minor improvements for finding and funding housing for persons who are chronically homeless, but the Federal “Housing First” model has proven to be a substantial failure. Without additional treatment slots funded by the state, without supportive services, without opportunity for employment, most persons who are chronically homeless will often return to homeless, burning yet another set of bridges as they fail to meet bureaucratic expectations.

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

OTHER SPEAKERS TBA

Made September 30 2009, by Jason Renaud – volunteer board secretary

The mission of the Mental Health Association of Portland is to help persons with mental illness speak up and speak out, a community which asks you to rebuild the respect and trust damaged between the Portland Police Bureau and persons with mental illness.

I’d like to talk about impunity, when a person or an institution has been exempted from punishment.

Impunity is a corrosive to public administration, and extremely hard for partisans to distinguish from righteousness, or understand the damage it causes. It occurs when there is a wide variance between what is found just, and what is believed true.

The action which enables impunity to flourish is when persons in positions of authority claim due process equals justice, and somehow justice always prevails.

Our organization and thousands of people in Portland believe injustice has prevailed, that a fair hearing on what happened to James Chasse has not occurred.

The final opportunity for intervention was a internal review of the officer’s actions, and a decision whether those actions were within the policy of the police bureau. After three years the bureau distributed a press release citing reasons their review was late. A minor technicality was found, so minor punishment may occur.

What’s occurred is impunity. The message delivered is a brutal beating and death of a person with a mental illness, even one with caregivers, friends, family, a home, a clean record, is acceptable within the Portland Police Bureau.

It should be unacceptable to you. Impunity undermines and dissolves the most important tools police officers need – trust and respect.

Here are actions which can rebuild trust and respect.

1. Release the full internal investigation of what happened to James Chasse – not a press release
2. Move the three officers involved with the death of James Chasse – Christopher Humphrey, Kyle Nice and Bret Burton – off patrol duty
3. Make a goal to reducing the use of Tasers on persons with mental illness by 50% per year for the next five years
4. Reopen the Chief’s Forum
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
6. Open a sincere, staffed and ongoing public meeting between police senior staff and persons with mental illness
7. Release the Crisis Intervention Team curriculum to public inspection, release data about police encounters with persons with mental illness

The right response to impunity comes from the top down. It’s your responsibility to act.

From the Portland Mercury, September 23 2009

Police Chief Rosie Sizer has released the findings of an internal review of the 2006 death of James Chasse—a man suffering with schizophrenia—this morning, finding barely any wrongdoing by her officers apart from Sergeant Kyle Nice, at the scene, who failed to follow the bureau’s directives on transporting a subject to hospital in certain situations following Taser deployment.

Sizer and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman will now co-sign a letter ordering Nice suspended for an as-yet to be determined period of time. Nice will have the opportunity to appeal the suspension if he chooses. Saltzman had no comment on the findings this morning, but told the Mercury: “We certainly regret Mr. Chasse’s death.”

The bureau’s use of force board found that:

The initiation and termination of the foot pursuit of Chasse did not violate any bureau policy and that the force used during the struggle to stop, control and handcuff Mr.Chasse was within policy. As soon as the officers observed Mr. Chasse showing signs of medical distress, officers called for paramedics. At the time Mr. Chasse was transported to jail, officers had been told by paramedics Mr. Chasse was medically stable. There is no evidence in any report or witness statement that caused members of the Use of Force Review Board to conclude that any officer at the scene knew or should have known that Mr. Chasse had suffered a serious physical injury.

Those findings are surprising, to say the least, given facts in the case.

From a story earlier this year:

1. Chasse’s broken ribs were most likely the result of kicks or a dropped knee. State medical examiner Karen Gunson, who performed Chasse’s autopsy, told attorneys for the Chasse family during depositions that some fractured ribs in Chasse’s back were unlikely to have been caused by his fall to the ground, but that a “knee in that particular area on the back of the neck” was a “better scenario.” Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse’s body, including 16 possible blows to the head. Chasse would most likely have lived if he had been given proper medical care, Gunson said.

2. Chasse never urinated in the street. Deposition of Portland Police Bureau Officer Christopher Humphreys reveals he never saw Chasse urinate on the sidewalk—an alleged detail of their encounter, which has been widely reported as a possible legal basis for the officers stopping Chasse. At most, Humphreys thought he saw Chasse urinating in his own pants because there was possibly a wet patch on his trousers, he said. But Chasse was causing no distress or alarm, Humphreys admitted.

3. Chasse screamed before going unconscious. Several witnesses described Chasse’s screams during his struggle with police. “He seemed like a scared animal,” said witness Melissa Jane Gaylord. Electrician Tony Lee Carter “thought [Chasse] was dead” for a period during which Chasse was unconscious on the sidewalk, following his beating. Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg, another witness, said: “I did hear Mr. Chasse yelling ‘mercy, mercy, mercy,’ and that was personally pretty disturbing to me.”

4. Paramedics did not adequately assess Chasse’s injuries. Sergeant Kyle Nice radioed for backup saying Chasse was “unconscious” on the street corner of NW 13th and Everett, but never informed paramedics of the extent of force used or of Chasse’s prolonged unconsciousness, according to the documents. Paramedic Tamara Hergert wrote only that Chasse had become “extremely quiet” on the sidewalk. “Police thought he may have passed out, he came to quickly,” she wrote. Hergert also apparently neglected to do a body check on Chasse, beyond checking his vital signs, which she wrote down were normal. Hergert also told lawyers she was directed by Nice to have Humphreys sign a medical release form on Chasse’s behalf.

5. Witnesses were shocked Chasse wasn’t taken to hospital in an ambulance. Local developer Homer Williams said Chasse looked like a “bag of bones” when police put him in a squad car.

6. There was mocking of Chasse’s distress. “There was clear vocal mocking, the mocking of Mr. Chasse’s cries for help,” said eyewitness Randall Stuart, referring to emergency workers on the scene. Later TriMet sergeant Terry O’Keefe, who was supervising Humphreys and Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton that night, sent them a message on their in-car computers: “NICE WORK BOYS. GLAD U R OK N HE ISN’T.”

7. Police experts say cops were in the wrong. An expert witness says Officers Nice, Humphreys, and Sheriff’s Deputy Burton did not follow police policies and practices in the treatment of someone who is at least suspected of being mentally ill. Lou Reiter, former Deputy Police Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, described the officers’ use of force as “unreasonable,” and their failure to disclose to paramedics the force used on Chasse as “unreasonable.”

“The findings of the investigation released today reaffirm our belief that the officers involved were within policy as it relates to their use of force in this incident,” said Portland Police Association Boss Scott Westerman, in a statement released shortly after the findings.

Update, 11:06:

“Nice’s suspension could be ten minutes long,” says Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. “The question is whether there is some sort of punitive measure that will cause police officers to not do this in the future. What we’ve learned over the past three years is that the relationship between persons suffering from mental health issues and police officers is complex.”

“It’s important that what happens to Kyle Nice be public,” Renaud continues. “So that officers know that they have a responsibility to care for people, even though they may be seen in their eyes as despicable.”

“The dilemma is that when police officers do the right thing as per policy and per training, and yet someone ends up dead, there is something wrong,” says Renaud. “That problem has not be solved yet, and it seems to be that the only way to solve that is by the penalty afforded from a civil trial.”

“This is the opening salvo in the police/city contract negotiation with the police union, and hopefully Dan Saltzman has the guts to negotiate on behalf of the citizens of Portland and not on behalf of the interests of police officers,” says Renaud—referring to the negotiations due to begin in November. “These negotiations between the city and the unions are almost always closed door stuff.”

Update, 11:10:

Attorneys for the Chasse family are reviewing the chief’s findings and will decide whether to release a statement shortly.

Update, 12:48:

Dan Handelman from Portland Copwatch has sent the following email to his members:

Looks like that Internal Affairs report finally made it to the Chief. Only one of the three officers involved—Sgt Kyle Nice—will be disciplined, and it’s for a relatively minor reason, though connected to Chasse’s death: That he didn’t transport Chasse to the hospital after using a Taser. Humphreys and Burton are exonerated, despite the fact that they applied blows to Chasse’s head (deadly force) and broke nearly all of his ribs. As I told one reporter, if that is within Bureau policy, we need to change Bureau policy.

According to a timeline released by the Bureau, one holdup in the investigation had to do with interviewing Deputy Burton, who was working for the Sheriff’s office but under the direction of the Portland Police Transit Division at the time.

http://www.portlandonline.com/police/pbnotify.cfm?action=ViewContent&content_id=1397

This issue is something we’ve been on about since the 2000 shooting of Justyn Galegos by Portland officers along with other jurisdictions—how do you hold such officers accountable when they are working with Portland Police?

The fact that the Use of Force Review Board was reconvened last Wednesday—one day before the three year anniversary of Chasse’s death—is very telling. However, that the members of that board, presumably including the two citizen members (whose identities we can only guess at, since they were picked from a pool of 20), found no other wrongdoing is disturbing. As we’ve also pointed out before, separating these serious cases from the more minor ones that are handled by the Independent Police Review Division (IPR) and can be adjudicated at public hearings by the Citizen Review Committee (CRC) is a disservice to the community. They should at least open the UFRB hearings if they are not going to integrate the system.

The Oregonian reports that Chasse family attorney Tom Steenson plans to hold the City accountable for releasing the information on the Internal Affairs investigation as it violates the gag order imposed by the judge. Steenson plans to ask the judge, once again, to lift the gag order—which would make sense now that the City has ignored the order.

I’ve included the Mercury’s blog entry on the findings below because they go into a lot of detail and point out some of the reasons the findings are bogus.

—dan handelman
portland copwatch

Update, 1:59:

The Chasse family’s attorney, Tom Steenson, has released the following statement, relating to a judge’s protective order in the case:

“Over two years ago, the City of Portland and other defendants in the lawsuit sought a protective order barring the parties from releasing to the public documents and information regarding the Portland Police Bureau’s investigations into the death of James P. Chasse, Jr. Over the strenuous objections of the plaintiffs (the Chasse family – dad, mom and brother), and the unsuccessful intervention by the media at that time, the Court entered a protective order barring the release of those documents and that information to the public. Since then, plaintiffs have renewed their opposition to the protective order and have sought to make those investigations public, while the City and Chief Sizer have continued to argue that a protective order should remain in place. Despite the Chasse family’s arguments to the contrary, the Court has ordered the parties in the lawsuit, including the City and Chief Sizer, to continue to comply with the protective order.”

“As a result of this protective order, the Chasse family and their attorneys have been unable to release documents and other information which they have learned in the course of the lawsuit about the Police Bureau’s investigations into James’ death. Unfortunately, that remains true today, preventing the Chasse family and their attorneys from commenting on the subject matter of the Police Bureau’s News Release today and from releasing documents and information about those investigations which it appears the City has not released to the public.”

“The Chasse family and their attorneys are very sorry that they cannot comment on these events at this time. However, they are taking immediate steps to ask the Court to set aside the protective order which the City and Chief Sizer have violated today by their release of documents and information which are subject to the order. If the Court grants our renewed motion, we will then be in a position to release documents and information about the Police Bureau’s investigations into James’ death which the City does not appear to be releasing and to comment, like the City and Chief Sizer have done today, on those investigations and related matters.”

Issued by Tom Steenson: Attorney for the family and estate of James P. Chasse, Jr.

Re: Chasse v. Humphreys, et al., Case No. CV-07-189-HU and PPB’s 9/23/09 “News Release”

Over two years ago, the City of Portland and other defendants in the lawsuit sought a protective order barring the parties from releasing to the public documents and information regarding the Portland Police Bureau’s investigations into the death of James P. Chasse, Jr. Over the strenuous objections of the plaintiffs (the Chasse family – dad, mom and brother), and the unsuccessful intervention by the media at that time, the Court entered a protective order barring the release of those documents and that information to the public. Since then, plaintiffs have renewed their opposition to the protective order and have sought to make those investigations public, while the City and Chief Sizer have continued to argue that a protective order should remain in place. Despite the Chasse family’s arguments to the contrary, the Court has ordered the parties in the lawsuit, including the City and Chief Sizer, to continue to comply with the protective order.

As a result of this protective order, the Chasse family and their attorneys have been unable to release documents and other information which they have learned in the course of the lawsuit about the Police Bureau’s investigations into James’ death. Unfortunately, that remains true today, preventing the Chasse family and their attorneys from commenting on the subject matter of the Police Bureau’s News Release today and from releasing documents and information about those investigations which it appears the City has not released to the public.

The Chasse family and their attorneys are very sorry that they cannot comment on these events at this time. However, they are taking immediate steps to ask the Court to set aside the protective order which the City and Chief Sizer have violated today by their release of documents and information which are subject to the order. If the Court grants our renewed motion, we will then be in a position to release documents and information about the Police Bureau’s investigations into James’ death which the City does not appear to be releasing and to comment, like the City and Chief Sizer have done today, on those investigations and related matters.

READ – Chasse family statement, September 23 2009, September 23 2009

To: Sam Adams, Mayor of Portland, Oregon, Dan Saltzman, Commissioner of the Portland Police Bureau, Rosie Sizer, Chief of the Portland Police Bureau

We, the signers of this petition, are persons in recovery from mental illness and addiction, their friends and family members, their neighbors, co-workers and colleagues, and members of the public.

SIGN THIS PETITION NOW

Together we are alarmed by the lengthy and unwarranted delay in creating and distributing the internal police investigation, a public finding of facts, from a police action over three years ago which resulted in the death of an innocent man at the hands of city employees.

We believe delaying the release of this investigation jeopardizes public safety.

Our collective reason for concern is based on facts.

James P Chasse, Jr. was a mild-mannered person who lived downtown alone and quietly. He had a family, friends, and a rich spiritual life. He also had schizophrenia.

On September 17, 2006, Portland police officers Christopher Humphreys and Kyle Nice, and Multnomah County Sheriff deputy Bret Burton, who is now a Portland police officer, savagely beat James Chasse on a downtown street corner in front of dozens of witnesses.

Thirty minutes later James died from blunt force trauma, still shackled and without comfort or medical treatment, in the back of a Portland police car.

The District Attorney refused to file charges against the three officers involved in October 2006. They remain on duty pending discipline based on the Portland Police Bureau internal investigation.

On January 30 2009, Chief of Police Rosie Sizer was quoted in Willamette Week stating the investigation, ‘is going through the process, and I do not think it will take too much longer.’

Impunity is an active danger both to police officers and the public. There is no tool you can provide to the police that exceeds trust and respect for officers, especially in a crisis. This shadow of doubt must be illuminated.

1. We urge the City to finish writing and publicly distribute the internal investigation of what happened to James P Chasse, Jr.

2. We urge the City immediately suspend from duty those city-employed persons involved in this incident pending the release of the investigation.

SIGN THIS PETITION NOW

Editorial from Anna Griffin of the Oregonian, July 31 2009

Clayton Lance isn’t some pinko, Communist, civil libertarian do-gooder.

The St. Helens lawyer earns a good living, usually representing paying clients accused of serious crimes like murder, assault or driving the getaway car for skater Nancy Kerrigan’s attackers.

But when another lawyer asked for research help about Portland’s “sit-lie law,” he got curious. Wasn’t that thing ruled unconstitutional? he wondered. Why am I still hearing about it?

Lance went to a coffee shop to read up on the law, which bans sitting or resting on certain Portland sidewalks. Then he called soup kitchens, looking for someone cited under the law who needed a lawyer.

“It was just so obvious that they couldn’t legally do what they were trying,” Lance said. “I didn’t even have time to finish my coffee before I figured that out.”

And yet, here’s a prediction: Sometime soon, the Portland City Council will again try to prevent sitting on the sidewalk as a way to address police and shopkeeper complaints about panhandlers and vagrants. Soon after that, a judge will throw the law out.

It has happened twice in five years. Each time, courts declared the law unconstitutional. Last month, a judge tossed the civil complaint against Lance’s eventual client, 31-year-old panhandler Katherine Perkins.

Judges, it turns out, don’t appreciate laws limiting the right to peaceful assembly. They tend to frown on attempts to punish everyday behavior that no reasonable person would consider a crime.

To be clear, our sidewalks require work. Particularly in nice weather, central Portland resembles a combination living room/Motel 6 for street kids and panhandlers. Downtown businesses need help competing against suburban shops, where customers can usually reach their destination without being bugged by requests for spare change, the stench of urine and sweat or other reminders that poverty and mental illness really do exist.

City leaders, however, haven’t figured out how to do that without singling out the homeless. Plenty of restaurants offer sidewalk seating without proper permits. TriMet riders violate the ordinance all the time by slouching to the pavement while awaiting buses or trains. Yet in its first 13 months, almost 75 percent of those receiving sit-lie warnings or citations were homeless.

Courts have rejected similar bans across the country. Judges seem inclined to allow them only when cities take extraordinary steps to shelter everyone who wants it, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

As a city, we haven’t done that. Yes, taxpayers have spent millions to fight homelessness, but the focus is on permanent housing. A court fight over urban renewal spending has delayed a planned $45 million day center for homeless men and women. The City Council has added benches, showers and public toilets, but not as fast as advocates hoped.

There will always be people who opt for the streets. The challenge is to shrink the population as much as possible with shelters and services before giving police legal tools to move those who remain.

That’s going to take something like Miami’s meal tax, which generates about $9 million annually to fight homelessness, or Seattle’s affordable housing levy, which voters will consider extending this fall to raise $145 million over seven years.

Special taxes to help the poor: Can you imagine that happening here?

More likely, city leaders will do more well-intentioned talking, then take another stab at a sidewalk law.

And more lawyers will be like Lance, who says his firm will defend for free anyone cited under sit lie:

Eager to do some pinko, Communist, civil libertarian good.