Mental Health Association of Portland

From The Oregonian, July 29, 2010

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.”

From EnzymePDX, July 28th, 2010

The Portland City Council voted 4-0 early Wednesday to approve a $1.6 million settlement in the wrongful death civil suit filed by the estate of a mentally ill man who died while in police custody in 2006 after being arrested in the Pearl District.

The suit in the death of James Chasse Jr., 42, was negotiated in May. Approval of the settlement, the largest in the city’s history, came just hours before a 6 p.m. City Council meeting at which commissioners heard a report from City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade about the Chasse case.

The auditor’s report, prepared by a California consulting group, found serious flaws in police procedures during Chasse’s arrest and during an internal investigation in the three year after the his death.

The auditor’s report is unusual in that it was prepared by the Los Angeles County Office of Internal Review. The OIR is composed of lawyers who ensure that allegations of misconduct against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are thoroughly investigated. The OIR has examined investigations of five police-involved shootings and in-custody deaths since 2002.

Asked if [Tom] Steenson’s assessment of PPB was accurate, Police Chief Mike Reese replied: “I can’t say. I don’t think so.”

OIR chief attorney Michael Gennaco was asked if cases in which people died in police custody have led to the disciplining of police. “Most cities don’t even investigate these things,” he said. “Many cities have a school of thought that you cannot second-guess the judgment of an officer at moments like this. Portland is a place that doesn’t have that school of thought. It’s remarkable that they don’t.”

[Dan] Saltzman, who was police commissioner during much of the Chasse aftermath, was unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon, but Shannon Callahan, Saltzman’s police adviser during his tenure as police commissioner said, “We basically got handed the case after Mayor Tom Potter left.”

During that period Saltzman’s office got a good look at how the bureau and the city conducted the investigation. They didn’t like what they saw. Saltzman pushed for harsher punishment for Officers Kyle Nice and Christopher Humphreys and to get systematic changes in place to improve communications between police and EMS workers, but much of the process was frustrated by a gag order placed on the investigation.

“The city attorney placed a blanket gag order over the entire case,” said Callahan. “It was an untenable situation not being able to talk about the case at all. There was disinformation and bad information and information that the public still hasn’t seen. Dan was fighting for transparency the whole time he had the commission.”

[Sam] Adams pulled the police bureau from Saltzman in May, the day after the Chasse settlement was agreed on.

READ – Report to the City of Portland Concerning the In-Custody Death of James Chasse

The Portland Tribune, July 27, 2010

The City Council approved the largest settlement in a police-related case in Portland history on Wednesday.

The council voted 4-0 to authorize a $1.6 million settlement with the family of James Chasse Jr., the schizophrenic man who died after being injured while he was arrested on Sept. 17, 2006. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was home sick.

Explaining his vote, Adams apologized to the Chasse family for the death and the delay in resolving the case.

“This settlement was years in the making,” Adams said. “It took way too long.”

Chasse died while being transported to a hospital after the Multnomah County Justice Center Jail refused to book him because of his medical condition. The medical examiner concluded that Chasse died as a result of multiple internal injuries, including fractured ribs that punctured one lung.

A Multnomah County grand jury declined to charge anyone involved in the arrest with a crime. A Portland police sergeant and an officer were subsequently suspended for not ensuring that Chasse received proper medical attention. The police union is appealing the suspensions.

The Chasse family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the city, Multnomah County and medical personal that responded to the arrest scene in Northwest Portland.

Although the county and ambulance company settled with the family more than a year ago, the city continued fighting the lawsuit until mid-April, when U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken mediated an agreement with the family.

An independent review of the incident commissioned by the city auditor’s office faulted the police bureau on several aspects of its criminal and internal affairs investigations into the incident, including the amount of time it took to conclude them.

The report, by the OIR Group, was scheduled to be presented to the council Wednesday evening. It recommends several policy and procedural changes for future deadly force and in-custody death changes, most of which Police Chief Mike Reese has endorsed.

From KGW.com. May 16, 2010

Parents of a troubled Portland man shot by police met with Mayor Sam Adams and his new police chief, Mike Reese.

Adams says the the group agreed that more should be done to help the city’s mentally ill.

Even before this recent shooting, Mayor Adams had placed a “mental health triage center” in his final budget.

He says the triage center would serve as an information and referral hub for police and those families trying to find help for someone suffering from mental illness. Adams says the center would also help ill citizens in crisis avoid conflict with police.

Keaton Otis is the man officers recently shot and killed during an apparent gun fight.

“His parents described working really hard to try to get him the help that they knew he needed,” said Adams.

Regarding their 25-year-old son, Felesia and Joseph Otis said in a statement Friday, “Keaton was a typical teenager before being diagnosed in 2004 with a mood disorder. As his parents, we want you know about our son and the struggles he had later in his life so that others will not travel his path.”

“The big stumbling block that this poor family described to me was that they could never -that he was an adult- and they couldn’t commit him,” said Adams.

Committing an adult like Keaton Otis against his will is extremely difficult in Oregon and other states says the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“If you have private insurance you can get care. If you don’t have private insurance then you have to be disabled to get care. So there’s no place in between; there’s no drop-in or crisis facility treatment,” said the organization’s Don Moore, a father of a schizophrenic.

For Keaton Otis -and others who may have fallen through the cracks- Adams says it’s important police not become their first and only contact in times of crisis.

He wants his proposed mental health triage center to serve families in crisis at least until federal universal health care kicks in within three to four years.

“What are we going to do? We can’t have three to four years of this sort of human devastation in our streets. It’s not tolerable,” said Adams.

By Jenny Westberg, guest column in The Oregonian, May 14, 2010

In her column this week, The Oregonian’s Anna Griffin notes that any time James P. Chasse Jr.’s name is in the news, she gets the same phone call: “Why won’t this story go away? It’s been four years. He was nobody. Why do you think anyone still cares?”

Those are good questions, and the caller probably speaks for many Portlanders. Each point deserves a response.

“He was nobody.”

What do we know about this “nobody”? James Chasse was a writer, artist, poet and musician. He had many friends and a loving family: a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a niece. Friends and strangers knew of his gentle spirit. Yes, he happened to have a serious mental illness. He struggled more than most of us. But we also know he put effort into getting well. We know he was not drinking or using drugs. We know he made art and music. We know he touched many lives.

What did Jesse Jackson tell us? “I am somebody.” James Chasse was somebody. He mattered. He was loved. He is still remembered.

“It’s been four years.”

That’s true. And the city should be ashamed. An investigation that should have happened immediately took three years. In fact it was delayed so long that the city must now pay an outside firm to investigate the investigation.

If city government had done its job in the first place, we wouldn’t be dealing with it more than three years later. Taxpayers could have avoided paying lawyers to defend the city, the county and police, racking up billable hours to devise legal strategies that offend the conscience, such as the suggestion that Chasse was responsible for his own death.

If officials had taken immediate and forceful action, we might not have witnessed this week’s city government shakeup, with Mayor Sam Adams removing the Police Bureau from under Commissioner Dan Saltzman and telling Police Chief Rosie Sizer to clean out her desk.

There’s not a single good reason this case needed to last this long, cost millions of dollars and cause immeasurable damage to the public trust.

“Why won’t this story go away?”

Maybe some Portlanders would like to forget about James Chasse. Certainly city leaders would be relieved if the whole thing quietly slipped away. But the case lives on, in part due to the appalling number of insults that kept getting heaped onto the original injury.

When the officers involved in Chasse’s death went undisciplined, it was an insult. When Saltzman announced token disciplinary action, then obediently withdrew it when police objected, it was an insult. When years went by without an investigatory report, it was an insult.

Prior to Chasse’s death, we had heard about other people with mental illness or in crisis who had been killed at the hands of police. Deontae Keller. Richard “Dickie” Dow. Jose Meija Poot. Kendra James. James Jahar Perez. And the deaths didn’t stop. Aaron Campbell was shot in the back and killed on Jan. 29. Jack Dale Collins was shot and killed on March 22.

Tragic occurrences all. But tragedies no longer seen as mere “accidents,” but as “normal,” predictable and all too frequent.

We learned more about the officers involved in Chasse’s death. On Nov. 14, 2009, Officer Chris Humphreys shot a 12-year-old girl with a beanbag gun. On April 7, 2010, Officer Kyle Nice pulled his gun on a civilian in a road-rage incident. Two more insults. As the final Chasse lawsuit approached, city attorneys added another to the pile: They would try to pin Chasse’s death on Chasse himself.

Portland has been battered by these insults. The story won’t go away as long as the wounds keep getting ripped back open.

“Why do you think anyone still cares?”

Unpackaged, this question speaks to injustice, to impunity, to authoritarian rule. It asks the community to ignore unreasonable police brutality. It asks for the issues around mental illness to be ignored, forgotten, for those persons with unsolvable problems to vanish.

The question expresses fear, ignorance, shame and disgrace.

We care about the person and the facts. James Chasse was brutally killed. He did not commit a crime. He was defenseless. He died in fear and agony, in the custody of those we expect to “protect and serve.”

If compassion and facts don’t move us, infuriate us and make us wonder what’s happening to our city, what would it take?

Yes, we still care, because we, like James Chasse, are human beings. He didn’t deserve to die. This must never happen again.

Jenny Westberg is a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

From The Olympian / AP, May 12, 2010

Portland Mayor Sam Adams fired the city’s police chief Wednesday, a day after the city agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a mentally ill man in police custody.

Adams said at a City Hall news conference the factors that went into his decision were “cumulative” but that he made up his mind Tuesday night and met with Police Chief Rosie Sizer on Wednesday morning.

He praised Sizer for her four years as chief, saying she “has accomplished some remarkable reforms” at the Portland Police Bureau.

But the mayor added: “Too often though, the reforms have come after, or in reaction to, failures at the bureau. I want to put the bureau on a more proactive reform path.”

Adams named Mike Reese, the Central Precinct commander, as the new chief, effective with the announcement.

Adams said Sizer would take her remaining vacation time until she can officially retire on July 15 to preserve her full benefits.

Sizer could not immediately be reached for comment following the announcement.

The mayor also said he would take over immediately as police commissioner, a traditional role for the Portland mayor but one that Adams had delegated to City Commissioner Dan Saltzman.

On Monday, Sizer criticized the mayor’s proposed budget, and was joined by Saltzman. Adams said Wednesday the dispute over the budget “forced the timeline” of his decision to fire Sizer and take over as police commissioner. He did not elaborate.

Adams also said budget cuts in many social service agencies are forcing Portland police officers to act as social workers, and they will have to take on more of that role as a practical matter.

“We are overwhelmed with the demand for services,” Adams said. “That’s the reality. They are the first responders. And with $2.8 billion in anticipated additional cuts from the state budget, I wish I could say that’s going to change, but it’s not.”

Jason Renaud, co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland, said police in Portland are following a national trend.

“Cops are social workers,” Renaud said. “They manage people with mental illness and addiction problems every day. They don’t bring down bank robbers and murderers every day.”

On Tuesday, Saltzman announced the $1.6 million settlement in the police custody death lawsuit and made a public apology to the family of James Chasse Jr., who died in September 2006 after he was tackled by officers on a street corner, breaking 16 ribs and puncturing his lung.

Chasse, 42, suffered from schizophrenia, and his family sued the city, Multnomah County and an ambulance company. The county settled for $925,000, and American Medical Response settled for a reported $600,000.

Two Portland officers involved in the arrest were disciplined, and Sizer launched a reform program for dealing with the mentally ill that includes 40 hours of crisis intervention training for all officers.

Sizer also has had to deal with the fallout from the death of an unarmed young black man who was shot in the back by a Portland officer with a rifle during a standoff in late January.

Aaron Campbell’s death sparked a protest march on City Hall and a confrontation with Adams by leaders of Portland’s black community, followed by a visit from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who called the police shooting “an execution.”

Reviews are under way by the U.S. Department of Justice and the police bureau.

Adams said Wednesday he wants to improve relationships between police and the entire community, but especially minorities.

From the Portland Tribune, May 12, 2010

Two days after Police Chief Rosie Sizer challenged Mayor Sam Adams on his proposed budget, Adams assigned the bureau to himself and replaced Sizer with Michael Reese, the former commander of central and east precincts.

At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Adams said the dispute over the budget was only one reason he took the bureau from Commissioner Dan Saltzman and replaced Sizer. Adams said he also was concerned about what he termed longstanding distrust between many Portlanders and their police bureau.

“People fear crime, but many of them also fear the police bureau,” Adams said, promising that he would actively manage the bureau to improve its relationship with city residents.

Adams and Reese both said a top priority was reworking Adams’ proposed budget for the bureau to make sure 25 officers would not lose their jobs in the coming fiscal year — something that Sizer had charged would happen.

Adams said Sizer would continue to be employed by the bureau until she retires this summer, allowing her to receive full retirement benefits. Sizer was not told of the changes until minutes before the press conference.

Saltzman also learned of the changes from Adams mere minutes before they were announced publicly. Adams did not heavily criticize Saltzman’s administration of the bureau, but said the time had come for new leadership.

For his part, Saltzman praised Sizer’s administration of the bureau and said he was “somewhat disappointed” that Adams took it. Saltzman listed his accomplishments as bringing a new level of transparency to the bureau, filling all vacant officer positions for the first time in eight years, hiring more minorities and improving the bureau’s responses to child abuse and domestic violence cases.

The mayor’s decision comes in the midst of Saltzman’s re-election campaign — a campaign in which several of his opponents have tried to make his management of the bureau an issue. One opponent, Jesse Cornett, issued a press release shortly after the changes were announced saying it was “about time” Adams took over the bureau, accusing Saltzman of being “in over his head” trying to administer it.

Asked how the changes would affect the election, Saltzman said he had no idea but admitted it was “not the kind of in campaign school they say is a desirable thing to happen a week before an election.”

Sizer, a bureau veteran, was hired four years ago to take the place of Derrick Foxworth, who was demoted by former Mayor Tom Potter. She was hired without a contract. While a contract is a common component of hiring a chief from out of town, it rarely comes into play when a chief is promoted from within. She was an at-will employee, reporting directly to the mayor.

Sizer also is the latest in a long line of Portland police chiefs who’ve been forced from the job. Foxworth was forced out by a sex scandal. He was preceded by Mark Kroeker, who lost the job following fallout from the shooting death of an unarmed woman. Before that, Penny Harrington left in midst of an investigation of her department’s reorganization and the relationship she and her husband had with a suspect in a high-level drug case

And Adams isn’t the first mayor to dismiss a chief after a budget dispute. In the 1980s, former Mayor Bud Clark fired Chief Jim Davis during a meeting at the Fat City Cafe.

In a post on his website, Commissioner Randy Leonard praised Adams for taking the bureau and replacing Sizer with Reese, saying, “The Mayor’s recognition of the need for course correction and his courage in making a swift decision to do so is a testament to his skill as the leader of our City.”

Bureau in ‘dire’ situation

As he announced his dismissal of Sizer, Adams spoke about the new reality for the city’s police force — to be the first responders to people facing homelessness, mental illness and addiction.

“It is alarming, frustrating, challenging, the fact that with cuts at the state funding level to the county, how many people have fallen through the social safety net,” Adams said. “We are overwhelmed with the demand for services. … We need to retrain, regroup the relationship the police bureau has with the jails and criminal justice system.”

The situation, he said, is “dire but not impossible. This is a can-do police chief. I’m going to be a can-do police commissioner.”

The press conference came on the heels of a nasty fight between Adams and Sizer on Monday over next year’s budget. Both Adams and Sizer essentially accused each other of lying about the impact of Adams’ proposed budget on the Police Bureau for next year.

Adams unveiled his proposed budget for the next fiscal year on Friday. It proposed cutting 50 positions from the bureau. During a Friday press conference, Adams said that no sworn officers would be laid off because of the proposed cuts.

But on Monday morning, Sizer held a press conference and said the proposed cuts would require that 24 officers be laid off. Sizer also said she would be forced to shut down the cold case unit that investigates unsolved homicides.

Adams responded late Monday afternoon, charging that Sizer had approved the cuts during meetings with him. Adams said he was shocked that Sizer was now saying the cuts would result in officers being laid off.

“She said the bureau could live with the cuts and not have to lay officers off,” Adams told the Portland Tribune Monday afternoon.

Adams also said Sizer misrepesented the status of some bureau positions during the meetings, saying they were vacant when, in fact, they were “double-filled.”

“I’m not happy about it,” Adams said of the differences.

Yet, at Wednesday’s press conference, Adams said budgetary issues were just one of his concerns. He cited “a cumulation of factors and the need to put together a budget, and my desire to take the bureau in a different direction under my own assignment.”

Adams noted there has been a drop in officer-involved shootings under Sizer’s leadership, but faulted her for being too reactive, rather than proactive in her management of the bureau.

“And the discussions I’ve had with Chief Reese are to put this bureau on a proactive, clear-eyed path of reform,” Adams said.

From KPTV.com, May 11, 2010

The family of a mentally ill man who died in police custody has settled a lawsuit against the city of Portland for $1.6 million just weeks before the case was scheduled for trial.

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman publicly apologized to the family of James Chasse Jr. at City Hall during a news conference Tuesday to announce the tentative settlement, which still must be approved by the City Council.

“Although nothing can ever make up for the loss of Mr. Chasse’s life, his death has led us all to take a serious look at the way we as a community treat the mentally ill,” Saltzman said. “I think nobody would win by this going to trial. And certainly, the city’s image probably would be tarnished.”

Mayor Sam Adams said in a statement the tentative settlement “brings to a close a very troubling chapter in the relationship between the Portland Police Bureau and the residents of this great 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,” Adams said.

Chasse, 42, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in September 2006 after he was tackled by police officers who chased him for allegedly urinating in public. He was also shot with a stun gun.

Chasse suffered 16 broken ribs and a punctured lung that led to his death while officers were taking him to a hospital in a patrol car.

Officers first took him to the Multnomah County jail but a nurse told them Chasse could not be booked in his condition.

Police Chief Rosie Sizer said she’s relieved by the ruling in James Chasse Jr.’s death, but felt “the individual officers have been unfairly demonized.”

“I believe that the Chasse family deserves compensation for their loss. I hope that James Chasse’s family also takes some comfort in the changes that the Portland Police has made,” Sizer said in a statement. “James Chasse’s death was a horrible accident and not a ‘beating death.’”

In a statement released on behalf of the Chasse family by their attorney, Tom Steenson, the family said the city agreed as part of the settlement to release documents that had been sealed during the lawsuit, including an internal affairs report.

The family said their attorneys took more than 75 depositions from witnesses, police and others, and obtained over 40,000 pages of documents.

“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 statement said.

The family settled for $925,000 with Multnomah County for a sheriff’s deputy’s involvement in the death and for a reported $600,000 with American Medical Response Northwest Inc., the ambulance company that responded to the scene of the arrest.

For the $1.6 million payout, the city is self-insured for $1 million and a secondary insurance company will pay the other $600,000, Saltzman said.

Saltzman, who oversees the police bureau, had recommended last November that Sgt. Kyle Nice and Officer Christopher Humphreys be suspended for two weeks for their role in the death.

He said Tuesday that disciplinary action against both officers was complete.

The city also plans to release documents that had been sealed during the lawsuit, including an internal affairs report.

Deputy City Attorney Jim Rice said he and the attorney for the Chasse family, Tom Steenson, were working out the final release and any disagreements would be handled by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken as mediator.

City Attorney Linda Meng said it was the largest settlement for a lawsuit of its kind in her memory.

Saltzman said the settlement would come from the city’s insurance and not from its general fund. Both sides wanted to avoid a trial, he said.

Saltzman noted the police bureau has made a number of changes in its policy on the use of force and dealing with the mentally ill, including 40 hours of crisis intervention training for all officers.

When asked why it took more than three years to resolve the case, Saltzman said that would be determined by an independent review being led by City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade.

The federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Chasse’s family accused Portland police officers of excessive force and denying Chasse appropriate medical attention.

U.S. District Judge Garr M. King denied a city request for a change of venue in February. The case had been set for trial in June.

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.”

From the Willamette Week, May 11, 2010

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman this afternoon apologized to the family of James Chasse Jr. after the city reached a $1.6 million settlement in a lawsuit over Chasse’s 2006 death in police custody.

“I believe this proposed settlement to be in the best interests of our city and our community, and it’s my hope that by settling this case, we can begin to heal from the tragic death of Mr. Chasse,” Saltzman said.

“Although nothing could ever make up for the loss of his tragic life, his death has led us all to take a serious look at the way we as a community treat the mentally ill,” added Saltzman, who is running for re-election on the May 18 ballot. “It has prompted the Portland Police Bureau to examine and improve many of its policies.”

Saltzman said he and Chief Rosie Sizer —who said today in a news release she was “relieved” by the settlement— attended a settlement conference Monday at federal court, where U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken negotiated the agreement.

Saltzman said as part of the agreement, the city will release documents from police internal investigations of Chasse’s death. Those documents have been under seal in court pending the civil trial, which was scheduled to begin next month.

Saltzman said some personal information must be redacted from the documents. He said that paperwork will be available “soon but not immediately.”

Saltzman said there were no other stipulations made as part of the settlement agreement, which still must be approved by the City Council. Saltzman said a vote could happen as early as next week. And Mayor Sam Adams said today in a news release that he is confident the council will approve the settlement.

City Attorney Linda Meng said the$1.6 million payout would be the biggest tort-claim settlement in city history. Records provided to WW by the city show Portland has paid out $3.8 million $4.8 million since 1995 to settle claims of excessive force by police.

UPDATE with comment from Chasse family:

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 17.

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.

Message from the Portland Police Association’s President Scott Westerman, from March 2010

Immediately after the Aaron Campbell shooting, Chief [Rosie] Sizer stood silent. The community was demanding answers and she stood silent.

There is an obvious disconnect between the public’s expectations of the police and the Police Bureau’s training. While this disconnect may not be growing as quickly as it was immediately following the incident, it certainly hasn’t diminished.

When Chief Sizer finally spoke, she spent most of her time sidestepping the issue. She called attention to herself and the things she’s accomplished since she’s been chief. She asked what people could expect of a bureau that doesn’t have a real training facility. She quoted statistics that show use of force and complaints are down. She continues to give the impression that she alone is responsible for those changes. She gives little acknowledgement to the men and women of the Police Bureau who are truly responsible for these changes.

Still, the most important missing piece is that she has yet to address the disconnect. The disconnect between our training and the public’s expectations. More importantly, the disconnect between the chief and the rank and file officers out there doing the job — the widest I’ve seen in my 21 years as a cop.

By the time of this writing, many of you have gone through In-Service training and had to listen to her blame everyone for the public outcry regarding that disconnect. She goes so far as to blame me, the PPA membership, the City Council and many others for the public scrutiny. Still, she sheds no light on herself. She is clinging to her job and is trying to make herself look better by blasting everyone around her. She tells rooms full of police officers that Mayor [Sam] Adams “is a mess,” Commissioner [Randy] Leonard is a “loose cannon with a grudge,” and Commissioner [Dan] Saltzman is the police commissioner “by default.”

According to the many officers I’ve spoken with who have heard her speak at In-Service, she appears to be trying to make it look like she is the only person protecting line officers from City Council and the public. The ironic thing is no one is calling her on it.

Considering the current mood of the Bureau, there are two logical reasons folks aren’t pushing back on her assertions. First, no one wants to get sent to TRU or be labeled a problem for speaking their mind. Second, no one much cares for what she has to say. It isn’t like she has a lot of credibility among the rank and fi le officers.

Going to In-Service to blame everyone else and take no responsibility for running this Bureau into the ground certainly doesn’t help with the credibility of the officers. I have spent a lot of time writing about issues the PPA has faced, mistakes I’ve made and the actions takes to correct those mistakes. I take full responsibility for the rally on City Hall back in November. I recognize the rally didn’t go over well in certain segments of our community.

The Chief wants to characterize the rally as a failure. On the contrary — the rally was a mechanism for our officers and their supporters to have their voices heard since Chief Sizer and Commissioner Saltzman were ignoring all aspects of the law, due process and were fully willing to throw another one of our officers under the bus. We are a labor organization. That rally was designed to unite our membership for a cause we believed in and still believe in. An injustice to one of us is an injustice to all of us.

We expressed our strength by letting the chief and commissioner know we will no longer sit idly by while they sacrifice another one of our members without so much as an investigation. It highlighted the complete and total disconnect between the chief’s office and the officers she is supposed to be leading.

When the budget proposal is made this month to City Council, Assistant Chief [Brian] Martinek will be the one making the presentation, not Chief Sizer. Some believe it isn’t coincidence as they believe Chief Sizer is grooming Martinek to be our next chief. Let’s imagine that for a moment. The City of Vancouver’s Police Department loathed him as their chief. There were discrimination lawsuits, allegations of retaliatory behavior by him and overall lack of trust in his ability to do the job.

Here in Portland, things aren’t much different. There are few, if any, line officers who have faith in his ability to do the job he has now let alone be the police chief. If you listen to him tell it, it’s only because he’s an outsider. I find that ironic since Chief [Mark] Kroeker was a complete outsider and had widespread support from the rank and file.

What this Bureau needs is a chief who can communicate; not just to the public, but to the officers as well. Someone who will listen to others and actually hear what they have to say. We need a chief who doesn’t believe he or she is the sole expert in every situation, but rather one who isn’t afraid to collaborate with
others to form a position.

We need a chief who doesn’t hide on the 15th floor and disappear from visibility so often that officers publicly announce they had a “Rosie sighting.”

We need a chief who doesn’t try to white wash “complicated” issues, but rather treats the officers with the respect they have earned doing this job.

We need a chief who will publicly support officers who act in good faith and follow their training.

We need a chief who is willing to meet with the community, not one-on-one, but in an open forum so the community can collectively give input to the chief on what matters to them. We need a chief who publicly acknowledge mistakes and doesn’t try to create revisionist history by later claiming the actions were merely “looking out for the best interests of the officer.”

We don’t have that in Chief Sizer or Assistant Chief Martinek.

READ – Randy Leonard was right: Portland Police Bureau needs new leadership, The Oregonian, April 23, 2010

The Portland Police Bureau has evidently started a pilot project that will place a mental health worker in a day-shift patrol car. The size, scale, the individuals involved, the budget, the data to be collected, the desired outcomes, the duration, are all unknown.

The speaker in the video is Crisis Intervention Training coordinator Liesbeth Gerritson.

Here’s what we wrote last month when a set of proposals were made to address the lack of trust between the Portland police and persons with a diagnosis of mental illness. This “pilot project” was not part of the initial proposal by Dan Saltzman, Rosie Sizer and Amanda Fritz.

“The proposed recommendations from Police Chief Sizer and Police Commissioner Saltzman lack dedicated funding, a time-line for implementation, responsible parties, and accountability benchmarks. Without these defining qualities, the proposal is bureaucratic smoke which obscures political weakness.”

READ – Response to Saltzman, Sizer, Fritz proposal: now do it.

From the Portland Mercury, April 15, 2010

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman is under fire from mental health advocates for releasing a “disappointing” report, which intends to improve police interactions with people suffering from mental illness.

The report, issued at a city hall press conference last week, made the following recommendations for immediate action: a trial partnering scheme between just one police officer and one mental health worker; police meet-ups with mentally ill people at small community gatherings; support for the county’s crisis triage center which has been in the works since 2006; and calls for more money from the state and federal government.

“This is essentially business as usual,” responds Bob Joondeph, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon. “On the plus side, I think encouraging greater cooperation between police and those in the mental health community is a good thing—on the other hand they don’t have the kind of money that is required to do something meaningful.

“There needs to be a major change in terms of how the state funds mental health services,” Joondeph continues.

Indeed, Mayor Sam Adams announced last week that the Portland Police Bureau is likely to overspend this year’s budget by $5 million, prompting cuts across city government and in the bureau itself to balance the books by June.

Saltzman and Police Chief Rosie Sizer began meeting privately with mental health advocates last fall, after recommending just two weeks off for the two officers involved in the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse Jr., a man with schizophrenia—following an investigation that took more than three years.

Since then, the police have shot Aaron Campbell, an unarmed African American man with a history of hospitalization following an unsuccessful suicide attempt, and Jack Dale Collins, a homeless man with a history of self-harm and alcoholism—who actually walked into a police station 11 days before he was shot, and was recommended to seek mental health treatment.

Some prominent mental health advocates, like Jason Renaud with the Mental Health Association of Portland, refused to meet with Saltzman and Sizer behind closed doors to start writing the report last fall. Renaud’s organization greeted Saltzman’s report last week with a statement decrying it as “bureaucratic smoke, which obscures political weakness.”

“The proposed recommendations… lack dedicated funding, a timeline for implementation, responsible parties, and accountability benchmarks,” their statement continues—although notably, Renaud’s name is on the ballot against Saltzman’s in the May election.

Meanwhile other advocates, like Joondeph and Beckie Child—an advocate from Mental Health America of Oregon—felt that the opportunity to sit down with the police commissioner and police chief was too good to pass up. Child is also disappointed with the report.

“I can’t even begin to explain my frustration,” she says, saying that the changes wouldn’t have made any difference in the deaths of Chasse, Campbell, or Collins.

Child says she’s concerned about the partnering scheme between police officers and mental health workers, wondering how it would have resolved recent situations differently. As for the “small group” meetings with people suffering from mental illness, Child says she thinks the city is “afraid to do this in large groups or more publicly—they are wanting to control the message.

“Writing this report was the easy thing to do,” Child continues. “Changing practices and beliefs—not so easy.”

Commissioner Saltzman is up for reelection in May, and is under pressure to appear proactive on this issue.

“I think Bob [Joondeph] is correct, we need to reinvigorate our efforts for state and federal funding for mental health,” says Saltzman in response. “And, I completely understand Ms. Child’s frustration, the current situation is unacceptable.”

“More will need to happen than just the action items in the report,” Saltzman continues. “We need to engage our entire community to change practices and beliefs. This is a start, but I agree that the hard work lies ahead.”

Saltzman drew attention to the release of the report at a campaign event that evening, Thursday, April 8, with the Buckman Community Association.

Asked about criticism of the police, Saltzman said the last year has been a “challenge” and also a “blessing.”

“I agree that there are some bad apples,” he said. “It’s my job as police commissioner to work hard to regain the trust that has been lost as a result of the tragic deaths going back four years now, starting with James Chasse.”

“Since he’s been challenged, the police commissioner has come up with a lot of new solutions, but it’s too little and it’s too late,” responded Jesse Cornett, Saltzman’s main rival for the seat, at the Buckman meeting. “You can’t keep electing the same leaders and expect anything to be any different.”

Editorial column by Matt Davis, Portland Mercury, April 15, 2010

Oh, black bloc protesters. How I pity you. Once again last Thursday evening, April 8, you staged a woefully limp protest at the corner of NW 13th and Everett, the street corner where James Chasse Jr. was beaten by Portland cops in 2006. This followed your effort on March 29, to riot by… throwing a brick through the window of the Bank of America building. Black bloc? More like “bland crock.”

Granted, that insult was a long walk. But at the same time, it was wittier than most of your efforts to call for police reform. Turning dumpsters over in the street? Ooooh. And screaming at a KOIN TV reporter, “You’re a media whore!”

James Chasse, as well as being a man suffering with schizophrenia who was beaten to death by Portland police, was a poet and a musician. So if you’re going to protest in his name, at least be a little more original about it. You’re just giving anarchy a bad name, and I doubt he’d be proud of your efforts.

Having said all that, I was impressed with one thing y’all did last week: Painting over the sign for 13th Avenue with the words “James Ave.” Now that’s a good idea: City code says any individual or organization—even the black bloc, presumably—may apply to the city to rename a city street. City streets may only be renamed after a prominent person who has been dead for at least five years. Chasse died on September 17, 2006—so we’re on course for a rename to occur next September.

Prominence occurs as a result of a person’s “significant, positive contribution to the United States of America, and/or the local community.” Well, in Chasse’s case I would argue that his contribution to the local community has been made by dying at the hands of a broken mental health system, and highlighting just how broken that system has become.

“No crisis has focused my administration more than the death of James Chasse,” said former Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler in his address to City Club on February 12.

I rest my case. And since we still seem to be doing such a terrible job of addressing the root causes of Chasse’s death, I think the very least we can do is honor him by renaming a street until we can summon the political backbone to make funding mental health a priority.

Anyone can call the city auditor’s office to get this ball rolling: 503-823-6964. You’re welcome.

The Portland Police Bureau’s reputation and trust in the community has been badly damaged under the brief and lax administration of Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman. Worst of all? We’re nowhere near bottom yet.

Saltzman: Nice to assume desk duty upon return, KOIN.com, April 12, 2010

Officer involved in road rage gets desk duty – Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman made the decision to bench Sgt. Kyle Nice, Portland Tribune, April 12, 2010

Two Sentences: Chief Rosie Sizer Responds to Road Rage Cases, Willamette Week, April 12, 2010

Death inquests should be standard in police shootings, unsigned op ed in The Oregonian, April 12, 2010

“Road Rage” claimant sues off-duty officer, City of Portland, KOIN.com, April 12, 2010

Tuning an officer’s temperament, unsigned op ed in The Oregonian, April 12, 2010

Police Commissioner: ‘I am embarrassed by Sgt. Nice’, KATU.com, April 12, 2010

Portland police commissioner suggests anger-management counseling for two sergeants involved in off duty, road-rage cases, The Oregonian, April 12, 2010

Sgt. [Kyle Nice] accused of road rage taken off street patrol, KGW.com, April 12, 2010

Nice On Desk Duty After Road Rage Incident, Portland Mercury, April 12, 2010
Saltzman Puts Chasse Cop on Desk Duty after Road Rage Case, Willamette Week, April 12, 2010

From KATU.com, April 11, 2010

We [KATU.com] now have the 9-1-1 call from a Portland woman who says she was the victim of two separate road rage attacks … from the president of Portland’s police union.

“We were coming down the road,” Virginia Thompson tells the 9-1-1 dispatcher in the above video. “All of a sudden, this car pulls in front of us and slams on his brakes. My husband blinks his lights. The guy moved off into the other lane and pulled up next to us at a stoplight and came out yelling and screaming ‘Grow up’ and he stuck his head down by the window and I recognized him as the same guy from yesterday.”

[Scott] Westerman admitted to KATU Saturday that he got out of his car and yelled at Thompson two separate times in January.

The first time it happened was in Northeast Portland.

That time, Thompson claims Westerman told her he was police officer. Westerman says he doesn’t remember saying that.

The second incident was near Beaverton two days later, while Thompson’s husband was driving.

Westerman tells KATU he’s embarrassed and wants to apologize to the family – but doesn’t want to interfere with the internal affairs investigation that is now underway.

READ – Return Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish to the Portland City Council, unsigned editorial by the Oregonian, April 10, 2010
READ – Portland police union head Sgt. Scott Westerman under investigation for road rage incidents, Hillsboro Argus, April 9, 2010
READ – Head of Portland police union admits road rage, Corvallis Gazette Times, April 10, 2010

READ – Police Union Boss Scott Westerman In Road Rage Incidents: “See if he really is a cop with a problem, or just somebody pretending he’s a cop.”, Portland Mercury, April 10, 2010

READ – Portland Sgt. Kyle Nice under investigation for pulling gun and allegedly flipping off another motorist in Washington County, Oregonian, April 6, 2010
READ – Washington County Sheriff’s Department Report on Kyle Nice “road rage incident, April 2, 2010
READ – Portland officer files whistle-blower complaint, accuses bureau of punishing him for speaking out, Oregonian, January 29, 2010
READ – Motorist involved in road rage incident with Portland Sgt. Kyle Nice sues the city, Oregonian, April 10, 2010
READ – Driver to sue off-duty cop in road rage incident, KATU.com, April 10, 2010
READ – Police sergeant gets mixed up in road-rage incident, April 6, 2010