Mental Health Association of Portland

Portland City Council evening session of July 28, 2010.

The Council heard testimony about the OIR Report on the internal police investigation about the death of James Chasse. Council includes Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish, and Mayor Sam Adams via telephone. Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Randy Leonard were absent.

Testifying were city auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade, members of the OIR Group including Michael Gennaco, Jason Renaud from the Mental Health Association of Portland, Michael Bigham, chair of the Independent Police Review Citizen’s Review Commission, Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, Debbie Aiona of the League of Women Voters, Chani Teller-Giegle, Tom Steenson, attorney for the family of James Chasse, and Mike Reese, Portland police chief.

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

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.

From KGW.com, July 23, 2010

photo by Jamie Marquez

City Council will hear public testimony on the OIR report on the Portland Police Bureau’s investigation about the death of James Chasse at 6 PM on July 28 in Council Chambers.

An outside consultants report had some sharp criticisms for the way in which Portland police investigated the 2006 death of James Chasse Jr.

The outside report was requested by City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade and prepared by the OIR Group. She released the report Friday.

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

James Chasse died while in police custody after an encounter with police in Old Town on September 17, 2006. Officers said Chasse appeared to be urinating outdoors and when he tried to get away they tackled him.

Medics were called to the scene and Chasse showed normal vital signs, then officers took him to the Multnomah County Detention Center according to officers.

According to the autopsy report, a nurse at the jail advised officers to take Chasse to the hospital.

Police said he died as they were transporting him there, according to the report. The autopsy revealed that Chasse suffered 26 rib fractures and a punctured lung. The autopsy concluded the death was caused by blunt force trauma to the chest.

“The Internal Affairs Division interviews were thorough and fair,” a report summary said, “but the investigation suffered significant delays because of the length of time Homicide took to complete its investigative book and forward to IAD, staffing shortages at IAD, and Multnomah County’s decision to not let its employees be interviewed by investigators until after they had been deposed in the civil case.”

The report’s criticisms include:

– Internal Affairs investigators did not pay enough attention to jail videotape.

– There was a lack of attention of bureau employees at the scene, which included allegations of inaccurate information about Chasse given to a civilian.

– Failure to interview all of the officers who restrained Chasse and carried him.

– Failure to follow up sufficiently on the delay in taking Chasse to jail while involved officers completed paperwork.

– Failure to try and question jail employees about statements made by the involved officers.

The report did have some praise for the bureau.

“First, it must be recognized that the Portland Police Bureau of 2010 is not the Portland Police Bureau of 2006,” the report said. “As we discuss more fully in our Report, critical systemic reform, much arising out of this incident, has improved the investigative processes, policies, training, and review that we critique.”

“Second, unlike most comparable police agencies, PPB has a long regarded tradition of opening up its vault of articles and personnel to exacting outside review.”

The report said the Portland Police Bureau was “head and shoulders” above other police agencies in opening itself up to outside review, learning from what happened and then implementing suggested changes.

The consultant’s had what it called “key recommendations” for how the Chasse investigation was handled:

– Take the necessary steps to interview involved officers contemporaneously with the incident.

– Conduct face-to-face interviews with civilian witnesses soon after the incident.

– Address the need to have private ambulance personnel cooperate with the in-custody death investigation.

– Document the transport of officers from the scene;

– Add Internal Affairs personnel to the roster of those expected to respond to the scene of the incident.

READ – Chasse review released, Portland Tribune, July 23, 2010
READ – Outside consultants find gaps in Portland police review of James P. Chasse Jr.’s death in custody, the Oregonian, July 23, 2010
READ – Auditor Releases Chasse Report (Updated With Comment From Mayor Sam Adams), Willamette Week, July 23, 2010
READ – City Releases Outside Audit of Chasse Case, Portland Mercury, July 23, 2010
READ – Press release from the Auditor’s office about the release of the OIR report on James Chasse