Mental Health Association of Portland

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, May 7, 2013

Mary Beth Baptista

Mary-Beth Baptista, who has served as director of Portland’s Independent Police Review Division, is leaving the job in mid-June, Portland’s city auditor announced Tuesday.

Baptista has led the division, the intake center for complaints against Portland police, since 2008 after working as a Multnomah County deputy district attorney.

City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade said she plans to appoint the assistant director, Constantin Severe, to serve as the next director. He has worked as assistant director since 2008.

“Mary-Beth is a courageous leader and a force to be reckoned with,” Griffin-Valade said in a prepared statement. “I was incredibly saddened when she told me she was ready to move on in her career. She had made an important impact on how Portland police officers interact with their community.”

Baptista will complete the hiring of three new IPR investigators and oversee the division’s annual report for the year.

Baptista was involved in helping craft changes to the Independent Police Review Division in 2010 that increased the division’s police oversight powers.

Recently, Baptista was outspoken in her criticism of Police Chief Mike Reese‘s decision to demote Todd Wyatt, instead of firing him for his inappropriate touching of women employees and escalation of an off-duty road rage encounter.

“When I arrived at IPR in 2008, I had a distinct plan of action in mind. I’m proud that IPR has moved a long way toward ensuring greater civilian oversight of the police thanks to hard work and supportive leadership,” Baptista said.

“I wish her well and am hopeful that the CRC will have a good working relationship with Constantin Severe,’’ said Rochelle Silver, a member of the Citizen Review Committee. The committee hears citizen appeals of the police findings stemming from complaints of alleged officer misconduct.

Attorney Jamie Troy, who serves as chair of the Citizen Review Committee, said her departure is a surprise.

“I commend Mary-Beth for ushering in some true reforms during her tenure at IPR and agree these have allowed IPR to play a more hands-on and powerful rule in police oversight,” Troy said. “I’ve always been impressed by her doggedness and determination and wish her well.”

Troy said he’ll welcome Severe to the director’s job.

“I think he’s a great choice,” Troy said. “I find him to be approachable, frank and fair and look forward to working with him at the helm of IPR.

Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association,  said he always had a good working relationship with Baptista.

“She did a tough job and I wish her the best in whatever she decides to do in the future,’’ Turner said.

Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch said he doesn’t expect much change with transition in leadership. He did note that Baptista has provided written director’s reports at each Citizen Review Committee meeting that includes updates on the status of police internal affairs investigations.

“While it has mattered who the IPR director is to some extent, until the institution is fixed, it doesn’t really matter,’’ Handelman said. “Over the years, all the directors feel okay with the constraints that are handed to them and haven’t pushed for a stronger review board as the community has pushed for over the years.’’

Kendra James 10 Years Later Memorial Vigil
To Remember Woman Slain by Police in 2003
Sunday, May 5, 2013, 5:00 PM
931 N Skidmore

On Sunday, May 5, the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform will lead a memorial vigil for Kendra James, the young woman killed by Officer Scott McCollister exactly 10 years ago on the Skidmore overpass in Portland. The memorial will be held outside the Greater Faith Baptist Church at 931 N Skidmore, just yards away from the spot where McCollister discharged his pistol at James, who was behind the wheel of a car. The vigil will begin at 5 PM. Members of James’ family will be in attendance.

Despite McCollister’s claims that he “feared for his life,” the AMA Coalition presented a detailed analysis that McCollister was not in any danger, knew who the unarmed Kendra James was and could have found her even if she had driven away, and raised serious questions about whether he had collaborated with the other officers on the scene by meeting at a restaurant to get their stories straight before they talked to investigators. McCollister was given 180 days’ suspension,
but that discipline was overturned by an arbitrator after the Portland Police Association grieved the action.

Kendra James

James’ death was a touchstone for many in Portland who saw the shooting of an unarmed African American woman as a symptom of a Police Bureau needing major reforms. In many ways her death led the accountability efforts down the path to the changes now being sought as a remedy by the Department of Justice in their lawsuit against the City.

The event is endorsed by Portland Copwatch and other community organizations. For more information or if your group wishes to endorse, call Dr. LeRoy Haynes, Jr at 503-287-0261.

From The Skanner, April 18, 2013

The police union is in court-ordered mediation with the City of Portland and the Department of Justice, after challenging their settlement agreement on police reforms.

Meanwhile Police Chief Mike Reese is pushing ahead with hiring for the new Behavioral Health Unit. But critics say Reese’s hiring choices are eroding community confidence.

Bret Burton Hired to Mobile Crisis Unit

Portland Police Chief Mike Reese defended the bureau when the Department of Justice report was released

Reese recently appointed Bret Burton, for example, as Portland Police Bureau’s first, and for months the only, Mobile Crisis Unit officer. Burton is the former sheriff’s deputy who used his Taser on James Chasse during the September 2006 confrontation that ended with Chasse’s death in police custody.

“We were very surprised that Burton was selected of all the officers taking courses,” says Jason Renaud, co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland. The mental health association position is that officers who are responsible in the death of a citizen should not remain in the police force, Renaud said, and the Chasse case raised troubling issues about the officers actions.

“So we asked for his resignation and we asked the city not to hire him.”

Burton was one of three law enforcement officers at the scene of Chasse’s arrest. His employer at the time, Multnomah County, paid $925,000 to Chasse’s family to settle a civil suit. The City of Portland, who employed the other two men, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice, paid out $1.6 million to settle the civil suit. An ambulance company, American Medical Response, paid $600,000.

Renaud, who knew Chasse and produced the documentary Alien Boy about his life and death, says the association asked for all three officers to be fired. But the city went on to hire Burton from the county. Last year he appeared in an Australian video, apparently as a PPB spokesperson on Taser use.

Watch the video here

Portland Police Bureau spokesman Pete Simpson, said the Behavioral Health Unit will be supervised by a sergeant and a lieutenant, under the command of Capt. Sara Westbrook.

The other two teams are: the Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team and the Service Coordination Team. One full-time officer has been assigned to the Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team as the coordinator and another full-time officer has been assigned to the Service Coordination Team as its coordinator.

Burton was the first to be hired to the Mobile Crisis Unit. Asked whether Burton was considered for a coordinator position, Simpson said he was not, adding that because the mobile crisis unit has just three officers, it doesn’t need a separate coordinator.

“The ECIT has 50 detached officers so a coordinator is needed,” he notes. “Same with SCU, although I don’t have the list of officers, but it’s more than a dozen.”

Renaud says Burton could have chosen the job because his experiences in the Chasse case taught him an important lesson.

“Perhaps he is the person who is most affected by this work and has somehow been transformed. Perhaps he is more conscious of people with mental illness,” Renaud said. “The other thing we will benefit from is that he will spend a lot of time working with professional psychotherapists. The psychotherapists with Project Respond will spend a lot more time talking to Burton, their co-worker, than they will talking to people with mental illness.”

Reese’s Hiring Decisions and Community Relations

Dan Handelman, of Portland Copwatch, said Reese’s track record suggests he doesn’t consider the impact of his personnel decisions on police community relations.

“It’s surprising on the one hand, but it fits the pattern,” he says of Burton’s appointment. “He appointed Capt. [Mark] Kruger, known for dressing up like a Nazi and for violence during protests, to teach tactical teams how to respond in crisis situations.”

Handelman also points to the chief’s decision to appoint Todd Wyatt, who inappropriately touched women colleagues, to supervise sexual assault and human trafficking investigators. Wyatt also violated other use of force and professional conduct rules, according to The Oregonian, and the police review board voted to fire him.

“It just keeps chipping away at community confidence in the police,” Handelman said. “They talk about community policing all the time, but they never think about how the community might react.”

Handelman said a pattern was set early on when Reese appointed Mike Kuykendall, a friend who played in a band with him, to a top administrative position. In doing so he lost the opportunity to hire someone who would expand community confidence in his leadership, Handelman says.

Kuykendall resigned in February in a text message scandal, again involving Kruger. At the same time he also resigned from the board of the Police Activities League, which had just announced it had run out of money and would have to close its youth centers. OSHA recently fined the organization for lax health and safety at the East Portland Youth Center, including failing to deal with asbestos flooring in the girls and staff restrooms.

Seven Years After James Chasse’s Death

The other two officers who were involved in James Chasse’s arrest and subsequent death also are still in law enforcement.

In July 2012, an arbitrator overturned the city’s disciplinary action against both men. They had been given 80-hour suspensions without pay.

Sgt. Kyle Nice was returned to street patrol in East precinct in September 2012. Previously he had been placed in a desk job after an April 2010 road rage incident, where he pulled his weapon and flipped off a motorist.

Officer Chris Humphreys was involved in another controversy in 2009, when he shot a 12-year-old girl in the thigh with a beanbag gun at close range. She was struggling with another officer after being arrested for being on the MAX train. She had been barred from TriMet.

Five Hundred PPB officers staged a demonstration wearing tee-shirts that read, “I am Chris Humphreys.” Humphreys collected disability for job-related stress until November 2010 when he was medically laid off. He then ran for Sheriff in Wheeler County Oregon. His only opposition was a write-in candidate and he was elected in November 2012.

The Department of Justice report found Portland Police had a “pattern and practice” of violating the civil rights of people with mental illness or perceived to have mental illness. It also raised questions about police relationships with communities of color.

The agreement is meant to resolve the Department of Justice finding, by changing policy on use of force and changing how police deal with people in crisis.

But Portland Police Association challenged the reform efforts, saying many provisions are subject to contract negotiations. Now the police union is in court-ordered mediation with the city and the DOJ. The union will have the right to appeal if it disagrees with the outcome. The Albina Ministerial Alliance has a seat at the table, but no power to challenge or appeal the decision.

Judge Michael Simon, who happens to be married to Sen. Suzanne Bonamici, has ordered everyone involved to keep a strict silence about the negotiations.

Jo Ann Hardesty, who represents the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform in the mediations, says the tradeoff is worth it.

“It’s so important for the community to have a seat at this table,” she says. “The Department of Justice believes it represents the people, but they don’t have the deep history of the injustices that go way back in this community.”

The mediation is supposed to be coming to a close with the parties ready to report back to Judge Simon on April 24.

President Obama recently nominated Thomas Perez the attorney who led the investigation for the federal Office of Civil Rights, for Secretary of Labor. His nomination is facing strong opposition, however, from Republicans.

Portland police officer involved in James Chasse case now part of mental health unit

From The Oregonian, April 21, 2013

One of the officers who had contact with James P. Chasse Jr. before he died in police custody in 2006 is now part of the Portland Police Bureau’s expanded mobile crisis unit.

Chasse, 42, suffered from schizophrenia and died from blunt force trauma to the chest on Sept. 17, 2006, after officers chased him and knocked him to the ground in the Pearl District. Officer Bret Burton, then a Multnomah County deputy, had used a stun gun on Chasse.

Paramedics came to the scene, but didn’t take Chasse to the hospital. Instead, police drove him to jail, but jail staff refused to book him. Police then drove him in a police cruiser to the hospital, and he died on the way.

Chasse’s death resulted in $3.1 million in settlements by the city of Portland, Multnomah County and American Medical Response to Chasse’s family. It also prompted the Police Bureau in 2007 to require all officers be trained in crisis intervention.

Burton, who was subsequently hired as a Portland officer, now is one of three officers who are paired with Project Respond mental health workers. They connect mentally ill people who have frequent contact with police to local agencies for treatment and help. He doesn’t respond to emergency calls for service.

Portland police expanded the unit from one officer to three this year as part of the pending city settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which found that Portland police engage in a pattern of excessive force against people suffering from mental illness.

Portland police and Burton didn’t immediately return calls for comment Thursday.

In an interview February with KGW, Burton said the encounter with Chasse was “something I think about every day.”

“It’s definitely something that’s changed my life and changed the way we do police work here in the city,” he said.

Jason Renaud, co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland, in the past called for the officers involved in the Chasse case to be fired or resign. He said Thursday he still believes they should have lost their jobs, but he admires Burton.

“I think it’s impressive that he wouldn’t run away from it and instead is using his experience to do more to get involved,” said Renaud, who produced a documentary on Chasse. “We can’t always get what we want. But some times, we find that some things can change.”

Officer Dane Reister

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, April 11, 2013

Portland Police Officer Dane Reister should lose his job for suddenly firing a beanbag shotgun that he mistakenly loaded with lethal rounds at a man obviously suffering from a mental illness, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday says.

READ – Complaint – William Kyle Monroe v City of Portland et al (PDF, 573KB)

The attorney for William Kyle Monroe, wounded by Reister on June 30, 2011, accuses the officer, Police Chief Mike Reese and the city of Portland of violating Monroe’s civil rights through false arrest, assault and negligence.

The suit seeks more than $11 million in damages.

Monroe, who was 20 at the time and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, narrowly escaped bleeding to death only because OHSU Hospital was near the shooting scene, but he’s permanently disabled, his lawyer said.

The suit alleges that the police chief could have prevented such a mistake by prohibiting officers from mixing lethal ammunition with less-lethal munitions in their duty bags, as Reister did. Further, the suit contends, the bureau has failed to adequately discipline officers who are “pre-disposed” to using excessive force.

“Defendant Reister’s conduct was so extreme that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency, and it constituted conduct that a reasonable person would regard as intolerable in a civilized community,” Monroe’s attorney Thane Tienson wrote in the suit.

The suit calls on the court to order the Police Bureau to fire Reister and appoint an independent monitor to enforce the terms of the city’s pending agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on use of force policies, training and oversight. The reforms stem from a federal investigation last year that found Portland police engage in a pattern of excessive force against people with mental illness.

Nearly two years after the shooting, the police chief and city have not disciplined Reister, who remains on paid administrative leave while facing criminal charges, the suit notes. Reister has pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with third- and fourth-degree assault charges. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office added a negligent wounding charge. The indictment marked the first time in the county’s history that a grand jury brought criminal charges against a Portland officer for force used on duty.

“By their inaction, said defendants have condoned, ratified or otherwise turned a blind eye to defendant Reister’s extreme misconduct and demonstrated a deliberate indifference to the plaintiff’s constitutionally protected rights,” Tienson wrote in the suit.

Janet Hoffman, Reister’s attorney, issued a statement after she informed the officer about the suit Thursday. “Officer Reister is thankful that Mr. Monroe survived and is recovering,” she said. “He is looking forward to the facts coming out at trial and fully explaining the situation.”

According to the suit, Monroe, who lives with his father in Hillsboro, had intended to drive to Bremerton, Wash., to visit his mother the day before the shooting, but became disoriented and was suffering from a paranoid mania.

He ended up in Lair Hill Park the next morning, where children from a day camp were playing. Monroe pulled discarded flowers out of a park garbage bin and tossed them near the children. Camp supervisors told Monroe to leave the park. Police received two 9-1-1 calls from camp officials. The camp director said in the second call that Monroe may have a pocket knife up his sleeve.

Reister responded to the call. He spotted Monroe on Southwest Naito Parkway, commanded him to stop and get down on his knees with his hands behind his head. Reister asked Monroe if he had any weapons, and Monroe emptied his pockets, discarding his miniature Swiss army knife, the suit says. Monroe put his hands behind his head, but asked why he should get on his knees. Reister grabbed his beanbag shotgun from his car, and two more officers arrived.

Monroe assured police he hadn’t done anything wrong as he backed away and then began running and yelled for help. Without warning, the suit says, Reister fired five times, emptying his clip. The fifth round jammed because of Reister’s “excessively rapid firing,” the suit says.

The shots fractured Monroe’s pelvis, punctured his bladder, abdomen and colon. The fourth shot, fired from less than 15 feet away, left a “softball-size hole in his left leg,” and severed the sciatic nerve, the suit says.

The next day, then-Mayor Sam Adams and Reese called the shooting a “tragic mistake.” The president of the Portland Police Association said the union would “stand by” Reister through the judicial process.

Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Thursday night that the bureau can no discuss not pending lawsuit.

Four months after the shooting, Reese issued a new policy, requiring that beanbag ammunition be stored only in a carrier attached to the side or stock of the orange-painted, 12-gauge beanbag shotguns.

Five years earlier, the suit noted, Reister mistakenly fired a loaded riot-suppression launcher during training, injuring an officer posing as a protester with a smoke round.

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, April 8, 2013

Protest following Aaron Campbell’s shooting death by then-Officer Ronald Frashour.

Portland police disciplined for using excessive force would not be able to challenge the discipline before a state arbitrator, under a bill that will have a hearing before state lawmakers on Wednesday.

State Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, has sponsored the bill, at the request of Portland attorneys Greg and Jason Kafoury. The Kafourys are disturbed by the high-profile Portland police discipline cases that get overturned by a state arbitrator.

The bill would only affect Portland police, as it’s written for Oregon cities with populations over 300,000.

An arbitrator’s ruling ordering the reinstatement of fired Officer Ronald Frashour, who fatally shot an unarmed man in the back in January 2010, is among the most recent examples.

The Kafourys said they’re pushing for a legislative change because the city has not been able to negotiate changes to the Portland Police Association contract, which allows for binding arbitration.

Senate Bill 747 will be heard at 3 p.m. before the Senate’s General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection Committee.

The proposed legislation also would allow police managers to issue serious discipline for misconduct that may have drawn a less severe penalty in the past.

“Our goal is to have a police union contract in Portland which does not allow for arbitration in cases of use of excessive force,” said Greg Kafoury on Monday. “We want there to be political, democratic control of the police department. That’s only going to happen when the mayor has ultimate power over police discipline.”

Kafoury called the arbitration cases enormously expensive for the city of Portland, “and they lose virtually all of them.”

“Even when we sue an officer and win six figure verdicts” Greg Kafoury said, “they’re routinely ignored.”

Police union representatives have argued that the percentage of discipline cases they challenge is small. A 2012 Oregonian review found that in the prior 10 years, 12 discipline cases in the nearly 1,000-member Portland police force ended up in arbitration. An arbitrator overturned the discipline in half; the others were awaiting a hearing or a ruling.

Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association

But the cases that reach arbitration usually are high profile and involve the most egregious conduct, tactics leading to the use of deadly force or, in Frashour’s case, the use of such force.

For example, an arbitrator overturned Frashour’s firing; the 80-hour suspensions for former Officer Chris Humphreys (now Wheeler County Sheriff) and Sgt. Kyle Nice following the death of James P. Chasse Jr. in police custody; the 900-hour suspension of Officer Scott McCollister for his actions leading up to his fatal shooting of Kendra James; and the firing of Lt. Jeff Kaer, for his actions leading up to the fatal shooting of a motorist who was parked outside his sister’s home.

Will Aitchison, who represented the Portland Police Association for 32 years, said there were only three terminations of Portland officers related to use of force that were overturned by an arbitrator during his tenure: that of Kaer, Frashour and Officer Doug Erickson.

“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Aithison said of the Kafourys’ legislative initiative.

Aitchison argued that the bill would “deprive police officers of the right to an independent review, as to whether discipline is fair.”

Last summer, The Oregonian reviewed 14 Portland police arbitration decisions since 1981 and found that discipline usually was overturned because either the bureau did a shoddy investigation or the arbitrator picked apart a chief’s decision with a grab-bag of objections: Similar misconduct by officers in the past hadn’t drawn such discipline, police policies were unclear or none governed the alleged misconduct, bureau instructors testified that an officer had acted as trained, or the officer had a prior clean record.

Greg and Jason Kafoury said they plan to play at Wednesday’s hearing part of a Feb. 9, 2011 deposition they took from former Police Chief Rosie Sizer stemming from a lawsuit against Sgt. Kyle Nice, in which she said she didn’t recall firing anyone for excessive force during her tenure as chief. Further, the deposition shows that Sizer thought all Portland police terminations for use of force “were all overturned through the labor process.”

During Chief Mike Reese‘s tenure, he’s had to rehire two officers he fired: Frashour and Scott Dunick, who smoked marijuana off-duty, gave one of his prescription pills to a fellow officer and then drove drunk while under investigation. An arbitrator ordered the chief to reinstate Dunick, albeit with a three-month suspension.

The Kafourys said they recognize the bill will face vehement opposition from the city’s police unions and likely does not have the support to pass this session.

“It’s going to be a long-term battle,” Jason Kafoury said.

Greg Kafoury met briefly with Mayor Charlie Hales to discuss the bill.

“We are aware of the bill and are monitoring it,” said Dana Haynes, the mayor’s spokesman.” We have not taken a position to support it or not at this time.”

From The Lund Report, March 15, 2013

The DOJ settlement with the city of Portland requires coordinated care organizations to set up mental health drop-off centers by July, but it’s unclear how they were singled out in the agreement

Last December’s settlement between the Department of Justice and the city of Portland tasked the city and Multnomah County with a host of reforms intended to improve interactions between police and people with mental illness – and to improve access to mental healthcare.

READ – DOJ v City of Portland settlement

Some of the provisions in the yet-to-be-finalized settlement have been identified and, according to DOJ Police Reforms Manager Clay Neal, are already under way. Neal said the bureau has established a behavioral crisis unit and, after expanding crisis intervention training to all officers is looking to offering an enhanced version of that training to other officers.

“It’ll just be more intense. They’ll just be the go-to officers,” Neal said. “They’re people who want to be working in that realm.”

But another section of the settlement is less well-known and has some stakeholders puzzling over next steps and funding – particularly since they aren’t involved in the settlement.

Section V of the settlement outlines goals for creating community-based mental health services, and tasks the coordinated care organizations with a big piece of that: “The United States expects that the local CCOs will establish, by mid-2013, one or more drop-off center(s) for first responders and public walk-in centers for individuals with addictions and/or behavioral health service needs. All such drop off/walk-in centers should focus care plans on appropriate discharge and community based treatment options, including assertive community treatment teams, rather than unnecessary hospitalization.”

The settlement also says that CCOs should create addictions and mental health-focused subcommittees, which will include representatives from the police bureau’s addictions and behavioral health unit, the unit’s advisory board, Portland Fire and Rescue and the Bureau of Emergency Communications.

Neal called that section “aspirational” and not binding to the city, and said city staff is participating in mental health workgroups with staff from the coordinated care organizations. Because these drop-in centers are not required, they will have no impact on the city’s budget deficit.

It’s also still an open question as to why the coordinated care organizations are actually part of the settlement since they were in their infancy when that agreement was reached in December. Neither Multnomah County nor the Oregon Health Authority participated in those settlement talks, he said.

Most of the recommendations in the settlement were negotiated, Neal said, with representatives from the city and the Department of Justice.

“Looking at the issue of police involvement with mental illness, a drop-off facility was one of the primary recommendations,” Neal said. “It wasn’t new ideas that were coming through the agreement. The process involved a lot of looking at what research has been done.”

Several workgroups have already been convened by Health Share of Oregon to strengthen the mental health system, said Beth Sorensen, communications manager. Deborah Friedman also begins her role as director of behavioral services in April.

“Health Share’s efforts are aimed at reducing the number of transports to avoid the need for a new drop-off center,” Sorensen said. “However, if the outcome of our work groups and our grant-funded initiatives indicates a need for that type of center, then not only Health Share, but Family Care and the county mental health authority would also be part of creating that type of facility.”

The settlement has yet to be finalized – as the mediation process between the DOJ, the Albina Ministerial Alliance and the Portland Police Association is still ongoing.

Last fall U. S. Department of Justice report said what mental health advocates had been saying for years: the Portland Police Bureau disproportionately and excessively applies force against people with mental illnesses.

The settlement is the result of an investigation begun in June 2011 and concluded last fall about the Portland Police Bureau’s use of force. That investigation determined that incidents involving the use of force disproportionately involved people with mental health diagnoses, as highlighted by several use-of-force cases in recent years, including the death of James Chasse, Jr., a lifelong Portland resident who died in police custody in 2006, several hours after an incident where several of his ribs were broken, prompting three lawsuits. Following the 2010 death of Aaron Campbell, who was unarmed and distraught over his brother’s death, former Mayor Sam Adams asked the federal government to investigate the bureau’s use of force.

Alien Boy, a documentary film about Chasse’s life and death, just wrapped a two-week run at Cinema 21 in Portland and is now playing at the Living Room Theater in Portland.

Most recently, Merle Hatch, who was shot by Portland police after a confrontation at Adventist Hospital, was described as struggling with addiction for most of his adult life, and Santiago Cisneros, who died March 4after a shootout with two officers in Northeast Portland, had received treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In an open letter to the DOJ released by the Mental Health Association of Portland last fall, its authors noted that people experiencing mental illness often do not respond well to authoritative commands – and that incidents of police brutality are the result of a system that fails to dismiss officers with a history of violence, but also fails to provide treatment options to head off acute episodes of mental illness.

“Without worthwhile treatment resources, acute illness is a predictable, routinely experienced complication of many illnesses,” the statement said. “For us, inability to respond to police immediately or typically can provoke an escalation in tactics that too often results in injury or death. While the settlement agreement does address treatment deficiencies, it is mainly responsive to the convenience of police, not the expressed needs of our community.”

Santiago A. Cisneros III

By the Associated Press, on King5.com Seattle, March 6, 2013

A man fatally wounded by Portland police after they say he fired at them was an Iraq war veteran who had talked about the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Santiago A. Cisneros III, 32, died of the wounds he received Monday night, the Multnomah County medical examiner’s office said.

Two officers said the man had a shotgun and fired at them when they encountered him on a parking lot roof in northeast Portland. They said they returned fire.

Cisneros died at a Portland hospital. No officers were injured.

Police haven’t said how many shots were fired. Detectives continued to collect evidence Tuesday in Portland’s second officer-involved fatal shooting of the year.

Both officers who fired will remain on paid administrative leave until the completion of a grand jury inquiry.

The officers weren’t dispatched to the garage, but police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson declined to say why they went there. Other officers told The Oregonian that’s a popular spot for police to go “car-to-car,” when two patrol officers park their cars side-by-side to chat and monitor the streets between calls.

Cisneros was an Army combat veteran who was one of three soldiers who spoke to KOMO-TV in Seattle in 2009 about the struggles they faced with PTSD, the television station reported Tuesday. He said then he had tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

“I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn’t know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself,” Cisneros said in the KOMO interview.

He told KOMO he was diagnosed with the disorder and later sought treatment through the Veterans Administration.

Cisneros grew up in Idaho, had attended community colleges in Portland and Seattle, and most recently worked as a legal intern at a Seattle law firm, The Oregonian reported.

“We’re just trying to find out what happened,” Diego Cisneros, a brother, said of the man’s family.

“Santiago A. Cisneros III is an American war hero and veteran who served his country with pride,” the family said in a statement. “He is a beloved son, brother, uncle and friend. He is loved by many and he loved many.”

Cisneros joined the military after high school graduation despite objections from his parents, a family friend, Michael Heiser, told The Oregonian.

Heiser remembered him as a caring young man and guitar player who loved music in high school.

“We thought the world of him,” Heiser said. “He wasn’t pushy. He was concerned about other people’s feelings.”

Cisneros was different when he returned from overseas, the man said.

“I do know coming out of the service really messed him up,” Heiser said. “He had a hard time with post-traumatic stress and battled depression. He wasn’t the kid that I knew.”

Army vet shot by Portland police methodically took gun out of trunk and aimed at officers

The parking garage at NE 7th Avenue and Lloyd Blvd. where Santiago Cisneros was shot.

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, March 6, 2013

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, Feb. 19, 2013

Daryl Turner (L) and Mike Reese

A judge on Feb. 19 directed everyone to the table — city and federal negotiators and now the Portland police union and a community coalition — to iron out differences in proposed reforms to address a scathing critique that police use too much force against people who suffer from mental illness.

If the city and police union can’t come to an agreement by April 5 with the help of a mediator, the U.S. Department of Justice can seek a court order to enforce changes to Portland police policy, training and oversight.

“I’m sensitive there is value in moving this process forward and not letting it drag on too long,” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon said in court Tuesday.

The judge’s ruling to add parties to the case extends the time line for a possible settlement until late April or May at the earliest. It comes as Portland police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 50-year-old federal fugitive by officers Sunday night outside a city hospital.

The U.S. Department of Justice spent nearly 15 months investigating how Portland police use force after a series of controversial police shootings. Investigators announced in September that they found police had engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people suffering from or perceived to have a mental illness.

The City Council in November approved a settlement with the Justice Department that called for widespread changes, including a revamped police use of force policy, restrictions on use of Taser stun guns, creation of a new crisis intervention team of officers and quicker internal inquiries into alleged police misconduct.

But most of the reforms are on hold. The union has challenged them, saying many are subject to bargaining under its contract with the city. The union put the city on notice of its bargaining concerns as early as Oct. 16.

Many of the changes — such as requiring officers involved in a shooting to do an immediate walk-through of the scene for investigators and having detectives interview officers within 48 hours — could have been applied to the latest shooting.

For now, however, the judge said he hopes all the parties can complete mediation by the April deadline. If not, they will come back before him on May 23.

Simon ruled that the Portland Police Association can intervene in the part of the case that involves reforms. He agreed with the union that he must follow the precedent set in April 2002 by a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

That ruling enabled the Los Angeles police union to intervene in a judicial decree reached between Los Angeles and the federal government after justice officials found police had engaged in excessive force, false arrests and improper searches and seizures.

The 9th Circuit found the union’s rights to negotiate the terms of its officers’ employment gave it standing.

Quoting from the appellate court ruling, Simon noted that an employer “cannot unilaterally change” a collective bargaining agreement, even to settle a dispute over whether the employer has violated the constitution.

The judge also found that neither the city nor the federal government can adequately protect the union’s interests. The judge, though, cautioned that his ruling doesn’t mean the police union has “the legal right to block a settlement by withholding their consent.”

The judge denied a request by the Albina Ministerial Alliance’s Coalition for Justice and Police Reform to intervene, but gave the coalition enhanced “friend of the court” status.

That will allow the coalition to file legal briefs, make oral arguments and participate in settlement discussions and a future fairness hearing on any agreement.

The judge said he wanted the coalition’s perspective to be heard. The coalition was founded in 2003 after the fatal shooting by police of Kendra James. It argued that it should have a voice in the proceedings because of its diversity and deep roots in the communities most affected by the police bureau’s excessive force.

“The AMA Coalition has extensive community outreach, a deep understanding of the issues, including those raised in this lawsuit, and an important perspective to bring to the remedy phase of this action,” Simon said in his ruling.

City Attorney James Van Dyke told the court that police may face budget cuts this year, and the city is about to start contract talks with the police union. The city also is seeking an expedited decision by a state labor board to clarify what police reforms must be subject to bargaining.

The city has argued that it has the right to alter its use of force policy as a management right, but the union disagrees.

“I just wanted the let the judge know there’s a lot of balls in the air,” Van Dyke said. “There’s a lot of moving pieces here. The pieces all seem to be related, but the pieces seem to be moving on separate tracks.”