PORTLAND — The U.S. Department of Justice has cited the Portland police commissioner’s failure to seek an immediate investigation of former Chief Larry O’Dea’s off-duty shooting as an example of the city’s and police bureau’s continuing struggle to hold officers accountable for misconduct.
The critique is part of the department’s latest review of Portland police compliance with a settlement agreement that federal Justice officials reached with the city on a wide-range of police reforms. It stemmed from a 2012 federal investigation that found police used excessive force against people with mental illness and officers’ stun gun use was sometimes excessive and unwarranted.
“Tragically, conduct by the former PPB Chief illustrated PPB’s accountability failures,” according to the federal report filed in U.S. District Court in Portland Tuesday.
Document: U.S. Department of Justice compliance report
Four days after he shot a friend in the back during an April 21 off-duty camping trip, O’Dea informed Mayor Charlie Hales, who serves as police commissioner, and his command staff of assistant chiefs.
“None of these individuals-not the Police Commissioner, nor the then Assistant Chief in charge of investigations, nor the then internal affairs Captain-initiated an administrative investigation as required by the Settlement Agreement,” the federal report said. “The then Chief told his subordinates that his weapons discharge would be handled as a private, personal matter. He undercut the usual accountability systems and placed his subordinates in an untenable situation.”
O’Dea, who retired in late June, remains under criminal investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice for the April shooting. O’Dea and the mayor both kept the shooting under wraps until reporters asked about it a month later.
It’s undisputed that no one in the Police Bureau or the city, including the mayor’s office, informed the Independent Police Review Division, which learned of O’Dea’s off-duty shooting through the press, the report noted.
“The Police Commissioner’s and former Chief’s failure to act obstructed a ‘fair and expeditious resolution’ of the alleged misconduct and failed to hold officers accountable pursuant to a disciplinary system that is fair and consistent,” federal Justice officials wrote.
Instead, the report noted, a city official texted to O’Dea, “Don’t worry chief we got your back.”
“While we do not reach a conclusion on what the outcome of the administrative investigation should be, the undisputed facts give rise to the need to determine compliance,” with Portland police bureau directives on truthfulness, notification of a supervisor when an officer is under criminal investigation and use of alcohol, the federal report said.
The federal report highlighted the Police Bureau’s directive, which requires bureau members to “immediately notify an on-duty supervisor” when “they become aware they are a suspect in a law enforcement investigation.”
It also cited city policy, which states that when there is an allegation of possible misconduct by a Portland police officer holding the rank of captain or higher, the Independent Police Review Division conducts the administrative investigation.
Federal justice officials called on current Chief Michael Marshman to work to improve police accountability.
“PPB’s new leadership must rebuild trust from the community and PPB Officers after the prior Chief undercut the Independent Police Review (“IPR”) and PPB accountability systems,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian Brown wrote in a court filing to U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, which was also signed by lawyers in the federal Justice Department’s civil rights and trial division.
Simon is scheduled to hold a status hearing on the city’s settlement agreement in his courtroom at 1 p.m. on Oct. 25.
O’Dea shot a friend, Robert Dempsey, in the lower left back during his April camping trip in eastern Oregon’s Harney County. He and his friends, including two other retired Portland police tactical officers, were shooting ground squirrels, according to a Harney County deputy sheriff’s report.
At first, O’Dea told a sheriff’s deputy that it appeared Dempsey had shot himself while trying to return his pistol to a shoulder holster. O’Dea also told the deputy that he didn’t have his rifle in his hands at the time of the shooting. He didn’t identify himself as Portland’s police chief.
Later, O’Dea called Dempsey to apologize for shooting him. Dempsey, after his release from the hospital, told the deputy that O’Dea had problems with his .22-caliber rifle misfiring and jamming all day. He said O’Dea had told him that when he returned to his seat and picked up the rifle, it went off, striking Dempsey, who was in a lawn chair next to him, according to the deputy’s report.
Four days after the shooting, O’Dea told the mayor and his command staff that he accidentally had shot his friend.
In late May, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward told The Oregonian/OregonLive that O’Dea hadn’t yet told the sheriff’s office that he was responsible for the shooting, and was surprised to learn the chief had shared that with his boss.
O’Dea’s lawyer Derek Ashton has said he’s confident O’Dea won’t face criminal charges. O’Dea didn’t knowingly shoot his friend and was unaware at first that the shot came from his rifle, Ashton said. O’Dea also disputes the deputy’s report that he was impaired by alcohol at the time.
“I’ll continue to wait on passing judgment until I have all the facts,” Hales told reporters when announcing O’Dea’s retirement. “I’m sad to lose his service, and we should all be sad to lose his service.”
