EUGENE, Ore. — The University of Oregon has filed a federal suit against a former campus cop, alleging he lied in police reports and withheld key evidence in an alleged malicious prosecution of a Latino bicyclist he stopped at gunpoint in 2018.
The university fired the university officer, Troy Phillips, in the fall of 2019 for his dishonesty. The state agency that certifies police officers has opened an inquiry into Phillip’s case.
The university also agreed last week to pay $115,000 to the family of the bicyclist, Eliborio Rodrigues Jr., who later died in an unrelated encounter with Eugene police. The payment settled a pending tort claim, or notice to sue the university, which was brought by Rodrigues’ estate.
Phillips failed to disclose to a Eugene municipal prosecutor that his Oct. 27, 2018, stop of Rodrigues was videotaped and audio recorded through his police car’s mobile camera, the suit says.
Even though the officer reviewed the video multiple times when writing his police report, he falsified what occurred in his written report and in a probable cause statement, according to the suit.
The stop occurred when the university officer spotted Rodrigues bicycling in the bike lane on Agate Street in Eugene.
The university alleges the officer had no reasonable suspicion or any grounds to stop Rodriguez, but Phillips turned his car around, activated his police car’s emergency lights and siren and ordered Rodrigues to stop via a loudspeaker.
Rodrigues stopped within 15 seconds, stood calmly while straddling his bike as Phillips got out of his car and walked up to him, according to the suit. For no reason, the university alleges, the officer pulled his handgun, pointed it at Rodrigues and demanded to know why he didn’t immediately stop, the suit says.
Rodrigues motioned to the small speaker in his hand and explained he hadn’t initially heard the police siren because of the music he was playing, according to the suit. The officer noticed Rodrigues had a knife in a sheath attached to his waistband and ordered Rodrigues to get down on the ground.
“Rodrigues held both of his hands in the air, holding a small bag in one and a small speaker in the other, stating that he did not want to sit on the ground, which was wet at the late hour in October, and that he wanted to speak with a supervisor,” the suit says.
The officer yelled that Rodrigues needed to get on the ground because he was armed with a knife and not following his orders. Rodrigues kept his hands in the air and calmly noted that his knife was in a sheath, but the officer warned Rodrigues he’d be shot with a stun gun, his Taser, if he didn’t get on the ground, the suit says.
“No. Please sir. You see my hands. Get your sergeant,” Rodrigues was heard pleading, according to the University of Oregon’s suit.
Rodrigues did not raise his voice, move his hands from the air or move from the officer, the university contends. The officer called for a cover officer to “go lethal,” as he yelled that Rodrigues was under arrest.
“You can’t do that to me. Let me – I couldn’t hear due to the music,” Rodrigues responded, according to the suit.
Forty seconds into the stop, Phillips tackled Rodrigues to the ground, even though other officers were driving up and hadn’t yet arrived on scene to assist him, the suit says.
The suit alleges Phillips used excessive force, and then never responded to a prosecuting attorney, who asked him by email before Rodrigues’ trial if a videotape existed of the stop.
Phillips is also accused of falsifying his police report and lying on the witness stand at Rodrigues’ trial about what had occurred, according to the suit.
The officer had claimed that he had to “brake heavily” to avoid hitting Rodrigues when he swerved on his bike in front of him, according to the suit. He also falsely claimed in his report that Rodrigues “cut in front of” the police car as he got off his bike, and after being tackled, “immediately began reaching toward his waistband and knife,” according to the suit. None of Phillips’ account was accurate, according to the videotape, the suit says.
The audio and video recording of the encounter showed Phillips’ account was false, the suit says.
When he testified at trial, Phillips “repeated the false statements made in his reports and intentionally omitted the exculpatory evidence,” the suit says.
Rodrigues was acquitted of any criminal charges. The University of Oregon fired Phillips on Nov. 25, 2019, for “egregious misconduct,” and reported his dishonesty to the Lane County District Attorney’s Office.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene on Friday, accuses Phillips of unlawful seizure of Rodrigues, malicious prosecution and fabricating evidence.
It alleges Phillips must pay the damages owed to Rodrigues’ estate.
“It is Defendant who engaged in illegal activity giving rise to Rodrigues’s damages and who ought to pay for the obligation owed,” attorney Andrea D. Coit wrote in the suit, on behalf of the University of Oregon.
Phillips could not immediately be reached for comment.
Phillips had joined the University of Oregon Police Department on Oct. 6, 2014, and served as a police canine handler when he was fired in 2019. He previously had worked for the Lane County Sheriff’s Office for just two months before he resigned in September 2014, state records show
Rodrigues, 40, was later shot and killed by Eugene police on Nov. 30, 2019. Lane County District Attorney Patty Perlow found Eugene Officer Samuel Tykol’s fatal shots justified. Tykol fired three times, striking Rodrigues in the abdomen after he said Rodrigues repeatedly punched him and turned the officer’s Taser against him. The officer had driven up to Rodrigues, who was seen walking in the road and then grabbing a plastic bottle out of a residence’s recycling bin shortly after midnight. When Rodrigues declined to show the officer his ID and asked for a sergeant, the officer took him to the ground, and a struggle ensued, according to police and body camera footage.
