Police Chief Mike Marshman is returning to the top of the Portland Police Bureau nearly three weeks after he was placed on paid leave by Mayor Ted Wheeler. He was being investigated by the auditor's Independent Police Review (IPR) after his executive assistant, Lt. Mike Leasure, signed Marshman's name on a training log for a training session the chief was late to, the Oregonian first reported.

"The investigation resulted from two allegations; one, that Chief Marshman directed Lt. Leisure (sic) to sign an attendance on the Chief's behalf noting attendance at a training he did not actually attend," wrote City of Portland Director of Human Resources Anna Kanwit in an April 11 memo to Wheeler, obtained by the O, "and two, that statements made by Lt. Leisure and Chief Marshman during the investigation did not match, raising questions of integrity and truthfulness. Under the Police Bureau's discipline matrix, untruthfulness, if proven, is a termination level offense."

Leasure originally told Internal Affairs that Marshman told him to sign the training log for him. Marshman said he didn't to Leasure to do that. Leasure eventually recanted that allegation, the memo says, and he's still on leave, per the mayor's office.

Kanwit's memo explained the IPR's summary of its investigation. The full IPR is not complete yet, she said.

Internal Affairs commenced this investigation into an allegation that Lt. Leisure signed a training attendance roster for the Chief. Lt. Leisure stated the Chief had told the lieutenant the chief would be late to the training and to sign in on his behalf. Chief Marshman stated that he did not tell Lt. Leisure to sign the roster for the chief. Because of discrepancies between Lt. Leisure and Chief Marshman’s statements an additional investigation was commenced focusing on truthfulness. There is no question the Chief did not attend the training in question but whether he directed a subordinate to sign the roster indicating attendance.

In a subsequent interview Lt. Leisure said the Chief had not directed him to sign the attendance roster
on his behalf. The class instructor also stated that although Lt. Leisure asked if he could sign in for the Chief, there was no indication the Chief had directed Lt. Leisure to do so. Chief Marshman denied he said anything to Lt. Leisure about signing the attendance roster on the Chief’s behalf. Statements by other witnesses did not support the allegation the Chief had directed Lt. Leisure to sign the attendance roster indicating attendance.

Kanwit concluded: "Based on the information contained in the summary investigation report, I find that Chief Marshman did not violate the Police Bureau’s directive on truthfulness and while it appears that he did not violate any bureau directives, I will reserve making that finding until I have reviewed the full investigation. Based on this preliminary finding I recommend that Chief Marshman be returned to full duty as soon as possible."