The city's decision to defend discipline for four officers involved in the fatal January 2010 shooting of Aaron Campbell will cost even more. A contract amendment headed before the Portland City Council on Wednesday, April 11, would approve up to $750,000 in fees for a national law firm hired to help the city fend off arbitration claims by the Portland Police Association. That's a $300,000 increase from the city's current deal with the firm, Littler Mendelson. Despite that work, the officer who shot and killed Campbell, Ron Frashour, was ordered reinstated by an arbitrator last month. Arbitration decisions are now pending for Officer Ryan Lewton, whose beanbag shots led to Frashour's decision to fire, and Sergeants Liani Reyna and John Birkinbine, all of whom were given 80-hour suspensions. DENIS C. THERIAULT
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A Multnomah County grand jury cleared the four cops who shot Jonah Potter—a robbery suspect who emerged from his car holding an air pistol—of criminal wrongdoing in the March 26 incident. But Potter, according to a district attorney's announcement on Monday, April 9, is instead facing four counts of menacing and two counts of second-degree robbery. Because the criminal case is ongoing, the district attorney's office said it would not release grand jury transcripts connected to the case. DCT
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Mayor Sam Adams has finally joined the long line of politicians, wonks, and planners pining for a transportation project that won't happen for decades, if ever. Adams on Friday, April 6, released a plan that shows what East Portland would look like if Interstate 5, as it hugs the Willamette River, were buried. Adams' conceptual plan includes no timetables or costs—just schematics. So why release it? Adams wanted to provide some certainty. By showing the highway could be buried along its current route, he says, business owners won't have to worry (someday, if this ever finds funding) that the government will come grabbing for their land. DCT
