A LONG-FESTERING FEUD between Portland’s rank-and-file police union and city hall over Mayor Sam Adams’ refusal to rehire Ron Frashour—the cop fired for fatally shooting Aaron Campbell in 2010—has exploded, rather brilliantly, into public view.
The controversy—with insinuations about dishonesty, incompetence, “character assassination,” and “bullying”—sheds new light on an arbitrator’s ruling this spring that Frashour’s shooting of Campbell was justified.
It touches on the larger question of whether it’s the police bureau’s training, and not its discipline policy, that needs to change. And it also comes during a crucial moment for the city, which is currently trying to convince the state’s Employment Relations Board that ignoring the arbitrator’s ruling is justified.
The row, first reported by the Mercury, started on Tuesday, June 5. Portland Police Association (PPA) President Daryl Turner posted a withering article on the union’s online newsletter that all but accused a top police training official of lying during the arbitration hearing—and, for good measure, blasted the city for a political crusade gone “terribly wrong.”
“I’ve heard a lot of the offered theories,” Turner wrote. “Many start with the belief that Mayor Adams, who months before he became police commissioner… made it clear to Chief [Mike] Reese, possibly before his appointment as chief, that Officer Frashour would have to be fired.”
The next afternoon, Adams and Reese fired back.
“Enough is enough,” Adams said in a statement crafted while he was in a city council meeting. “The Portland police union’s rant should be disregarded.”
But by Thursday, June 7, after the Oregonian and the Mercury had obtained transcripts from the arbitration hearing that appeared to back up Turner’s claims, Adams announced he’d asked the city’s auditor, LaVonne Griffin-Valade, to review the testimony.
The transcripts, just a fraction of the thousands of pages compiled in the Frashour arbitration hearing, provide devastating fodder. They focus on the testimony of Lieutenant Robert King, a former PPA president whose training review of the Campbell shooting served as the basis for Frashour’s dismissal [“Fire Frashour? Done,” News, Nov 18, 2010].
Turner’s article pounded King, later promoted to Reese’s top spokesman, for giving testimony “riddled with inconsistencies, factual mistakes, and contradictory explanations.”
And, moreover, Turner accused King of letting bureau commanders shape the review, not bureau trainers—most of whom testified they thought Frashour did exactly as he was taught when he shot Campbell in the back.
In fact, during the hearing, King was forced to take back testimony—under cross-examination by PPA attorney Will Aitchison—in which he claimed he consulted with the trainers before forming his conclusion.
He met with trainers after he made his findings and told them, according to Turner, that “the elephant in the room is the fact that we shot and killed an unarmed black man.”
King explained that decision by echoing findings in a recent outside study of Portland police shootings [“Will They Ever Learn,” News, June 7]. He said he thought trainers reviewing past shootings were “fundamentally unwilling” to second-guess officers’ split-second decisions on using deadly force.
King also was forced to acknowledge writing several drafts of the training review in which he found Frashour had followed police bureau policy. It wasn’t until the last few versions of the review, one of which came with an email from the chief’s office saying “Changes I’ve Made,” that King found Frashour out of policy.
“I was a probationary lieutenant at the time, and I contemplated demoting. I thought that I should revert to being a sergeant because I didn’t want to take a position against an officer that would be harmful to him and his career, that could result in his termination,” said King, who fatally shot a man who’d stabbed him after a traffic stop in 1991. “I’d been with officers throughout the course of my career who have made those difficult decisions, and I’ve been with them, and didn’t want to see them harmed.”
That line of questioning came with some drama—not the least because of the fact that King and Aitchison had worked together for eight years, up until 2008. The transcripts don’t indicate it, but sources familiar with the arbitration say King was crying as he explained himself.
The arbitrator, Jane Wilkinson, also had to admonish King and the pricey private counsel representing the city after they admitted discussing, during a half-hour break in the middle of Aitchison’s cross-examination, how King should testify.
Aitchison, at one point when King was on the stand, came close to putting a bow on the conspiracy theory that Turner’s article referenced.
“I want to be very careful in choosing my words about all of this. As these drafts are being written, and as Lieutenant King changes his mind, the police chief [Rosie Sizer] is fired, we get a new police chief, appointed by a mayor who has already passed judgment on Officer Frashour. The timing of this I think is significant.”
King has declined to comment on the accusations. Reese, in his statement on June 6, denied ever discussing Frashour’s termination as a condition for his becoming chief. Court documents from the civil case over the Campbell shooting, which saw the city agree to pay out a $1.2 million settlement, show Reese and Assistant Chief Larry O’Dea were prepared to testify under oath that they hadn’t influenced King’s training review.
Turner’s article also takes aim at Reese and O’Dea, citing arbitration testimony in which they also contradict their own trainers. Both say, in an assertion that Turner calls “shocking,” that cops should shoot someone only if they see a gun. Reese also said he was told that the trainers who disagreed with King were “disgruntled.”
The city isn’t happy about Turner’s article or about the emergence of partial transcripts. Arbitration materials were supposed to remain sealed, officials say, at least until the Employment Relations Board fight is settled. That case, meanwhile, is moving along. On Friday, June 8, the city’s private attorneys filed a legal brief that called Frashour an ongoing threat to the public.
Looming behind all of this is the reality that contract talks with the PPA are due to start up again next year. Adams won’t be around by then, but Reese might still be. And Turner’s grenade won’t be forgotten.
“It’s unfortunate that the relationship between management of the police bureau and the leadership of the PPA has deteriorated,” Reese wrote to Turner. “Your article further erodes that relationship.”
For a more detailed version of this story, see portlandmercury.com.
Man, these damned cops are low-down to each other, THIS much is clear! No honor amongst pigs, i see. And Turner, well he’s just a worthless, self-hating buffoon anyways. He’s pretty much PPA’s answer to Herman Cain. And a bigger joke than [former chief] Derrick Foxworth.
We have some of the best cops in the country and, many qualified individuals would argue, in the world. Portland’s training is some of the most rigorous around; LEO’s from around the country come here to learn from the example and local LEO’s are transported around the country to teach others. It’s not COPS you need to worry about, it’s the Brass, Management, Leadership, City Hall, whatever you want to call it. The fish rots from the head. We shall see what the DOJ has to say about this, and their opinions will not be tainted by local politics or sentiment. If you want to sit around and pounce on the opportunity to call cops “pigs” in such a transparently masturbatory fashion, that’s cool. You’ll never be alone. But you’re missing the bigger picture and you’re missing the Truth of the matter, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather know the Truth, regardless of how ugly, than be one of those flimsy cheap-jack little punks that just like to throw shit all over the room instead of making an attempt to abandon yr preconceived notions and habits of perception in an effort to Understand. Have fun, DamosA, and remember, even online, you are not anonymous.
Well i never let top management off the hook either, including Reese and Adams, just so you know. Good job on [attempting] to “call me out”, though. I know that there’s quite a few cop-supporters here and so far as THEY see it, cops can do no wrong.
Except for that lone, occasional bad apple, right?
Oh, no, there’s plenty of bad cops, too. But that applies to any group, demographic, organization, etc. Let’s face it, some people are just assholes, and they find their way into everything. What’s to be avoided in assessing matters such as these is blanket generalizations, whether flattering or vilifying. Never a good thing. Very, very few things are as black-and-white as our desire for convenience would like us to occasionally believe.
When it comes to the police, generalizations are very much in order. Same applies to nazis, child-molesters, catholics, Juggalos, and MMA fans who wear Tapout gear – ALL BAD!
Ever heard “going postal”? Fact is, when you choose cops exclusively from a group of people who are explicitly trained to kill other human beings without hesitation or remorse? The result is that the police become what we have now, militarized!
Those who choose to live by the sword often die by the sword, but they’re not heroes. In fact, they kill or destroy the real heroes here in “Amercia”!
We can be sure of one thing Damos, the crap will always float to the top of the bowl here in Oregon, and someone online will always offer you “dirty paper” (for a fee) and tell you nothing stinks-
silly children. Have fun hating.
my wife Joan Wagar started an affair with a Portland police officer named Eric Carlson in 2005, and Eric Carlson nick named my wife Joan Wagar Mrs Dash after she started poisoning me.
Eric Carlson and his bro’s in law enforcement made sure I could not get help from a hospital by coercing my doctors into not taking a toxicology test, and behind my back my wife Joan Wagar and her daughters were destroying my reputation so no one would care that I am a victim, and they have a name for it too they call it “Pedofying” meaning they run around labeling me as a pedophile to their friends, neighbors, and coworkers, but they don’t press charges, while to my face they pretended to be a loving family.
For two years between 2005 and 2007 I was stuck at home in my apartment, too ill most of the time to go anywhere because of the repeated poisonings done to me by my family, and Joan Wagar and her daughters and her sister Vickie Rosales spent two years pedofying me at their place of employment that they succeeded in recruiting their department in softlines against me and to lie for them, softlines department at Clackamas Walmart is the clothing department and shoes department combined.
On March 26th 2007 Joan Wagar helped Eric Carlson and a John Ray to break into our home early in the morning by opening her bedroom window for them to crawl in through while I was asleep in the living room on the couch.
Eric Carlson and John Ray sneaked into our daughter Kayle Wagar’s bedroom and they molested her, with Joan Wagar’s help and permission, and John Ray was photographing it.
I woke up on the couch hearing my wife whispering to a guy and I heard a guy whisper back to her, thinking I was catching my wife in her affair with the cop Eric Carlson I got up and put a audio recorder in my wife’s purse and laid back down knowing my wife will be leaving for work soon, I did not realize they were in my daughters bedroom until later when I listened to the audio recorder.
What I caught on that audio recorder has to be one of the sickest things ever recorded, I caught Joan Wagar, Eric Carlson, John Ray, and my our 17 year old daughter making child porn, and then they planted copy’s of it on our computer in my folder, then John Ray climbed out the window and then Joan Wagar and Eric Carlson sneaked past me into the kitchen and they poisoned my coffee pot and coffee cup, and then Joan Wagar grabbed her purse and both of them walked out our front door.
Once they were outside they discussed with each other a little of what they just got done doing, and then they got into their cars and drove to Clackamas Walmart, when they got to Clackamas Walmart Joan Wagar’s sister Vickie Rosales was waiting in the parking lot for them because she knew what they were doing and she wanted to know how it went, and they all told Vickie Rosales about it, and they were laughing about it, cracking jokes and bragging they framed me as a pedophile and poisoned my coffee pot!
As other Walmart employees showed up they bragged to them that they caught Terry Wagar in the act and they got it on photogenic, but when they got into the break room at Walmart everyone in the break room was cracking jokes about how Eric Carlson was dressed up like Terry Wagar, Joan Wagar even jokingly introduced Eric Carlson to another Walmart employee as Terry Wagar and everyone in the break room broke out into laughter and an employee jokingly said after that “So you must be incognito then! bwahahaha!” and after that Joan Wagar was discussing with everyone in the break room she is going to make some purchases with her husband Terry Wagar’s check card in the store.
After everyone goes to work Joan Wagar starts printing out copy’s of a flyer she and another woman already had prepared and she prints out hundreds of copy’s of a flyer labeling her husband Terry Wagar as a pedophile!
When Joan Wagar and Eric Carlson had some time to be alone in the back of Clackamas Walmart Eric Carlson admitted to Joan Wagar he was framing her husband over a missing runaway, and then Eric Carlson and Joan Wagar discussed who they were going to invite to their pre-wedding party!
Vickie Rosales and her husband were at the top of their list!
There is a whole lot more on that audio recorder, a LOT more, I was not their only victim they have a history of poisoning people and for framing people, Eric Carlson has since changed his name and Portland police cover up all complaints made against Eric Carlson and Joan Wagar, now Joan Carlson!
I was a plasma donor when Joan Wagar started poisoning me.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53065984/JoanEricSgtWalker
http://salem-news.com/articles/may072012/wagar-diary.php
http://www.rotten-eggs.com/2011/02/doubleclick-and-mrs-dash-real-life.html#comment-form
Terry Wagar
Where’s the original tape recording that was put into Mrs. Wagar’s purse when she went to work?
Adams lied to get elected because of an inappropriate relationship with a minor. He cannot be trusted when it comes to classic he said/she said back and forth. He is a proven liar and has done nothing but damage to Portland. I cannot wait for his one lousy term to be over. As far as the officer goes, he should be reinstated. Adams is an arrogant douche.
I secured it and I almost died securing it, I was poisoned by them and it was covered up at the OHSU hospital.
I have received death threats from police officer’s after the fact and I will not surrender it to them.
I had multiple copy’s of it some of which I handed to family members and all the copy’s I had were stolen by cops breaking into my home except for one copy of which I hidden.
The Portland police have already tried to get rid of them all so I will not bother to get the last copy of it, warning people does not get help for me and revealing where it is will just help the criminals to cover up their crimes and I will not let them cover this up.
Terry Wagar
“Adams lied to get elected because of an inappropriate relationship with a minor.”
Lemme ask you something: Once Adams is no-longer mayor, who on Earth will you have to kick around?
@12: I’ll always have you, duhmosa.
In your wildest dreams. bitch.
Hey Terry, there has never been an officer for PPB named Eric Carlson. Maybe want to up your dosage on your meds…….
1234 you are a liar and you don’t even use your own name to back up your bull! Eric Carlson and John Ray are law officer’s working in Portland Oregon in 2007 and they were working in cooperation with a Brian Assmus from the Oregon State police.
The Portland police lie under oath all the time and no one with a badge cares and it is common practice for police to demonize their victims by implying meds to to destroy victims credibility.
I am charging Eric Carlson and John Ray with multiple poisonings and I am charging them with killing a child on March 26th 2007!
The very least the Portland police can do is acknowledge the complaint in a criminal court of law!
We have all these court rooms paid for by the tax payers sitting around whether this goes to trial or not, so why don’t the Portland pedophile police department stop coping out and answer to a felony charge like everyone else does!
Anytime a police officer gets caught committing a crime they do not stand trial in a criminal court of law, instead they get administrative paid leave and then they usually get sued in a civil court!
I am more than happy to hand out that audio recorder to Clackamas Walmart customers and let them decide who did what in the back of their store!
So Mr or Mrs 1234 you can shove it where the sun don’t shine you are a gutless nameless moron and probably a cop or a buddy to a cop!
It’s people like you 1234 that protect criminals in law enforcement from accountability!
Terry Wagar
frashour probably would be happier working for blackwater