One more, before my day is done. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office this afternoon put out the transcripts—some 170-plus pages—of the grand jury probe this month that cleared a Portland police officer in the June 12 shooting of a homeless man, struggling with mental illness, along the Springwater Corridor trail. Two officers, Matthew Nilsen […]
Denis C. Theriault
Denis C. Theriault is the Portland Mercury's News Editor. He writes stories about City Hall and the Portland Police Bureau, focusing on issues like homelessness, police oversight, insider politics, and civil liberties. Before arriving in Portland, Denis wrote and edited for the San Jose Mercury News, covering the California Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the city of San Jose—a real-live million-person town.
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Discipline for Well-Known Cops Revealed in Latest Batch of Police Review Board Reports
The Portland Police Bureau released its latest batch of Police Review Board reports this afternoon, chronicling many of the usual accusations thrust before the advisory body—like harassment, unsavory language, improper force, car crashes, and untruthfulness—along with discipline cases filed against three fairly well-known cops. Two of those officers—Ed Hamann and Jason Lobaugh—resigned from the police […]
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Israel’s ground assault on Gaza, along with relentless airstrikes, has pushed the civilian death toll to more than 260. Two Israelis have been reported killed in the fighting—and no Israelis have died yet from rockets launched by Hamas fighters. The United States has urged prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to better mind civilian casualties—Israel believes Hamas […]
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Mayor Accepts “Outrage,” Defends Settlement Erasing Discipline for Cop Who Put Up Nazi-Era Shrine
Mayor Charlie Hales has issued a second statement this afternoon defending a settlement he signed wiping away discipline for a police captain who’d been punished in 2010 for putting up a shrine to Nazi-era German soldiers several years before and then again this year for retaliating against a former subordinate who’d accused him of harassment. […]
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Independent Police Review Director Answers Union President’s Claims of Rule-Breaking: Not True
Yesterday, for the second time in as many months, Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner sent his rank-and-file members a missive impugning the work and reputation of the city’s civilian-led Independent Police Review. That memo, which was not shared publicly, accused IPR staffers of flouting city rules approved earlier this year that enshrine IPR’s right […]
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Rumors flared into reports this morning that a cease-fire was brewing between Israel and Hamas, rulers of the Gaza Strip. It is not. Not yet, at least. Combat has resumed after both sides agreed to a five-hour “humanitarian pause” on behalf of the terrorized Palestinian civilians dying by the dozens under Israeli airstrikes. Russia has […]
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Hall Monitor
Building Battle Comes to a Head
Fee waivers for market-rate housing—good precedent or bad?
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Police Union President Publicly Accuses Independent Police Review of Skirting Rules on Interviews
A month after a sour-grapes complaint to cops accusing the city’s Independent Police Review of incompetence in how it’s handled independent investigations—a new right enshrined in city code this year and sought by the federal Department of Justice—the president of the city’s rank-and-file police union is still pretty steamed about the way things turned out. […]
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This Happened Today: I Poured Water on Charlie Hales’ Head
This is a picture of me pouring a bucket of water on Mayor Charlie Hales. SARA HOTTMAN “You hear me, Mr. Mayor? You’re all wet, see!” And this is a picture of me after I’ve poured a bucket of water on Mayor Charlie Hales. SARA HOTTMAN Now for a bit of background… The mayor got […]
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City Pays $50,000 to Settle Retaliation Case Police Bureau Never Wanted to Investigate
A sordid soap opera that’s flared here and there in the Portland Police Bureau since February 2013—full of resignations, harassment complaints, legal filings, retaliation claims, and texted Nazi jokes—seems to finally be over. Almost. The Portland City Council this morning approved a $50,000 legal settlement for former Sergeant Kristy Galvan, whose complaints about her former […]
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What About the Other “Top Two” Primary Initiative?
illustration by Mark Markovich Initiative Petition 55, the business-funded ballot measure looking to bring so-called “top-two” primary elections to Oregon, is pretty firmly on track for the fall ballot—thanks to nearly half a million dollars in spending and some 140,000 submitted petition signatures. The idea goes something like this: Primary ballots in Oregon would become […]
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An indiscriminate wave of Israeli airstrikes—an asymmetrical answer to militants’ rocket attacks from Palestinian militants—has killed nearly 70 civilians in the Gaza Strip, many of them children. One report said several people were killed and injured while gathering at a café to watch the World Cup semifinal. Israel’s government sort of acknowledged the staggering collateral […]