Comments

1
Does the transcript reveal WHY the Grandy Jury ddidn't demand Reyna's attendance? Or did Rees fail to inform them that THE JURORS decide who they want to hear from and that THEY CAN SUBPOENA whoever they want? That's where the cover up is: the DA steering the grand jury and hiding their true power from them.
2
@Number Six: No mention of that, no. I will call the DA's office today and ask why that was, and whether the DA told the jurors about their subpoena power.

As I mentioned in the blog post, it did seem at various points as though DA Rees was trying to steer the jurors away from lines of inquiry that might expose the police to civil actions, too. And the order that he put the witnesses on: With the cops first, and then other witnesses later, was clearly designed to give a certain version of events that was favorable to the police.
3
What would Rhonda Pearlman do?
4
@Number Six: District Attorney Mike Schrunk responds...

Why wasn't Sgt.Reyna called? "I'm not sure. I asked that same question, and the response I got was that all the information that the sergeant got was available from other witnesses, and that there was a conflict in the timing, I think."

Was there any steering of the witnesses?

"I don't think there's any steering, it's like any presentation...you put on the witnesses and you set the scene. It's not unlike you might like a story," said Schrunk.

And were the jurors told about their subpoena power?

"Normally you'd tell people "these are the witnesses we have, let us know if you need some other witnesses, and here's the order and how we want to schedule them,"" said Schrunk.

So, were they told about their subpoena power? "The question is do you want any more," said Schrunk. "They have the power to ask for more or to say hey, stop, we get the picture, let's move on to what happened next?"

"Some things you get out of order because of scheduling but again, it's rather like you might write an article, we try to get things in as clear an order as possible," he says.

Any reason why the DA might try to steer the witness away from talking about the command structure on the scene, or away from anything that might expose the officers to a civil suit?

"No, other than that you were going in an area that either had been covered, or was going to be covered, or was beyond the witness's competence to testify," says Schrunk. "Sometimes someone might ask a witness what the commanders were doing on the scene and it would be beyond their competence to testify, it would be just speculation at that point."
5
Nice coverage and analysis, Matt.
6
Yeah, I'll second that, Matt. You and I do NOT see eye to eye, so I think I read through this with a chip on my shoulder - but you did a very good job. This seems detailed and fair.
7
Is it just me, or was the DA tapdancing?
8
This is very, very troubling for many reasons, including that the corporate media isn't reporting that the children had already left the apartment before Campbell came outside with his hands on his head.

I remember in June of 2008, in a report by KBOO News about Avel Gordley's Bill (SB 911) regarding deadly force and Grand Jury testimony, Don Rees was caught in a lie he made about the change in police procedure regarding deadly force. He is clearly the DA who is responsible for manipulating the 'all white' Grand Jury and covering up this crime.

not only is Ryan Lewton responsible for the murder of Aaron Campbell, but there is even more reason to believe that Frashour, Sgt. Reyna, and Lewton were acting in collusion in what happened to Aaron Campbell.

Along with asking the Justice Department to investigate the District Attorney's Office and the Portland Police for 'conspiracy to commit murder', we need to seriously work toward abolishing the Grand Jury system. This transcript clearly shows how easily prosecutors can nanipulate their hand-picked puppets, who serve on these Grand Juries, and why we need to abolish the Grand Jury system in America! Then maybe we can begin to talk seriously about "equal justice for all"...
9
Number Six for District Attorney.
10
DA: "it's rather like you might write an article, we try to get things in as clear an order as possible"

Hmmm. The DA puts together the "story" he'd like to tell and indictments never come out of these Grand Juries. Very interesting. Wonder what the DA's relationship with the cops is? They seem pretty tight on Law and Order.

Bojack makes the same point today about taking grand jury proceedings with an entire shaker of salt, but I know he's persona non grata around here.

Schrunk, if you're reading this, go fuck yourself.
11

An update on this story: The city has called for a DOJ investigation this morning, but Saltzman says he can't address Officer Lewton's use of force just yet. There are a number of other issues raised:



http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…

12
*sniff* mmmm, fresh concerns.
13
I think part of the problem is that grand juries serve every day for a month. If you have child care duties, or work for a small company or won't get paid for your jury duty or any number of other things, then you can get off the jury. Think about that for a moment: Who will serve on a grand jury then? The unemployed, the retired, and the people that have very good benefits from their employee.

The unemployed have a reasonable chance of being minorities, but the people with very good benefits are more statistically white. The retired are more likely to be white as well, (higher incomes = earlier retirements and whites have longer life expectancies, both of which makes the pool bigger.) The retirees are also more likely conservative which probably makes them less likely to indite a white cop for shooting a black man.

Shorter terms would help. 1 week would be good, or 20 hours a week for a month would be fine, or any number of things, but 8 hours a day for 4 weeks is more than most of us can handle. Higher pay would also solve the problem: If they paid 1/12th of your previous year's earned income (according to your taxes,) then more people could serve. They could top it out at median income or something, but right now you earn $670 for the month, (or about half of minimum wage.)

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