Not Policing Themselves

POLICE CHIEF ROSIE SIZER finally released the findings of an
internal review of the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse—a
man suffering from schizophrenia—last week, finding barely any
wrongdoing by her officers.

The Portland Police Bureau’s internal Use of Force Review Board
found that Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sergeant Kyle Nice did not
violate any bureau policies by chasing Chasse, tackling him to the
ground, and beating him on the sidewalk, in front of witnesses, until
he was unconscious.

Perhaps most controversial of all, the chief released a statement
saying: “There is no evidence in any report or witness statement that
caused members of the Use of Force Review Board to conclude that any
officer at the scene knew or should have known that Mr. Chasse had
suffered a serious physical injury.”

Court documents and witness transcripts obtained by the
Mercury tell a different story. State Medical Examiner Karen
Gunson found 48 separate abrasions on Chasse’s body, including 16
possible blows to the head. Several witnesses described Chasse’s
screams during his struggle with police, before going unconscious.

“He seemed like a scared animal,” said witness Melissa Jane Gaylord.
Electrician Tony Lee Carter “thought [Chasse] was dead” for the period
during which Chasse was unconscious on the sidewalk. Bike lawyer Mark
Ginsberg, another witness, said: “I did hear Mr. Chasse yelling,
‘mercy, mercy, mercy,’ and that was personally pretty disturbing to
me.”

Witnesses were shocked Chasse wasn’t taken to the hospital in an
ambulance. Local developer Homer Williams said Chasse looked like a
“bag of bones” when police put him in a squad car. Meanwhile Lou
Reiter, former deputy police chief of the Los Angeles Police
Department, described the officers’ use of force as “unreasonable,” and
their failure to disclose to paramedics the force used on Chasse as
“unreasonable,” during depositions in a lawsuit being brought by the
Chasse family against the police bureau, earlier this year.

The only person at fault in the whole affair was Sergeant Nice,
according to the internal review board, for failing to transport Chasse
to the hospital after the deployment of a Taser by Sheriff’s Deputy
Bret Burton during the struggle. Sizer and Police Commissioner Dan
Saltzman will now co-sign a letter ordering Nice suspended for an
as-yet-determined period of time. Nice will have the opportunity to
appeal the suspension if he chooses.

Saltzman had no comment on the findings on Wednesday, September 23,
but told the Mercury: “We certainly regret Mr. Chasse’s
death.”

“Nice’s suspension could be 10 minutes long,” says Jason Renaud of
the Mental Health Association of Portland. “The question is whether
there is some sort of punitive measure that will cause police officers
to not do this in the future.

“When police officers do the right thing as per policy and per
training, and yet someone ends up dead, there is something wrong,”
Renaud continues. “That problem has not been solved yet, and it seems
to be that the only way to solve that is by the penalty afforded from a
civil trial.”

In other words, it would seem the only way to fairly punish
Portland’s cops for excessive force is to take them to court.

Just ask Frank Waterhouse—the cops’ internal review
recommended no discipline for the officers who Tasered and shot him
with less-lethal ammunition without warning in October 2006. Waterhouse
had been filming the officers as they searched for a jaywalker at a
Northeast Portland garage where he was working as an apprentice. Here’s the video.

Waterhouse, who was cleared of all charges relating to the incident,
wasn’t satisfied with the Use of Force Review Board’s findings, and
took the officers to court. Two weeks ago he won a settlement of
$55,000 after a jury agreed that the officers’ use of force was indeed
excessive. Waterhouse had only sought $30,000 in the suit, but the jury
awarded him almost twice as much.

Perhaps most surprising of all in the case was the identity of
Waterhouse’s star witness: Chief Sizer.

Sizer testified for Waterhouse, against her own Use of Force Review
Board’s findings, and against the city, arguing that the officers had
ample time to coordinate their efforts so Waterhouse wasn’t hit with
two weapons at once, and that they had plenty of time to give warning.
Sizer also told the jury Waterhouse was not actively resisting, a
requirement for the use of a beanbag round, which is fired from a
12-guage shotgun.

“It blew my mind, really,” Waterhouse says. “I couldn’t believe that
somebody from their side actually looked at my case and determined that
they went overboard.”

Sizer declined comment on her decision to testify against the
internal review board’s findings by press time, but it certainly sets
an uncomfortable precedent for police officers working the street.

“These officers felt blindsided by the chief in court,” says
Portland Police Association boss Scott Westerman, who adds that
mitigating circumstances for the force used on Waterhouse were excluded
from the court testimony—they thought Waterhouse was the
jaywalker they were looking for, he says.

“The circumstances to which these officers were responding were
minimized by the attorney,” he adds.

Waterhouse’s attorney, Benjamin Haile, says Westerman’s remarks are
“insulting” to juries because they assume that the public can’t
understand the work that police do.

“In my experience, people on juries are very willing to give police
officers the benefit of the doubt, very willing to assume they’re doing
the best they can,” Haile says. “A trial is a time to get the entire
truth out in the open. The officers are not going to be held
responsible for their actions unless all of those people agree that
what they did was wrong.”

A federal trial related to Chasse’s death is due to begin in March
2010. The Chasse family’s attorney, Tom Steenson, issued a statement
last week about the Use of Force Review Board’s findings, but declined
further comment under the terms of a court protective order.