Portland police may have done 22-year-old Tasha Jacqueline Moore a favor when they arrested her on charges of possessing meth and heroin in a January 27 traffic stop. By two days later, court records show Moore had enrolled in the county’s STOP court program, well regarded for helping offenders turn their lives around.
Cops’ encounter with Moore on February 8 was less helpful. According to a tort claim notice filed with the city earlier this year, police showed up at Moore’s apartment at roughly 8:30 pm that night, accusing her of failing to take care of the earlier charges and unlawfully arresting her days before her first scheduled STOP court hearing.
“Ms. Moore explained that she had already resolved the charges that arose from the January 27, 2015 arrest, and was participating in the Multnomah County drug court program (aka, STOP), which prevented her from having further contact with the police,” reads a tort claim notice filed by Moore’s attorney on June 16. “Despite being expressly aware that the charges had been resolved, the officers arrested Ms. Moore again for conduct that occurred on January 27 2015.”
Moore says the re-arrest amounted to a breach of her constitutional rights, and the city agrees it might look that way. Tomorrow, Portland City Council will consider whether to pay her $12,500 for the arrest, after a recommendation from Risk Management staffers that there’s a “risk the city may be found liable.”
You might remember Moore’s initial arrest, by the way. Along with drugs, cops also found what they said was a stolen camera in her back seat. They released several photos from the camera, in hopes that its owners would come forward. It worked!
Update, Wednesday 12:40 pm: It turns out Moore agreed to become an informant for police when she was arrested. But since she joined the STOP court, she wasn’t allowed to follow through.
At a hearing where Portland City Council approved the $12,500 payment this morning, risk management staffer Randy Stenquist laid out the scenario for council.
“After failing to meet with the officers as agreed in the earlier discussion, the officers went to her house,” Stenquist said. “The officers did not follow well-established protocols. There’s clearly a problem with how it all played out.”
Stenquist says the Portland Police Bureau is tweaking its directives because of the incident.
Yeah if she has to pay that much, I’m thinking she will get arrested three more times stealing stuff to come up with that money. That’s a vicious uncle the courts system was built to avoid. I can only imagine the ways they’d rather she came up with pieces of paper seemed valuable.
She does not have to pay that, the city will have to pay HER that.
Atrocious comprehension. I wonder why people comment if they don’t bother to read.
Good luck to her in her recovery!
It wasn’t right an im happy that they have to pay for what they did to me
I’m saying it would have been stupid if she had had to pay, sorry you gotta be the comment police tho!