THE PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU is investigating Portland Police Association boss Scott Westerman for a pair of road rage incidents in late January. On two occasions, only two days apart, he got out of his Pontiac Grand Am and shouted at a 58-year-old woman and her husband in their Smart car.
Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein broke the story on Friday, April 9, and it follows hot on the heels of last week’s revelation that Sergeant Kyle Nice, one of the officers involved in the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse Jr., pulled his gun on a man in Beaverton during another off-duty road rage incident on April 3 [“Go Ahead and Call the Police,” News, April 8].
Westerman is a familiar face in Portland as the defender of police officers in controversial incidents. He led a rally of 650 officers on city hall last November, for example, following the suspension of the other Chasse cop, Officer Christopher Humphreys, for shooting a 12-year-old girl in the leg with a less-lethal beanbag shotgun [“A Line in the Sand,” News, Nov 26, 2009].
Virginia Thompson called police on January 28 after Westerman got out of his car at a light on SE Stark. She gave the bureau Westerman’s plates and a description of his vehicle, but they were unable to locate his vehicle in the system, for reasons unknown.
Thompson was coming off I-205 across NE Glisan when Westerman overtook her at “65 MPH,” she told a 911 dispatcher.
He got out at the light and started yelling at Thompson, telling her to dim her bright lights.
“He said, ‘I’m a police officer. I can have you arrested,'” Thompson told the dispatcher. Then, Westerman drove off.
Two days later, Westerman got out of his car again to berate Thompson, this time on the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.
“All of a sudden this car pulls in front of us, slams on his brakes. My husband blinked his lights, the guy moved off to another lane, then he pulled up next to us at a stoplight,” Thompson told the dispatcher.
Then Westerman got out and yelled, “Grow up!” said Thompson. “I recognized his face when he came up and yelled in the door this morning,” she said. “I just figured I better let somebody know, to find out if he’s a cop with a problem or just somebody going around pretending he’s a cop.”
“My behavior was unacceptable on all levels,” Westerman tells the Mercury. “As union president, as a cop, as a citizen. I’d apologize to these people directly, but I’m not allowed to, because it would look like I was trying to interfere with the investigation.”
Westerman says he doesn’t remember telling Thompson he was a cop, and denies stalking her. He told the Oregonian that his getting out of the car to berate them a second time was “just a very bad coincidence.”
Westerman also denies being under the influence of any controlled substance or intoxicants during the incident—without being specific, Westerman says he was having a hard time in his personal life when the incident occurred.
“Regardless of what that person said or did to precipitate the situation had nothing to do with it,” Westerman continues. “It was strictly things that I was dealing with in my personal life and I am taking steps to address those things.”
Westerman has been outspoken about the “politicizing of discipline” for police officers, and also recently hired the Gallatin public relations consultancy to represent the union. His Gallatin account representative, Shannon McCarthy Berg, did not return our call by press time.
Is Westerman planning to resign?
“I’m not willing to address that at this point,” he told the Mercury on Monday, April 12. “I’m not going in either direction on that.”
Meanwhile, regarding Sergeant Nice’s road rage incident, Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman said Monday that he would place the officer in a desk job when he returns from family leave, pending the outcome of an investigation. As union president, Westerman is already off the street.
“Dan is disappointed,” says Saltzman’s chief of staff, Brendan Finn, referring to both Nice and Westerman. “He doesn’t think that this behavior is acceptable of those representing the police bureau, either on or off duty.”
Thompson was unreachable for comment. District Attorney Mike Schrunk did not return a call for comment, asking whether he plans to pursue criminal charges against Westerman over the incident.
Once upon a time, we nailed A-holes to the wall and walked all the little children along and showed them. “See little Suzie, this is what happens to bad people.”
Now I guess we just give them a press conference, and a stern talking to.
Westerman says he doesn’t remember the events that occurred (at least parts of them). He also, in Duin’s column today, admits that when he fatally shot a woman–justified though it was–he doesn’t remember getting his gun out.
I’m no expert, and I have certainly never shot someone, but it seems like having these serious memory lapses in tense situations should disqualify someone from police work.
@ BOH –
That’s actually extremely common in situations involving police or soldiers killing someone. I have more experience than I’d like to on the subject, having been in the military. It’s a general side effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is the same thing that happens to some who have “canceled-out” rape experiences, having witnessed a murder, etc.
It doesn’t matter who you are…it can and does happen to anyone and there’s no way to tell if you’re predisposed to the occurrence or not.
Someone needs to dredge up the story of Westerman killing a mentally ill woman. It seems that happened at a time when people were not bristling at incompetent authority the way they are today; I seriously doubt that today, an officer who blew away a mental patient would get a MEDAL OF HONOR the way Westerman did for killing his victim.
Because today, we don’t believe in political discipline, or political rewards, either, right?
Only in Portland, Oregon.
” She gave the bureau Westerman’s plates and a description of his vehicle, but they were unable to locate his vehicle in the system, for reasons unknown.”
Happens all the time, unfortunately. I was involved in a hit-and-run that was witnessed by at least 25 people. About 15 of those people handed me little pieces of paper with the license plate number and their phone number. Even though 15 people wrote the exact same plate number down they couldn’t find it in the system, and suggested I must have gotten it wrong. A friend who has some connections in the police department figured out that it was the wife of an officer, driving a car registered to said officer.
The rule of law doesn’t apply to the ones we assign to enforce it, unfortunately.
Pigs are the fucking worst at obeying the rules of the road. And of course they will lie and protect their own gang members when it comes to incidents involving members of their thug pig gangs.
Concerning PTSD and blacking out after stressful events:
“”” It doesn’t matter who you are…it can and does happen to anyone and there’s no way to tell if you’re predisposed to the occurrence or not. “”
Um, apparently he’s predisposed.