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Top 25 Settlements: Portland Police Incidents Settled 1993-2011
Total Roughly $6.9 Million

1. Family of James Chasse, Jr.*         $1,600,000.00        7/28/10        9/17/06        Use of force (leading to death)
2. Protestors August 2002&May 2003     $845,000.00        12/1/04        8/22/02        Use of force (pepper spray)
3. Family of Damon Lowery        $600,000.00                      6/25/05        12/5/99        Use of force (leading to death)
4. Family of Raymond Gwerder        $500,000.00        11/14/07        11/4/05        Shooting (died)
5. Barbara&Ted Vickers, Estate of Dickie Dow $380,000.00         3/27/02        10/19/98        Wrongful death/Dickie Dow
6. Family of James Jahar Perez             $350,359.00         9/3/08        3/28/04        Shooting (died)
7. Daniel Thomas*            $311,000.00          3/14/08&9/28/04        7/11/03        Use of force
8. Bruce Browne        $200,895.00        4/1/03        7/11/01        Shooting (lived)
9. Family of Dennis Young         $200,000.00        10/8/08        1/4/06        Shooting (died)
10. Maria-Janeth Rodriguez-Sanchez        $177,161.41          12/2/05&8/3/05         4/8/03        Use of force
11. Harold Hammick, Ri'Chard Booth & Alex Clay*$175,000.00 (jury)         9/23/09        3/17/07        Mistreatment (pointing guns)
12. Family of Peter Gilbaugh*         $150,000.00        10/1/02                   12/31/98         Shooting (died)
13. Barbara Weich        $150,000.00        1/2/08        5/29/05        Use of force (broken arm)
14. Eunice Crowder        $145,000.00        4/23/04        6/9/03        Use of force (including Taser)
15. Chaz Miller        $133,926.06        6/21/06        4/21/03        Use of Force/wrong person arrested
16. Gerald Gratton        $118,000.00        4/4/94         7/19/93        Shooting (lived)
17.Two women victims of Ofcr John Wood*         $105,000.00        2/25/09        7/21/06        Use of force (broken arm)
18. Ivory Spann         $100,056.79                    4/7/97            6/6/93        Force/Baton hits
19. Family of Duane Anthony Shaw         $100,000.00        10/25/95        9/14/93        Shooting (died)
20. Johnny Senteno        $96,975.23        12/30/94        8/21/93        Use of force/Arm broken by projectile
21. Janice M Aichele (deceased)         $90,000.00        11/7/96        10/6/94         Off-duty shooting (murder/suicide)
22. Heather Bissell        $88,385.83          9/23/05&8/17/05         4/30/03        Use of force/arrest (incl. city expenses)
23. Dalebert V Acelar and 3 others        $87,000.00        6/16/99        10/17/97        Unlawful search/detention
24. Shei'Meka Newmann*        $82,000.00 (jury)        4/14/11         2/13/09        Use of force, false arrest, malicious prosecution
25. Hung Mingh Tran*         $81,766.00        1/30/11        11/24/07        Use of force (Taser)

           Total        $6,867,525.32

Sources:
Portland Office of Risk Management, Portland Office of Management and Finance, Portland City Auditor's Office and various news agencies

We publish this list of the top 25 settlememts (which also includes judgments and jury awards) every few years to let people know what police misconduct is costing the people of Portland. Sure, they can argue that in cases that were settled out of court they never admitted wrongdoing, but if they felt they had a sure chance to win, they'd defend their officers. The $6.9 million total for just these 25 cases does not include another $2.7 million paid out to over 200 other people from 1993- 2011. The total of the top 25 up to 2005 was $3.6 million; in April 2008 it was $4.5 million. With an average of at least $500,000 per year, the City could be paying for several civilian investigators to staff an independent police review board. Perhaps with ongoing external monitoring, the frequency of such cases would decline.

Even though many cases after 2007 have not yet gone through the courts, we can compare the average annual totals for incidents between 1993 and 2001 ($382,000) and from 2002-June 2011 ($636,000)** and see that the advent of Portland's "Independent" Police Review Division in 2002 has done little to slow the lawsuits or the misconduct that generates them, and in fact it may be that more people are turning to the courts rather than using the civilian complaint system (PPR #44, May 2008).

--16 top 25 incidents occurred since 2002, when the IPR began operating; 11 incidents involve shootings/deaths; 9 top 25 payments were made since January 2008.

--Some amounts include the City's legal expenses or payments to plaintiff's attorneys, making them appear higher than reported. But this expense comes back to the taxpayer, so we include it when known. For example, Daniel Thomas' case ended with a judgment in March, 2008 of $100,000, but the total reported payout including Thomas' attorney's fees was $311,000 (Oregonian, December 10, 2009). Heather Bissell's case settled for $50,000 but the total here includes $38,000+ in city expenses.

*-new info or new settlement/judgment/award since PPR #47 (May, '09)
**Portland Copwatch has incomplete data for 2008-2011 but hopes to update this information soon.

Also see:

August 2011 Top 25 list

2008 Top 25 list

2006 Top 25 list

2005 Top 25 list

September, 2011
Also in PPR #54

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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