Top 25 Settlements: Portland Police Incidents settled 1993-2008
totalling over $4.5 million***

      Name                                                                 Amount          Date settled     Incident date         Brief notes
  1. Protestors August 2002&May 2003              $845,000.00          12/1/04          8/22/02          Use of force (pepper spray)
  2. Family of Damon Lowery                                 $600,000.00          6/25/05          12/5/99          Use of force (leading to death)
  3. Family of Raymond Gwerder*                          $500,000.00          11/14/07          11/4/05          Shooting (died)
  4. Barbara& Ted Vickers, Estate of Dickie Dow   $380,000.00          3/27/02          10/19/98          Wrongful death/Dickie Dow
  5. Bruce Browne                                                    $200,895.00          4/1/03              7/11/01          Shooting (lived)
  6. Daniel Thomas*+**                                           $191,746.53    3/14/08&9/28/04    7/11/03          Use of force
  7. Maria-Janeth Rodriguez-Sanchez                        $177,161.41    12/2/05&8/3/05     4/8/03          Use of force
  8. Barbara Weich*                                                  $150,000.00          1/2/08          5/29/05          Use of force (broken arm)
  9. Eunice Crowder                                                  $145,000.00          4/23/04          6/9/03          Use of force (including Taser)
  10. Chaz Miller*                                                      $133,926.06         6/21/06          4/21/03          Use of Force/wrong person arrested
  11. Gerald Gratton                                                    $118,000.00          4/4/94          7/19/93          Shooting (lived)
  12. Ivory Spann                                                        $100,056.79              4/7/97          6/6/93          Force/Baton hits
  13. Family of Duane Anthony Shaw                        $100,000.00          10/25/95          9/14/93          Shooting (died)
  14. Johnny Senteno                                                   $96,975.23          12/30/94          8/21/93          Use of force/Arm broken by projectile
  15. Janice M Aichele (deceased)                                 $90,000.00          11/7/96          10/6/94          Off-duty shooting (murder/suicide)
  16. Heather Bissell                                                    $88,385.83    9/23/05&8/17/05     4/30/03          Use of force/arrest
  17. Dalebert V Acelar and 3 others                             $87,000.00          6/16/99          10/17/97          Unlawful search/detention
  18. Merrick Bonneau                                                 $80,000.00          12/11/01          9/4/99          Use of force/arrest
  19. Pavel Guzenko                                                     $80,000.00          2/16/01          10/12/99          Use of force/man had wheelbarrow
  20. James Ladd****                                                 $75,000.00          12/3/03          1/24/02          Use of Force (off duty beating)
  21. John L Kimmel*                                                   $70,715.75          9/7/05           6/1/03          Use of Force (mistaken for car thief)
  22. David Tracy*                                                      $67,500.00          1/2/08           1/30/05          Use of force
  23. Ron Rohman                                                        $64,011.77          5/23/97          11/3/94          Civil rights (Street preacher)
  24. Dontae Marks*                                                   $60,000.00           1/10/07           5/3/03          Use of Force (including Taser)
  25. Michael Mitchell                                                 $57,772.25          5/19/99          12/21/95          Unknown

     Total                                               $4,559,146.62

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

This chart should be published regularly by the City 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 $4.5 million total for just these 25 cases does not include another $2 million paid out to nearly 200 other people from 1993-2008. With an average of at least $350,000 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.

As many cases after 2005 have not gone through the courts yet, we can compare the average annual totals between 1993 and 2002 ($365,000) and from 2002-2005 ($704,300) and see that the advent or 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 (see PPR #44, May 2008).

--12 of the top 25 are incidents that occurred since 2002, when the IPR was in place, or in other words, nearly half the incidents occurred in just 4 years (2002-2005) on a list reaching back 15 years. Those 12 cases totalled $2.5 million.

--Some of the amounts shown include the City's legal expenses, making them appear higher than the settlements alone. But since this expense comes back to you, the taxpayer, we feel all expenses should be included when known.


Notes:
*-new info or new settlement since 2005
**-Daniel Thomas' case ended with a judgment in March, 2008 of $100,000, but the city closed out his original claim with $91,746.53 in city legal expenses. As of 4/26/08 we expect this total to go higher as Thomas' attorney fees are paid.
***The total of the top 25 up to 2005 was $3.6 million
****Ladd was beaten by off-duty officers, but on-duty cops acted to cover up the beating
We use the term "settlement" loosely to cover settlements, judgments, and other payouts by the city to cover the costs of police misconduct.

 
Revised version posted April 26, 2008

Compare to totals from 2005

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