Do the right thing
Here's a depressingly familiar story out of Portland: A woman was awarded $82,000 damages after police committed battery, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution against her. Apparently she had the nerve to question the conduct of Officer Aaron Dauchy, and to demand a business card from Dauchy's partner, Jim Sandvik. At which point Sandvik assaulted her, arrested her, and had her prosecuted -- a prosecution at which he conveniently failed to show up.
Dauchy and Sandvik were part of the transit squad -- a unit with a checkered past, to be sure. Remember when "Thumper" Humphreys beanbagged a 12-year-old girl on a MAX platform? His partner that night was Dauchy.
But there's a ray of hope here, if you read far enough down in the story:
Sandvik... said Newmann was screaming, angry and demanding — and had approached him from behind as he was trying to deal with four drunken men. Sandvik also said Newmann ignored repeated lawful orders to get back....Wow, a Portland police officer telling the truth when one of his colleagues steps out of line. Now, there's a first. Thank you, Officer Valdez.Jurors, however, said they watched minutes of TriMet video, which showed multiple officers standing around doing nothing much.
Newmann also testified that she never saw Sandvik talking to four drunken men.
Part of her testimony was backed up by Officer Paul Valdez, who testified Newmann was polite and didn’t do anything that could be considered interfering with an officer, which was what she was charged with doing.
| Posted at 7:50 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (9)
Thanks and well wishes in his career somewhere else since his compatriots in PPB will probably hound him for breaking the blue wall.
Posted by JS | April 15, 2011 7:57 AM
Apparently there were a few other officers around at the time who didn't join in the defense.
Posted by Jack Bog | April 15, 2011 8:05 AM
Just wait until Randy's water troopers find a leaky faucet in your house.
Posted by Steve | April 15, 2011 8:10 AM
There is no doubt in my mind that the officers' behavior would have been very different had Ms Newman been an older white woman.
Good for Ms Newman for standing up to those thugs in uniform. Those "officers" should be fired from the police force immediately.
Posted by Portland Native | April 15, 2011 9:33 AM
This should have never gone to court. the city should have quietly settled for a couple of grand. But read what Deputy City Attorney Jim Rice said. Did he watch the video? Or is he just a parrot for the police union? Slime covering for slime. Clean your room PPD!
Posted by dman | April 15, 2011 9:52 AM
The worst part of this is that now this cop has a documented record of filing false reports and speaking untruthfully before a jury. As a result, it's likely the DA will feel less willing to prosecute cases where he's the arresting officer, even if the people arrested are clearly guilty.
Posted by Dave J. | April 15, 2011 9:54 AM
Promote Officer Valdez.
Good officers don't appreciate being saddled with the roid-ragers and closet nazis. The union isn't doing good cops any favors by forcing them to work along side bad cops.
Posted by Snards | April 15, 2011 10:04 AM
Thank you, Officer Valdez.
Posted by dyspeptic | April 15, 2011 10:35 AM
Officer Valdez is as light is to darkness in comparison to Officer's Sandvik and Dauchy, who both are obviously rogues that Reese needs to quit staring at his desk and get up off his butt and fire these wayward yahoos that have no business in a PPB uniform...the union/PPA be damned for even trying to defend these creepy jerks!
Posted by little birdie | April 16, 2011 11:07 AM