Don't touch me there
Here's one they buried on Friday afternoon. Heck, they waited until 5:30 on Friday afternoon, hoping no one would see it. It's some more of the gory details of the antics of Portland police captain Todd Wyatt, the road-raging, gun-flashing police supervisor who also can't seem to keep his hands off the help. O reporter Maxine Bernstein reveals:
Wyatt sat beside her and placed the back of his hand on her upper left thigh, she told investigators in documents obtained by The Oregonian. His hand lingered there as he greeted her saying, "Well, how are you doing?"The woman loudly protested and admonished Wyatt never to touch her again.
"I asked him, did he just touch me below my waist?" she told investigators. Then she turned to another woman seated nearby and asked, "Did you see this joker just touched me below my waist?"
The woman said Wyatt stared at her, jumped up and moved, but never apologized....
One of the encounters occurred during a supervisor staff meeting shortly after Wyatt came to the records division as captain in December 2009. In the meeting, Wyatt spoke of his expectations for managers. During role-playing, he touched a woman employee's leg, witnesses said. The woman recalled that he said something like, "I can touch employees ... unless they object."
For some reason, Bernstein leaves the worst for last:
The same woman said Wyatt had rubbed his hand on her leg during another meeting. She had been waiting for him to answer a question of hers and he sat beside her."He came down to talk to me and then he put his hand on the top of my leg and you know, rubbed it back and forth and said, 'OK, I hope that's fine with you,'" and then got up and left, she told investigators.
The woman said she had recently been promoted, was on probation and was afraid of losing her job. She described Wyatt's touch as "intimate ... something a date might do or a best friend might do, but not an acquaintance or co-worker." She moved to the afternoon shift so her dealings with Wyatt would be limited.
The police review board recommended that this guy be fired. But chief Mike Reese said no, and reassigned him to the sex crimes unit. That might be funny if it weren't real.
Wyatt, who had attended the city's sexual harassment training four times, told investigators: "I would never touch anybody in a manner that they didn't want to be touched, especially women. ... I'm that mortified that I'm even here, and embarrassed I'm even here talking about this."Wyatt has filed a notice of intent to sue the city, challenging his demotion.
Ah yes, they are so good at suing, these immature little boys. And they hold people's lives in their hands. Heaven help our city.
Comments (8)
"I asked him, did he just touch me below my waist?" she told investigators. Then she turned to another woman seated nearby and asked, "Did you see this joker just touched me below my waist?"
Hey- promote this gal! She has guts!
Go sister! It is pretty rare for a harassment victim to think so clearly as the
event is happening.
Posted by Mamacita | March 11, 2013 9:14 AM
The story was in the A.M. print edition,I guess not online till 5:30 P.M...
Posted by john dull | March 11, 2013 9:14 AM
Perhaps the most interesting question here is what Wyatt has on Reese. Any normal executive would have canned him immediately, so it must be pretty good. That's what the press should be looking at now.
Posted by Phil Stanford | March 11, 2013 9:44 AM
And Reese said he (Reese) never considered the touching to be of a sexual nature.
Posted by reader | March 11, 2013 10:43 AM
The story was in the A.M. print edition
I don't pay for the O any more, and so I never see the print edition. All the more curious that the online story showed at 5:30.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 11, 2013 10:53 AM
"Perhaps the most interesting question here is what Wyatt has on Reese. Any normal executive would have canned him immediately, so it must be pretty good. That's what the press should be looking at now."
Posted by Phil Stanford
Well, that there is the problem: "...the press should be looking at now."
What press?
The Portland press?
The press who work at the Oregonian?
Portland lost their press long ago. We need real investigative press, like what Phil Stanford used to do.
Posted by Harry | March 11, 2013 4:11 PM
The O posted this story online apparently after the Merc posted it online first. Think they may have been sitting on this while the kids swooped in earlier Friday.
Posted by Blecch | March 13, 2013 10:13 AM
"Blecch" is posting from a City of Portland computer. Interesting.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 13, 2013 10:16 AM