Top 25 Settlements: Portland Police Incidents settled 1993-2008
totalling over $4.5 million***
Name
Amount Date settled
Incident date Brief notes
- Protestors August 2002&May 2003
$845,000.00 12/1/04
8/22/02 Use of force (pepper spray)
- Family of Damon Lowery
$600,000.00
6/25/05 12/5/99
Use of force (leading to death)
- Family of Raymond Gwerder*
$500,000.00
11/14/07 11/4/05
Shooting (died)
- Barbara& Ted Vickers, Estate of Dickie Dow $380,000.00
3/27/02 10/19/98
Wrongful death/Dickie Dow
- Bruce Browne
$200,895.00
4/1/03 7/11/01
Shooting (lived)
- Daniel Thomas*+**
$191,746.53
3/14/08&9/28/04 7/11/03
Use of force
- Maria-Janeth Rodriguez-Sanchez
$177,161.41
12/2/05&8/3/05 4/8/03
Use of force
- Barbara Weich*
$150,000.00
1/2/08 5/29/05
Use of force (broken arm)
- Eunice Crowder
$145,000.00
4/23/04 6/9/03
Use of force (including Taser)
- Chaz Miller*
$133,926.06
6/21/06 4/21/03
Use of Force/wrong person arrested
- Gerald Gratton
$118,000.00
4/4/94 7/19/93
Shooting (lived)
- Ivory Spann
$100,056.79
4/7/97 6/6/93
Force/Baton hits
- Family of Duane Anthony Shaw
$100,000.00 10/25/95
9/14/93 Shooting (died)
- Johnny Senteno
$96,975.23
12/30/94 8/21/93
Use of force/Arm broken by projectile
- Janice M Aichele (deceased)
$90,000.00
11/7/96 10/6/94
Off-duty shooting (murder/suicide)
- Heather Bissell
$88,385.83
9/23/05&8/17/05 4/30/03
Use of force/arrest
- Dalebert V Acelar and 3 others
$87,000.00
6/16/99 10/17/97
Unlawful search/detention
- Merrick Bonneau
$80,000.00
12/11/01 9/4/99
Use of force/arrest
- Pavel Guzenko
$80,000.00
2/16/01 10/12/99
Use of force/man had wheelbarrow
- James Ladd****
$75,000.00
12/3/03 1/24/02
Use of Force (off duty beating)
- John L Kimmel*
$70,715.75
9/7/05 6/1/03
Use of Force (mistaken for car thief)
- David Tracy*
$67,500.00
1/2/08 1/30/05
Use of force
- Ron Rohman
$64,011.77
5/23/97 11/3/94
Civil rights (Street preacher)
- Dontae Marks*
$60,000.00
1/10/07 5/3/03
Use of Force (including Taser)
- 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.
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