Citizen board's first ruling upholds department handling of complaint

The city's new Community Police Review Board made its first ruling Wednesday, unanimously upholding the Corvallis Police Department's internal review of a citizen complaint.

The board went into executive session to discuss the situation, then reached its decision in a public meeting - without making public a single detail of the matter under review.

Among the information not discussed in open session or recorded in the official minutes:

• The name of the complainant.

• The name of the officer or officers the complaint was filed against.

• The nature of the complaint or the circumstances under which it took place.

Asked for those details, the board's newly elected chairman, Ryan Lambert, said he couldn't provide that information.

Lambert said the activities of the board are sharply limited. Its only function, he said, is to act as a kind of appeals court for complaints denied by the police department.

"We either concur with the police department process or we don't - that's the scope of our review."

Lambert said no additional complaints are pending before the board and that the body had no plans to launch its own review of the police department's internal investigations of Officer Dave Cox or Sgt. Jim Crain.

"I don't believe that's within the scope of our duties or abilities," Lambert said.

Cox resigned last week after being on paid administrative leave since Sept. 14. The department said it was investigating citizen complaints against Cox, a decorated officer noted for his energetic enforcement of drunken-driving laws, but so far it has not released any details of that inquiry.

The state Department of Justice is reviewing the department's findings to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. In most cases that determination is made by Benton County prosecutors, but District Attorney John Haroldson said the case should be handled by an outside agency to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.

Crain was placed on leave Oct. 18 while the department investigates what its spokesman, Lt. Dave Henslee, described as a possible policy violation. No details have been released, but Henslee has said there is no connection to the Cox probe.

City Councilor Hal Brauner, a nonvoting member of the group, acknowledged that the new Community Police Review Board represents "kind of a hybrid situation" where a public body takes action on a situation that is kept from the public eye.

But he noted that the person who filed the complaint would be notified of the board's decision and have the opportunity to request an appeal hearing before the board.

"That would be all public - not executive session," Brauner said.

"This is the end product of the internal investigation, but it can go beyond that to a public hearing."

Mayor Charlie Tomlinson said the board was created to provide some outside oversight of complaints against police officers and reassure the community that the department was being held accountable.

"We wanted to give citizens a second vehicle to make a complaint to that was citizen-based and not police department-run," he said.

Tomlinson said he hoped the outside investigation of Cox by the state Department of Justice would bolster confidence in the local police. Ideally, he said, it would help to release more information, but the city is constrained in what it can say about personnel matters by confidentiality rules and its contract with the police officers' union.

"We've had two police officers on the front page of the Gazette-Times, and we're withholding certain information," Tomlinson said. "That doesn't look like it's open government, but that is a requirement of our personnel law and our contract."

The seven-member Community Police Review Board is just getting off the ground. Created in April by a vote of the City Council, the panel held its first meeting in September. Part of its time on Wednesday was taken up in electing officers.

Lambert was elected chairman, and Patricia Lacey was elected vice chairwoman. Other board members are Robin de La Mora, Phyllis Lee, Rick Hein and Ernest Cuno. The seventh position is currently vacant.

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.