‘He [Lehner] did not provide an applicable
legal rationale for his action.’
— P OLICE A UDITOR C RISTINA B EAMUD
T H I S W E E K E N D • T W O G R E AT S H O W S
Ignoring the city code may mean the chief
and city manager have broken state law. ORS
162.405 states: “A public servant commits
the crime of offi cial misconduct in the second
degree if the person knowingly violates any
statute relating to the offi ce of the person.”
Lehner claims he did not break the law.
He said in his statement that when he decides
to release more information: “I am confi dent
my actions will be viewed as reasonable and
necessary.”
But Beamud said she’s heard the legal
argument from the chief and said in a statement,
“He did not provide an applicable legal rationale
for his action.” She said the city attorney
“confi rmed” her interpretation of city law.
“There are no exceptions within the
ordinance or state law that applied to this
case,” Beamud wrote of the chief’s “improper”
withholding of the complaint. Beamud wrote
that while she was allowed some late access
to limited, redacted information, the delay
“foreclosed much of the auditor’s ability to
monitor and review the investigation.”
“It is a dangerous precedent to carve
out exceptions based on one individual’s
determination that special circumstances
exist,” Beamud wrote.
City Manager Ruiz, a Republican retired
U.S. Army colonel, appears to back, fi rmly,
the chief’s decision to keep the complaint
secret from the police auditor. In an email
to the council, Ruiz wrote that it is “very
unfortunate” that the issue “has been aired
as a contentious, black and white question.”
He wrote, “I have high respect for Chief
Lehner’s integrity.”
Ruiz wrote that he has been aware that
the complaint was withheld from the auditor
“since May,” but he apparently did not tell
the auditor, in violation of city law. Beamud
said that she did not discover the existence
of the complaint until June 6.
The news that the chief and manager
were ignoring the police auditor law alarmed
many citizens who spoke out to the council
at a public forum or in letters.
“I was just livid,” said Chuck Dalton,
president emeritus of the local NAACP
chapter. “I was so disappointed.”
Dalton wrote the council: “It is clear to
me that both the city manager and chief of
police believe that they are above the law.”
Dalton added, “Neither of them believes the
independent police auditor ordinance applies
to them. When the leaders won’t follow the
law, the rank and fi le won’t respect the law.”
In other cities with independent police
oversight, police auditors are allowed
access to complaints involving confi dential
informants, according to Beamud. Beamud
said she researched the issue and was
unable to fi nd any other city that blocked
confi dential informant complaints from
oversight as has happened in Eugene.
A quick Internet search reveals records
of independent police auditors and review
boards handling complaints involving
confi dential informants in New York City
and Albany, N.Y.
Confi dential informants are frequently
involved in complaint cases against police
due to the “very high risk” nature of using
such sources, Beamud said. Such informants
may be motivated to give false information
to avoid arrest for their drug addictions
or to eliminate the criminal competition,
according to Beamud. “Most all of the
oversight professionals consider these types
of cases to be very serious,” she said.
Indeed, Beamud herself recently accepted
a job as police auditor in Atlanta, Ga., a
job created in the wake of a police scandal
involving a confi dential informant. According
to press accounts, police claimed they used a
confi dential informant’s accusation of drug
dealing to raid a 92-year-old woman’s house,
killing her in a 39-shot burst of gunfi re. The
“confi dential informant” later came forward
in the media to report that police had lied in
saying he identifi ed the innocent woman’s
house as a place of drug sales.
The Atlanta case and other police
confi dential informant abuses helped prompt
the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to hold a
hearing last year on the issue. Experts testifi ed
that police use of confi dential informants
needed increased independent oversight.
In the Magaña case, one frequent victim of
coerced sex testifi ed that Magaña threatened
to tell criminals that she was a confi dential
informant, putting her life at risk.
The criminal prosecutor and victim’s
attorney in the Magaña case pointed out that
the police had trusted some of the women
as “reliable” confi dential informants in
pursuing criminal cases but did not trust
them when they complained about Magaña.
Magaña wasn’t the fi rst Eugene offi cer
to target a confi dential informant with sex
abuse. Documents in the victims’ lawsuit
against the city refer to an earlier case in
which a Eugene school offi cer sexually
harassed and furnished alcohol to a minor
whom he used as an informant.
Lehner said that he should also be allowed
to withhold information from the auditor in
cases involving “national security.” Lehner
said, “I have national security clearance” that
forbids him from disclosing such information
to anyone, including the city manager and the
police auditor, “under any circumstance.”
The national security and police oversight
issue came up in Portland in 2005. The
Portland City Council voted to withdraw
city offi cers from the federal Joint Terrorism
Taskforce for the area because the secrecy
provisions would not allow for adequate
police oversight and supervision.
Lehner declined to elaborate on just how
his “national security clearance” could block
the police auditor from taking complaints
and complaint oversight. He claimed “there
are other examples” of laws that confl ict with
the auditor function but declined to site those
examples. “I don’t have time,” he said.
Lehner and Ruiz have said publicly that
they support the independent police auditor,
whose position was enacted by voters.
But before he came to Eugene, Lehner
opposed the creation of an independent
police review board while serving as the
police chief of staff in Tucson, according to
press reports. In the wake of a dozen police
offi cers charged with robbery, molesting
minors, assault and other crimes, the Tucson
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