Recently released report shows how West Linn dealt with racial discrimination lawsuit.
Over the past seven months Michael Gennaco and Robert Miller of the investigative firm OIR Group have attempted to piece together everything that went wrong for the city of West Linn and who is to blame since the moment Michael Fesser served city officials with a tort claim alleging racial discrimination by West Linn police on June 4, 2018.
While it was fairly easy to find fault with the actions of former Chief Terry Timeus and former Sgt. Tony Reeves (as the Clackamas County District Attorney s office demonstrated in its Brady investigative report released in May), the OIR investigators focused on when and how the city from its administrators to members of the police department, elected officials, attorneys and insurance providers failed to handle the aftermath of the illegal and racially-motivated 2017 arrest of Fesser.
WEST LINN, OR (KPTV) - The city of West Linn released the full 40-page independent investigation report into the police department and the cityâs response to a racially motivated wrongful arrest case.
OIR Group, an independent police oversight and review firm, conducted the investigation, centered around Michael Fesserâs tort claim and subsequent $600,000 settlement.
In February 2017, Fesser, a Black man, was pulled over by West Linn officers in Portland. Court records show that Fesser had previously brought up concerns of racial harassment to his boss at A&B Towing, and that boss called in a favor to a friend, then-West Linn Police Chief Terry Timeus.
Outside consultants blast West Linn’s cursory review of Michael Fesser’s wrongful arrest claims
Updated Jan 10, 2021;
Posted Dec 16, 2020
Fired West Linn Police Chief Terry Kruger claimed he had recused himself from the department s internal inquiry into Michael Fesser s allegations because of a personal relationship he had with Fesser s former boss. But Kruger repeatedly defended West Linn police actions and the arrest to the City Council and to the interim city manager.
Mark Graves/Staff
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West Linn made a “serious misstep” in failing to tap an outside agency to investigate shocking claims raised by Michael Fesser of Portland in his 2018 notice of plans to sue police and the city for wrongful arrest and racial discrimination, independent consultants say.
Posted: Dec 15, 2020 8:01 AM CT | Last Updated: December 15, 2020
The proposed re-routing of the winter road to Gahcho Kue, connected to the pictured Tibitt-Contwoyto, has been put on hold. A De Beers spokesperson said the decision was made after a review of comments heard through consultation with our Indigenous partners. (Courtesy Tibbit to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture)
De Beers is putting the application it filed last month to reroute the winter road leading to its Gahcho Kué diamond mine from MacKay Lake on hold as it consults more thoroughly with Indigenous communities, including the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
The proposed route would have gone over Lake of the Enemy, a historic, culturally and spiritually significant area for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.