Here's an odd one. Retired Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Kelly Krohn has been appearing before the City of Portland's Citizens' Review Committee this evening, along with his son Jason, who is alleging that an inquiry into his manhandling by Portland police officers was botched.

KELLY AND JASON KROHN (LEFT), OFFICER RALPH ELWOOD (SEATED, RIGHT)
  • KELLY AND JASON KROHN (LEFT), OFFICER RALPH ELWOOD (SEATED, RIGHT)
Krohn's son was drunk outside the Thirsty Lion pub in 2006, when he got into an argument with cops—including Officer Ralph Elwood, who was at the appeal hearing tonight—in central precinct. Krohn says Officer Michael Close then arrived and did a "knee drop" on his neck while he was handcuffed on the ground, and then bruised his shins by deliberately slamming a car door into his legs as he was reluctant to get into the car.

"We still don't feel like our complaint has been heard because I believe that sergeant B [Sergeant Roger Axthelm—names aren't mentioned in these hearings] and officer A [Elwood] did a good job with Jason. The problem started when officer C arrived," said Krohn, this evening.

Officer C is Officer Close. Krohn said he could forgive Close for the knee-drop, but not for slamming the patrol car door on his legs. He said the knee drop and door-slam had been mis-labeled as "control holds" by the police bureau in their complaints process.

"I could live with everything except for the car door into the legs," said Krohn. "Our complaint from the beginning has been force against officer C, and the bureau is yet to address that, 1100 days later."

Krohn said his son was only involved in verbal non-compliance when he wouldn't get into the car. "In my view, closing the car door on his legs was not appropriate at that point," he said, citing the police bureau's manual of policy and procedures.

"I grew up in a police family and I have a deep pride in Portland," said Krohn, junior. "I thought that there was a way that I knew that I could act and how they could and should respond, and they didn't."

Krohn, junior said he thought Officer Elwood had tried to make him look bad by writing in his report that he was "shouting something about race toward a group of black males."

"I didn't want to use the actual phrase that he used in my report, which was 'those fucking niggers'," said Officer Elwood. Meanwhile Sergeant Axtheim said Krohn was arguing with a group of black men in a "crowd type situation" when the officers arrived.

"I've been a police officer for 30 years, the police officers in this room, as far as I'm concerned are my friends," Krohn senior said. "I'm here because one of the things my dad instilled in me was do what's right even when it's hard."

"I've heard that officers in busy areas get a lot of complaints, I don't buy that either. In 26 years I received 3 complaints," he said. "I believe you can do this job effectively and treat people right—I don't believe that's what happened that night."

"The people who were paid to represent the Portland Police Bureau acted badly that night," he said. "Jason is a good kid with a good heart who had a bad night, and my perspective is after he was handcuffed, it should have been over, and it wasn't."

Axtheim said Krohn was not taken to detox or even arrested, but that the officers decided to call his dad.

"Instead we looked on having his father take care of this 24-year-old gentleman who was intoxicated downtown," he said, adding the allegation that Kelly Krohn had come down to the precinct asking that the racial statements be removed from the reports. Krohn shook his head, when this allegation happened.

Axtheim said "pressure on a person's leg" was trained seven to eight years ago as a way to get a non-compliant suspect into the car.

Scott Westerman, President of the Portland Police Association: "When a person's on the ground and they're trying to get up, the primary aim of the officers is to stop them from getting up. Holding someone on the ground is not force, that's a control hold."

"Officer A observed a drunk disorderly person engaging in a fight with a group of minorities, using a racial epithet," he said. "I would venture to suggest that the recollection of four sober police officers at the scene would be a lot better than a drunk 24-year-old athlete who was agitated."

Assistant Chief Brian Martinek said he had found the allegation about slamming the car door as unproven: "It seems likely that the suspect's own behavior was the cause of the door being closed on his legs," he said. "If indeed that did happen."

He said Krohn's behavior was "out of control, aggressively drunken behavior," and that the officers had used an appropriate level of force "to take an extremely drunk, aggressively belligerent suspect into custody."

"No good deed goes unpunished," Martinek said. "And frankly I think we gave the benefit of the doubt to a cop's son. In my experience, usually that works out well, but in this case it isn't working so well. There could have, and would have been room for other things to happen to this young man. I don't want to suggest to you that these officers did anything wrong, because we give them discretion. I just think it's important for the board to hear that."

PPA PRESIDENT SCOTT WESTERMAN (ON THE GROUND) WHILE OFFICER ELWOOD (LEFT) DEMONSTRATES THE CUSTODY TO CRC MEMBERS (RIGHT)
  • PPA PRESIDENT SCOTT WESTERMAN (ON THE GROUND) WHILE OFFICER ELWOOD (LEFT) DEMONSTRATES THE CUSTODY TO CRC MEMBERS (RIGHT)

"To me the biggest problem is it seems that there is one law for some people and one law for the families of police officers," said Kenneth Kreuscher, an attorney with the National Lawyers' Guild, who spoke during the public comment period. "I'm shocked that the appellant didn't catch a resisting arrest charge or an assaulting a public safety officer, like the majority of my poor clients would. Instead, he was handed over to his father in a parking lot."

"I was never in trouble from this situation, I was never charged," said Jason Krohn. "So I guess your question is why would I be here today?" He denied the allegations of racist language. "It just didn't happen."

Retired Sergeant Krohn denied trying to get the reports changed. He also said that the racist language allegation was a lie.

After four hours of discussion the CRC voted to affirm the bureau's findings in the case: To exonerate the officers on the allegation of falsifying their reports, and for using excessive force to take Krohn into custody. They voted to affirm, too, the bureau's finding of "unproven" on the allegation of the car door being smashed into Krohn's shins.