The District Attorney's office has dropped charges against Lisa Coppock, a woman with mental health problems who is alleging she was beaten up while being arrested by Officer Christopher Humphreys—the cop at the heart of the beanbag girl incident and the death of James Chasse.

• ILLUSTRATION BY BRETT SUPERSTAR
• HUMPHREYS: BAD APPLE REPUTATION

Coppock's attorney, Lawrence Taylor, had served a subpoena on Officer Humphreys to appear in court for a trial next Tuesday. Coppock was charged with theft of services, resisting arrest, and interfering with a police officer. But the state dropped the charges yesterday.

"Our attorney said it was a game of chicken," Meyers says. "And people like Lisa, who are in the pecking order of power and control, they end up in the mental hospital, they end up on the street, or they end up committing suicide or in the penitentiary because it's too much."

"[Civil rights attorney] Greg Kafoury said there's no civil suit here, because it's the police's word against Lisa's," says Meyers. But she has been going to meetings of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform. Meyers is also consulting with other attorneys.

"Two years they played chicken with her, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this," says Meyers. "Two months she was hospitalized down in Salem. And thank goodness she showed up every time, because otherwise they could have found her guilty. Every time she was in court, that cost the taxpayer something. And not to mention all those hospitalizations, and the attorney."

Anna Griffin ran a column on this story on March 2. We first ran the story in January 2009.

"I hope a light is shone on this archaic system," says Meyers, who intends to attend the meeting at 2pm on Sunday at Portland State of the Citizens' Review Committee to discuss committee relations with police.

The Mercury spent several hours yesterday rooting through the case files from the discrimination suit filed by Sergeant Liani Reyna—the supervisor on scene at the Aaron Campbell shooting—against the police bureau's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT team).

Officers are asking whether Reyna didn't call SERT to the scene on January 29 because she may have had an ongoing mistrust of the team following her six-year legal case. Bureau spokeswoman Mary Wheat has since told the Mercury that Reyna has "used Sert in the past and has a good relationship with them." But that's not what Reyna told the court in 2005, according to trial transcripts shipped down from a Seattle warehouse this week.

"After my experience on the SERT Team, I have no respect for those guys," she wrote, in a summary of her SERT experiences submitted to the court before the trial. "The team's weakness came to light and overshadowed their strengths. They lack integrity, moral standards, tolerance for different ethnicities, gender, and sexual preferences. No man on that team stood up for what is right and what is just. They are all followers and they lack leadership. They are cowards and hide behind their unity."

"I am not like them," wrote Reyna. "I do have tactical savvy and excellent firearms skills, and I am in great physical condition. But I have integrity and morals. I did not demean myself to their level...the team's image must be cleaned up so that the bureau can respect and be proud of its tactical team."

Bitter, much? The same feelings were reflected in Reyna's court testimony, according to transcripts. Much more from the suit, including some remarkable details about "butt dipping" and so-called "bullshit sessions" after the jump.

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Judge Paula Kurshner has this afternoon found a 13-year-old girl "within the jurisdiction of the court"—that's juvenile court language for "guilty"—of interfering with public transportation, resisting arrest, and assaulting a public safety officer in a trial at Multnomah County juvenile court.

In the end, the case came down to the word of Officer Aaron Dauchy against the girl, and footage from a TriMet platform of what went down. The girl's defense attorney, Stephen West, argued that Dauchy didn't follow police bureau procedures by pursuing the girl and escalating the situation.

"Reviewing the video makes it no doubt in my mind that the reaction of this youth resulted in what happened," said the judge. "She punched the police officer and escalated from there due to her behavior."

Judge Kurshner said that the arrest of the girl's friend, Sheldon Flores, moments earlier, was "calm, controlled, and without incident."

Flores told Dauchy that the incident had been the girl's fault, and the Judge agreed. "The fact of the matter is if this young lady had behaved the way he did, that this young lady wouldn't be here today," she said.

Judge Kurshner sentenced the girl to a probation plan for a year, she's to attend school, obey all school rules, complete an alcohol and drug screening and treatment, mental health screening and treatment, 24 hours of community service, and skill building.

"We are very disappointed with the court's decision," says her attorney, Stephen West. "This incident remains very troubling, and disturbing. It was not right, and it was not fair for the officers to do what they did to this 12-year-old girl."

West plans to appeal.

"I am disappointed," said the girl's mother, afterward. "And we're going to file an appeal."

"Once again the credibility of our officers has been called into question," said Joyce Harris from the African American Alliance, who had been watching the trial. "The police are supposed to follow policy and procedure, and all of us have to do that in our line of work. But when the police break policy they seem to be able to carry on as if nothing had happened."

I'm in Juvenile Court at NE 68th and Halsey for the resumption of the trial of the girl involved in Officer Chris Humphreys' use of a beanbag shotgun last November.

• ILLUSTRATION BY JESSE REKLAW

"I think the main triggers are when she was 7 she was sexually raped and molested," said her mother this morning. "Then there was the separation of her father and I when she was 3, and she was taken away from home and put in foster homes back in 2006."

As a result, the girl doesn't like to be touched, her mother said. Her attorney asked her mother how she responds to physical direction.

"So, if I'm trying to touch her and help her, she doesn't like to be touched, and so she may be aggressive," said her mother. "And I have experienced the aggressiveness on several different occasions, and sometimes she may comply."

The girl's mother talked to Officer Aaron Dauchy on the phone on the night of the incident, and told him that she had a history of being aggressive, and "that in the past when she feels she has been violated, she responds to that." "With [name redacted], I don't touch her when I want her to do something," said her mother.

The girl also allegedly struck a Fred Meyer security guard in the face on October 29, her mother confirmed.

The girl is claiming self defense in the case, but District Attorney Michael Reidel has relied on a recent supreme court opinion to suggest that the claim of self defense doesn't apply here. Updates shortly.

Officer Christopher Humphreys and Officer Aaron Dauchy are both expected to be called to the stand this afternoon to testify against the 12-year-old girl whom Officer Humphreys shot with a beanbag shotgun late last year. Humphreys was suspended over the incident, prompting 650 police union members to rally in his defense, wearing t-shirts reading "I am Chris Humphreys." Humphreys was subsequently reinstated, but claimed job stress and as far as we know has been off work on a disability claim ever since.

• OFFICER AARON DAUCHY, CENTER, AND OFFICER CHRISTOPHER HUMPHREYS (RIGHT) OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM THIS AFTERNOON

Deputy District Attorney Michael Reidel opened the case against the girl in juvenile court this morning. She is being charged with assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest, and interfering with public transportation.

"We are all here today because of her aggressive actions. Her violence," he said. "This case is about one thing, it's about [name redacted—juvenile] attacking officer Aaron Dauchy. This case is not complicated, it's common sense. She attacked Aaron Dauchy, and it's on video. It's also important that we discuss what this case is not about: It's not about a beanbag. It's not about other officers. It's not about ad-hoc opinions and monday morning quarterbacking. It's about an attack on Officer Dauchy for doing his job up close, in person, in real life, in real time, caught on video."

"On Nov.14th, 12 year old [name redacted—juvenile] was just trying to get home," said Stephen West, the attorney opening the case for the defense. "Eventually she did get home that night, but not before suffering injuries including being shot by a beanbag shotgun. The officer had multiple choices, multiple options, but he chose to pull her off the train even though she was sitting peacefully and quietly, and then escalated the situation from there on."

"It did all happen very quickly," West continued. "But what's most important is this involved a 12-year-old girl with mental health issues as her mother will testify, and a girl that both of these officers knew in advance was a 12-year-old girl. They knew they were dealing with a 12-year-old-girl. I believe the evidence will show that the struggle only started after Officer Dauchy escalated the situation by grabbing her hair. That he was pulling her arms back up, she reacted to the pain, said don't touch me like that, the ofc'er then said "eff you," i'll just use the letter 'f' there. And the video only shows [name redacted] doing a very slight turn with the upper half of her body, not pulling away as Officer Dauchy will claim."

West said there were "numerous contradictions and inconsistencies between the officers' report and what the video recorded." He said the state could not meet its burden to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Updates coming. The case has been going on all morning in room 356 at the Multnomah County Courthouse. No cameras are allowed in the courtroom because it's a juvenile case, but reporters from the Oregonian and Mercury have both been documenting the proceedings.

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The Mercury may be a little closer this afternoon to answering one of the most outstanding questions in the Campbell shooting. Why wasn't Sergeant Liani Reyna—the supervisor on scene at the Campbell shooting—called before the Grand Jury to testify? And why didn't Reyna call in the Bureau's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) once a child hostage situation involving a suicidal man with a gun began to unfold?

It's extremely common to call out SERT—the Portland version of a "SWAT" team—in any hostage situation. For example, SERT was called in immediately to intervene in the 2005 incident involving Raymond Gwerder. Not that it made any difference: A sniper on the SERT team shot Gwerder in the back while he was on the phone to a hostage negotiator, just as Officer Ron Frashour shot Campbell after he had been asked to come out of his apartment by a negotiator in this latest case. But why didn't Sergeant Reyna call in SERT promptly, this time?

One possible reason has emerged from court documents obtained by the Mercury this afternoon: It turns out that Reyna has a long-standing sex discrimination beef with the SERT team, including a bitter and drawn-out legal battle with the Portland Police Bureau, which included the City of Portland placing a lien on Reyna's Tigard home and garnering $16,000 in wages in an attempt to recover costs from the case—as recently as 2006.

In 1999, Reyna became the first female police officer to join the SERT team, but resigned in 2002 and then sued the bureau, alleging sex discrimination, a sexually hostile workplace, and retaliation.

Reyna lost a nine-day Federal trial related to the discrimination suit in 2005, but she didn't end things there. Instead she took the case to the ninth circuit court of appeals, alleging that the judge did not ensure a fair trial. Reyna also alleged that the bureau had spoiled and destroyed records relating to her selection to the SERT team. The appeals court once again ruled against Reyna in April 2008.

"As the first woman on the Police Bureau's SER Team, Reyna was exposed to sexist practices that defendants admit were puerile and disgusting," reads the ninth circuit ruling obtained by the Mercury this afternoon. "It appears that she did not object to the SER Team's practices for a while and finally resigned from the Team after a health incident that raised questions concerning her fitness."

Reyna also filed a complaint of sex discrimination, harassment and retaliation against the City of Portland with the Bureau of Labor and Industries in 2004. BOLI wound up dropping the case because Reyna informed them she would be pursuing the city in civil court. Documentation from BOLI is here. More after the jump.

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