I'm not going to lie, I missed this yesterday. In fact, I wrote the date down wrong, but it's big news, and so it's time to play catch up. There was a hearing in federal court yesterday to decide whether to unseal certain documents in the Chasse case. The Oregonian and Willamette Week were both there, and I'm going to link you to James Pitkin's coverage because it caught the most interesting angle in proceedings—that the judge not only ruled against releasing more documents, but also, said he's considering trying the Chasse case outside Portland, because it's impossible to find a juror in Multnomah County who hasn't had their mind poisoned by all the media outrage surrounding the case.

As if to bear the judge's opinion out, this video just surfaced online. Full disclosure, I'm working on a documentary about Chasse's death, but it seems some people can't wait for the damned thing to come out, and have begun trying to make documentaries of their own. This one, posted by Bob Seaver, features maudlin piano, and even poetry, to make its point. In particular, it focuses on statements being made recently by the Portland Police Association boss, Scott Westerman, in defense of the officers involved in the death:

Seaver recently discovered iMovie, it seems, having just posted another Youtube focusing on Mark Kruger, a cop with an interest in "military history."

City Commissioners Randy Leonard, Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz called this afternoon for the publication of the city's controversial "secret list," going against the advice they have been given so far by the city attorney's office to keep it secret.

City council passed an "emergency ordinance" this afternoon to pay Multnomah County almost $1million of taxpayer dollars to administer part of the program. But the discussion took an unexpected turn after council faced questions from public defense attorney Chris O'Connor about keeping the list secret.

"Commissioner Saltzman and I have one small disagreement, which is publish this list," said Leonard. "Other than that this is a remarkable program."

"I want to add my voice to the chorus arguing for publishing the list," said Fish. "We get good legal advice, but ultimately we are the clients."

Fritz said she agreed with the remarks made by Fish and Leonard. She wanted to see how many women were getting into the program, too. After the session, Fritz clarified her remarks: "It's public record, how many times someone has been arrested," she said. "So why would we want to keep it secret? Since people could go to the trouble to get hold of this information themselves, I think the fact that it has been kept secret has become a distraction." "There might be a public benefit in publishing this list," she told a KBOO reporter.

You can catch up on what the list is by watching this 10-minute documentary, but in brief: It targets around 450 drug addicts in Old Town for felony treatment on what would otherwise be treated as misdemeanor drug offenses. The list is assembled by taking the number of arrests of Old Town offenders, and those who have been arrested the most over a 30 day period get on the list. At present, there is no way to find out if you are on the list, and no way to challenge your status on the list. The list has already faced its first constitutional challenge in court, when a judge overturned the felony treatment of two defendants under it. Broader constitutional challenges are expected soon, but in the mean time, the city has continued to decline to share the list with the public.

It's not clear at this point what is going to happen next. Commissioner Leonard would not go so far as to tell the Mercury that he is going to file a city ordinance to publish the list, despite now being in a majority on council, calling for its release to the public.

"I will defer to Dan's judgement," said Leonard. "But if I was the police commissioner and I heard what I heard today, I would come back to my office and order the police chief to publish the list on the web."

"I don't mind stepping on toes," said Leonard, "and I have before, and I will again, but I want to give Dan the benefit of the doubt. He's operating with the team day to day, and is getting some information that I am not getting. But based on what I heard today, I would be very surprised if he didn't go back and say that."

"Then the debate is about whether certain people should be forced into treatment," said Leonard. "And I will have that discussion all day."

Commissioner Saltzman was unavailable for comment immediately after the hearing, but staff said they would be discussing the outcome of today's council session with the commissioner over coming days. More after the jump.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Bushong unexpectedly annihilated the city's sit/lie law at a special session this afternoon, after the city asked him to "clarify" his late June ruling that the law is unconstitutional.

City Commissioner Nick Fish was there to watch the verdict, along with representatives from the Portland Business Alliance—which has pushed for the sit/lie law all along—and plenty of interested local media. Fish, himself a former civil rights attorney, spent a few moments afterward, chatting not with the city attorney's staff, but with the defense attorney in the case, Clayton Lance:

Hit the jump.

Lee Perlman, the man accused of defacing a Recall Sam Adams petition, was arrested today on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief in the third degree.

Volunteers Gaye Harris and Joe Favata were getting signatures in the parking lot of the Albina Community Bank in northeast Portland on August 6 when Perlman approached them and asked to sign. He then scribbled across the petition, which already had eight valid signatures, and returned it to the volunteers, saying “here’s my signature,” according to Jasun Wurster, head of campaign to recall the mayor.

The volunteers got a picture of his license plate as he drove away and then called the police, says Wurster.

• Perlman in custody

“We’re deeply disturbed that he thought he could silence eight citizens,” Wurster told the Mercury. “We’re going to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Our attorneys are in contact with the DA’s office and the Secretary of State elections division to see if any [more serious] crimes have been perpetrated by Mr. Perlman.”

Perlman is a writer for the Hollywood Star News and other local publications. When contacted Monday for his comment regarding the incident, he said, “I think it best I don’t talk about it.”

Perlman is still in custody on $1,000 bail. The jail only allows visitors on the weekends.

Update, 3:49pm

District Attorney Mike Schrunk says he is yet to reach a charging decision in the case.

"We'll figure it out and file the appropriate charge, if there is one," he says. "And if we don't, then we'll come up with a written reason why we haven't charged him."

Schrunk said as far as he knew, there was no conferring between the DA's office and the cops before arresting Perlman. Police spokeswoman Mary Wheat concurred. "We don't make decisions based on politics," she says.

City Auditor Andrew Carlstrom says the eight signatures defaced by Perlman are still valid, because everything is still legible on the petition.

"I'd much rather be thinking about some of the other crimes that happen in this town," says Schrunk. "It's not like it's armed robbery, but it seems to be interfering with the process and there should be a consequence for doing that."

Asked whether he would be pursuing the death penalty in this case, Schrunk declined comment.

-Rachael Marcus

"There is a lot of positive energy that has developed out of this tragedy," said Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler this morning, discussing the county's unanimous vote to settle the County's role in the death of James Chasse, jr for a record $925,000. Meanwhile, the Chasse family's attorneys filed documents yesterday in their ongoing case against the City of Portland that contain troubling new details.

Wheeler coupled the settlement vote with a more positive step by the county this morning: The decision to finally move forward on a sub-acute facility for those, like Chasse, who are in mental health crisis. Wheeler has drawn criticism from mental health advocates for the past two years for failing to move on the idea—a key recommendation of a committee formed by former mayor Tom Potter in the wake of Chasse's death.

"I think this is in the best interest of the community and the Chasse family, and it allows us to get beyond the legal issues in the case and move toward a better system of delivery for people in mental health crisis," said Wheeler.

The new center is expected to open on East Burnside and MLK, on the second floor of the existing Hooper Detox Center, in late 2011. In the spring, the county gave Central City Concern $1million slated for the sub-acute facility to move the Hooper detox center to a new CCC building at the old Ramada Inn in the Rose Quarter by May 2010—thereby making space for an overhaul of the Hooper building. PDC has approved $75,000 in pre-development for the project, and has set aside $2million in its 2012-13 budget to cover the cost of the sub-acute center, said PDC government affairs specialist Keith Witcosky. Witcosky said PDC will "be as creative as we need" to cover the time lag between now and 2012, and hopefully move the money into this fiscal year so that work can begin as soon as possible. The county currently faces an $800,000 a year budget hole in opening the sub-acute facility, said county mental health director Joanne Fuller, but it hopes to plug the gap by working with the city, state, and CCC. "There is also the potential for stimulus dollars," said Fuller.

"I don't think a celebration is in order today," said Wheeler. "There's an opportunity here."

Wheeler said the new center, which is expected to house those in mental health crisis for up to 10 days while they stabilize, before moving them into housing through CCC, "is going to be effective, and cost effective, and I don't want to overlook the fact that it's humane."

If anyone were tempted to celebrate, they would have been sobered pretty quickly by further developments in the case. New documents filed yesterday by Chasse family lawyer Tom Steenson throw new light on it: State medical examiner Karen Gunson had previously explained broken ribs in Chasse's back from his fall to the ground. But since no evidence exists to suggest Chasse ever fell on his back, the deposition of Gunson contains a new concession: "Since there is no evidence that Chasse landed on his back when he was taken down to the concrete, and if he was struck in the left side, Gunson opines that it is more probable that his posterior left ribs were broken by a violent kick or knee drop than during the fall," says Steenson, in yesterday's document filed with the court. Here's Gunson's deposition:

Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse's body, including 16 possible blows to the head.

The documents also include the deposition of Portland Police Bureau Officer Christopher Humphreys, which make it quite clear that Humphreys never saw Chasse urinate on the sidewalk—an alleged detail which has consistently been reported about the incident as a possible legal basis for the officers stopping Chasse. At most, Humphreys thought he saw Humphreys urinating in his pants because there was possibly a wet patch on his trousers, according to his deposition testimony. But the ground by his feet was completely dry.

You can download the documents in their entirety here. Warning: File Ex2.pdf contains intense and disturbing autopsy images of Chasse.

Several witnesses described Chasse's screams during his encounter with police officers at the corner of NW 13th and Everett on September 17, 2006. "He seemed like a scared animal," said witness Melissa Jane Gaylord. Electrician Tony Lee Carter "thought [Chasse] was dead" for a period during which Chasse was unconscious on the sidewalk, following his beating.

Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg, another witness said: "I did hear Mr.Chasse yelling mercy, mercy, mercy, and that was personally pretty sort of disturbing to me."

Witness Justin Soltani said he saw an officer sitting on Chasse. "He had his knees on him. He was crouching down on his back." Soltani also said during his deposition that "Mr.Chasse couldn't run. He was galloping. He was bouncing up and down, rather than, if I saw him run."

Chasse's trouble running is consistent with accounts by Chasse's old friends that he was hit by a TriMet bus in his youth and sustained leg injuries.

"There was clear vocal mocking, the mocking of Mr.Chasse's cries for help," said witness Randall Stuart:

Portland Police Sergeant Kyle Nice radioed for backup saying Chasse was "unconscious" on the street corner, but never informed paramedics of the extent of force used or of Chasse's prolonged unconsciousness, according to the documents.

"NICE WORK BOYS. GLAD U R OK N HE ISN'T. I'LL DO THE AFTER ACTION WHEN I GET THE RPTS TONIGHT!" wrote Police Bureau Sergeant O'Keefe, in an in-car computer message to Sheriff's Deputy Bret Burton, after the event.

An expert witness, Lou Reiter, former deputy police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, also testifies in a written statement that Officers Nice, Humphreys, and Sheriff's Deputy Burton did not follow police policies and practices in treatment of someone who is at least suspected of being mentally ill. Reiter described the officers' use of force as "unreasonable," and their failure to disclose the force used on Chasse as "unreasonable."

It is against the city attorney's policy to comment on ongoing cases.

Multnomah County will vote next week on whether to settle its portion of the James Chasse lawsuit for $925,000. As far as the Mercury can tell, that's a record high settlement in Portland for an excessive force/death in custody suit: The city paid $600,000 to the family of Damon Lowery in 2005 (he died in 1999 of asphyxiation by 6 cans of pepper spray and being stood on by a cop), and it paid $845,000 in an excessive force settlement to a collective of anti-Bush protesters in 2004.

The proposed settlement only covers Chasse's treatment at the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC), where he was taken by Portland Police Bureau officers Christopher Humphreys and Kyle Nice after his beating in September 2006. The city and American Medical Medical Response are yet to settle their portions of the case, covering the conduct of police officers and the ambulance company respectively.

Chasse was left in a holding cell at MCDC prior to booking, with a "spit sock" over his head. A jail nurse, Patricia Gayman, refused to admit Chasse to the main jail after looking through his holding cell window. She also failed to provide emergency medical care, the family alleged. Video of Chasse's jail booking, on which he can be heard screaming, and can be seen hog-tied, is here:

Chasse was subsequently taken to Adventist hospital across the Willamette River in a patrol car driven by Humphreys and Nice, but he died en-route. The state medical examiner found 26 rib fractures and that Chasse had died from "blunt force trauma to the chest." Multnomah County is also responsible for the behavior of former sheriff's deputy Bret Burton, who also beat Chasse on the sidewalk, and has since been hired by the Portland Police Bureau.

"The family of James Philip Chasse will have no comment until after the county board of commissioners votes on the matter next Thursday, July 2, 2009," said the Chasse family's attorney, Tom Steenson.

"I'm not surprised the county is looking to settle," says Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. "The case looked very strong against them. I expect the city and the other parties to the case to settle quickly, in light of this latest development."

It's thought that the city attorney's office is facing considerable pressure from the Portland Police Association not to admit any wrongdoing on behalf of Portland Police Officers in the case. The Police Bureau instituted new training for police officers after Chasse's death.

Meanwhile, County Chair Ted Wheeler has released a statement on the proposed settlement. "It is personally important to me that we demonstrate that Jim Chasse’s death serves as a continuing reminder to us of the need to substantially improve the way the community responds to mental illness and build systems of support that can sustain recovery," wrote Wheeler, who now wants to move forward with the construction of a mental health crisis center.

Conflicting statements made by Beau Breedlove about his conduct with Sam Adams, and Breedlove's acceptance of money to appear in Unzipped magazine would have most likely compromised any criminal prosecution of Adams, said Attorney General John Kroger at today's noon press conference.

The specific "conflicting statements" in question are those made to the Oregonian about kissing Adams in a restroom, which were subsequently withdrawn in a written statement provided by Breedlove to the Attorney General, as far as I could understand.

"If we prosecuted this case in a court of law, we would have the statement from one witness—a witness who made directly contradictory statements," said Kroger. "This case is too weak to charge in court."

"Having reviewed quite frankly every criminal statute we could think of to determine whether or not there was a problem," said Kroger, "we could not."

Kroger said it is not a crime under Oregon law to lie to a police officer or investigator. So journalists also asked why Kroger decided not to put Adams and Breedlove before a grand jury, where they would have had to take an oath. Kroger responded that it wouldn't be appropriate to put Adams before a grand jury, because he would have a fifth amendment right to silence as the subject in the investigation. Meanwhile, he said, Breedlove's statements would not have been a factor in any charging decision he made.

Kroger said his office had checked immigration records to see whether there was a possibility that Adams could have accompanied Breedlove to Mexico before Breedlove's 18th birthday. "We found no evidence or record of such a trip."

Kroger said there was no indication that Adams had lied in any registered filing such as a candidate statement or voter's pamphlet, as is required to break Oregon election fraud law. There had been an option for an aggrieved party to file a civil suit against Adams, said Kroger, but "that deadline had passed."

"We are not making any assessment about Mayor Adams' credibility," Kroger added. He also said he had no comment on whether former Mercury news editor Amy Ruiz is qualified for the job as Adams' sustainability policy advisor—it was only his job to investigate whether laws had been broken. In the case of Ruiz, Kroger said, witnesses had all made similar statements as to the facts.

The only witness who had refused to be interviewed, according to Kroger's investigator Don Nelson, was Breedlove's ex-boyfriend, Mark Merkle.

I asked how investigating this case has been different from Kroger's investigation of mafia bosses and Enron thieves.

"Not different," he said. "Every criminal case is different. It's my duty to treat every putative defendant or person accused of a crime the same."

Kroger said his office had made no effort to quantify how much the five-month long investigation had cost.

"One thing I would add," said Kroger to Jaquiss, "is that if we had gone to a grand jury, then much less information would be publicly available now because of grand jury secrecy laws."

The Mercury has lodged a public records request for the full report, which Kroger's office expects to fulfil some time in the mid afternoon.

Reaction in the press gallery seemed one of broad disappointment. Most journalists it seemed were hoping for charges to be brought, whether they might have admitted it, or not. One even asked whether any witnesses had been subjected to polygraph tests.

"Generally we have been trying to treat this like we would any normal investigation," Kroger responded. "I have never subjected any potential witness to a polygraph."

Some "reporters" were more forthcoming with their reactions: "You go into these investigations and you've got shackles on," said Victoria Taft, a right-wing radio host who has followed the whole scandal very closely, after the press conference. "If you're not willing to take the word of Beau Breedlove, who is admittedly shady, but you're willing to take the word of Mayor Sam Adams, who has been proven to lie? I mean, come on. This is bad news. It's just unbelievable. Finally you can groom a kid for sex and you don't get in trouble for it."

Deputy District Attorney Lucy Heil was arraigned and pled not guilty this morning on DUI and reckless driving charges. Heil was arrested on April 29, en route from a party attended by fellow attorneys and court staff to raise cash for the courthouse's childcare program. Her measured blood alcohol level on arrest was confirmed at 0.22% by her attorney this morning.

"My client was arraigned for a DUI and reckless driving, she is diversion eligible, and we immediately informed her employer," says Heil's attorney, Jim McIntyre. "It's a regrettable incident, and she's taking every step she can to correct the mistake and we expect to get it resolved."

"My client is being dealt with as anyone else in Multnomah County who would be similarly charged," McIntyre insists.

The District Attorney's office has also brought in an outside prosecutor on the case, to avoid a conflict of interest where Heil could potentially be prosecuted by one of her own colleagues. Both the District Attorney's office and the special prosecutor, Robin Springer from law firm Bullivant Houser Bailey, are yet to return calls seeking comment.

"She has an active law license and we haven’t received any word of the arraignment or arrest,” says Oregon State Bar spokeswoman Kateri Walsh. “OSBAR has had some complaints in the past involving DUI, and sometimes there are circumstances that might lead us to take action, but they would have to have an impact on the person’s ability to practice law, and to determine that we would have to go through our full disciplinary process.”

Heil has prosecuted plenty of DUI cases, personally.

Oregon law defines a DUI as over 0.08% blood alcohol level. Wikipedia says a blood alcohol rating of 0.22% represents "very serious intoxication," and lists "stupor, loss of understanding, impaired sensations, severe motor impairment, loss of consciousness and memory blackout" as potential side effects of a blood alcohol level over 0.21%.

Update, 2:30pm: Senior District Attorney Norm Frink says the DA's office has "initiated appropriate disciplinary action" under the terms of the DA's contract with the Prosecuting Attorney's Association. Frink couldn't comment further, pending the investigation, but said he expected it to be resolved "fairly quickly."

"I got the call on the weekend as soon as it happened," says DA Mike Schrunk. "The only awkwardness is getting someone outside the office to prosecute the case."

"It's my understanding that she's going to go into diversion, we'll take the appropriate action and deal with the internal part of it," he concludes.

I met this morning with two victims of what seems to have been a very real gay witch hunt that took place on Portland State University campus late last year.

WITCH HUNTED: Taylor Vineyard (left) and his husband, Andy Klaus...

Vineyard was "arrested" and handcuffed by PSU campus security last October after a witness, Andrew Bridge, told campus security he had seen Vineyard masturbating with another man in the bathroom at PSU's Stott Center.

It turns out that the witness, Bridge, has been involved in at least four similar cases accusing men of having group sex in public, and that his testimony can't necessarily be relied upon.

KATU investigative reporter Dan Tilkin tracked Bridge down at his house last Thursday, after the District Attorney's office threw out the charges against Vineyard:

Vineyard and Klaus allege that Bridge was also a witness, under a different name, Andrew Farris, in a public indecency case in the mid 1990s against Daryl Johnson, the former curator of Portland's Rose Test Garden. The case against Johnson was overturned by the state appeals court in July 1999, after the court ruled that it had erroneously "relied on Farris's statements as substantial evidence."

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else," says Vineyard. "People need to know who he is, what he's doing, where he is, and how to protect themselves."

The pair say they have been treated with contempt by security at PSU. Campus security chief Mike Soto allegedly called Vineyard Klaus's "little friend, partner, whatever" repeatedly on the phone in a conversation, the day after the incident. Soto did not return a call for comment.

"This was a homophobic conspiracy," says Klaus. "These security guards have gone from third rate rejects at the bottom of the pile to third rate rent-a-cops and they've got no professionalism whatsoever. They relied on the testimony of this man to victimize Taylor."

Klaus and Vineyard are now looking for an attorney to fight against the incident in court. "This has already cost us $3000 in attorney's fees," says Klaus.

"It was horrible, it was unfair, it was not right, it was clear that they hated me, thought I was disgusting, and that my just being alive was proof that I was a pervert," says Vineyard.

I hope they get some justice. And while I'd love to go round to Bridge's house like KATU reporter Tilkin to get sprayed with a water hose, I figured a phone call might suffice, since the scoop's already been made. Bridge is yet to return it.

Oregon Court of Appeals Chief Judge David Brewer announced significant cuts to the court this morning, in a letter to colleagues:

Dear Colleagues,

The Oregon Judicial Department has suffered significant budget reductions for the remaining few months of the 2007-09 fiscal biennium. Although not as severe as initially feared, the reductions will nonetheless impair the operations of every court and division of the judicial branch of government, including the Court of Appeals. My purpose here is to report on the effect of these reductions on the Court of Appeals and to inform you about the plan we are implementing to meet these challenges.

These budget reductions will result in cuts to the Court of Appeals' research and opinion production staffing in two significant ways. First, every member of the Court of Appeals staff—including staff attorneys, law clerks, and judicial assistants—must take six days of unpaid leave between now and June 30, resulting in a 7.5% reduction in staff resources over that period. Further, because of the cuts, the court had to lay off the few temporary staff attorneys that it had hired to help the court bring its excess case load more current.

Worse, the state's May revenue forecast is expected to show even greater declines. The legislature will set the 2009-11 budget based on those numbers. In short, we do not anticipate sufficient funding to ensure the Court of Appeals’ ability to wholly fulfill its commitment to quality, timeliness, and efficiency in rendering appellate decisions, while promoting public confidence in the appellate process.

For years before the present budget shortfall, the Court of Appeals has labored with too few resources to meet its caseload. A recently published study showed that the Oregon Court of Appeals was last in budget per-case nationally among similarly structured intermediate appellate courts. While the current budget climate makes it impossible to address demands on services in all branches of government, deeper or even continued budget cuts will undermine the court’s ability to ensure meaningful appellate review in Oregon’s justice system.

The Multnomah County Courthouse on SW 4th will be closed Fridays from March 13th until further notice, due to budget cuts. Presiding Judge Jean Maurer emailed courthouse staff this morning. Judges will still show up on Fridays "to do the work of the court," Maurer wrote, albeit without staff present.

Judge Maurer is yet to return a call for comment.