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After a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, a jury Thursday found the former city manager of Scappoose, Jon Hanken, retaliated against former police chief Doug Greisen with discipline and internal investigations for Greisen's questioning of city finances. The jury found Hanken violated Greisen's First Amendment rights. (The Oregonian)
A federal jury Thursday awarded the former police chief of Scappoose $4.1 million in damages, finding that the former Scappoose city manager initiated investigations of the chief and disciplined him after the chief raised questions about city financial irregularities.
In the winter of 2012-2013, then-Scappose Police Chief Doug Greisen questioned the city manager's budget and financial management practices, and the city manager at the time, Jon Hanken, told the chief to stay "on his side of City Hall,'' according to Greisen and his lawyers.
When Greisen persisted, Hanken initiated three disciplinary investigations of the chief, one involving the chief's stop of a felon after a police chase, the second into alleged workplace harassment and the third, involving an alleged discovery of cash in the chief's desk meant to go to charities, according to his lawyers.
Hanken ended up suspending the chief for two weeks without pay stemming from the police pursuit investigation. He later barred him from city property and prohibited him from talking about the issues while the second and third inquiries continued, Greisen's attorneys argued.
In the city manager's notice of discipline to the chief in August 2013, Hanken "issued a veiled threat,'' writing "I cannot help but wonder if you would be able to maintain your position if this report was known by or reported to the news media," according to court documents.
Hanken ended up speaking to members of the media about Greisen's two week suspension and sharing information about the other pending investigations into the chief.
Later, the initial investigation into the chief was found to have been "untrustworthy'' and "null and void'' by a city review committee.
By November 2013, the harassment investigation largely exonerated the chief, according to his attorneys, but its conclusions were never shared with the press. Hanken ended up resigning as the city manager that month.
The following April, an interim city manager fired Greisen without cause.
Greisen's attorneys argued that their client hasn't been able to find another job as a result of the Scappoose smear campaign.
"Despite nearly 200 applications and many interviews, he has not received a single offer,'' his attorneys John D. Ostrander and William A. Drew wrote in court documents.
Hanken's lawyers, Blake H. Fry and Karen M. Vickers, argued there was no retaliation, and that the investigations of Greisen were legitimate.
After a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, a jury found Hanken retaliated against Greisen for Greisen's questioning of city finances in violation of Greisen's First Amendment rights.
The jury awarded the former chief $3 million in non-economic damages and $1.1 million in economic damages.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian