A state police policy committee Thursday reversed course, voting to recommend that former Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea's lose his police certification for 10 years for dishonesty.
The committee also recommended a three-year suspension of O'Dea's certification for gross misconduct.
The vote followed the state Board of Public Safety Standards and Training's refusal last month to accept the committee's earlier recommendation to leave O'Dea's police certification alone.
The board's chair, Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers, in April convinced the board to send the matter back to the committee for further review, saying, "In good conscience, I cannot pass this forward.''
That review came Thursday morning, with O'Dea and his lawyer Derek Ashton attending.
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Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett, Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton, Portland Assistant Chief Chris Davis and civilian member Patricia Patrick-Joling were among committee members who pushed for action against O'Dea's certification.
"It was pretty clear to me that there were some very serious things wrong,'' Patrick-Joling said. "It was just really clear to me there was a pattern of behavior, and it's not becoming of a member who's supposed to be a police chief.''
The committee chair, Jeffrey Hering, a Tigard detective, and John Teague, Keizer police chief and vice chair of the committee, didn't support restricting O'Dea's certification.
In February, the committee voted 13-2 that O'Dea's handling of the off-duty shooting of his friend and an employee's discrimination complaint against a co-worker showed a "failure of leadership'' but didn't warrant taking away his certification.
"To have the committee reverse itself today -- with no new evidence -- is beyond belief,'' Ashton said Thursday afternoon. "Some members seemed to focus on facts that supported their preconceived conclusion. The result appears manipulated. Going forward, persons should be hesitant to place much faith in this system.''
O'Dea retired in June 2016 while he was under criminal investigation for shooting Robert Dempsey with his .22-caliber rifle during an off-duty camping trip in Harney County two months earlier. O'Dea and his friends were on lawn chairs, shooting at ground squirrels. A hollow-point bullet from O'Dea's rifle hit Dempsey in the lower back and fragmented. Dempsey was released from the hospital the next day, the bullet still in his body.
The day of the shooting, O'Dea told a Harney County deputy that he thought Dempsey had shot himself. A subsequent administrative investigation by Portland's Independent Review office found that O'Dea delayed reporting the shooting and then lied to investigators about the shooting while he was still chief.
Committee members noted Thursday that O'Dea's rifle was pointed at his friend, which it should never have been.
A separate investigation by city human resources officials found that O'Dea failed to follow reporting requirements when an administrative assistant in his office came to him with allegations that the Police Bureau's diversity manager, Elle Weatheroy, had made racist remarks to her. Investigators found that O'Dea lied about what he knew when they interviewed him.
"There was a pattern of behavior of just not wanting to deal with it, of sidestepping the issue,'' said Patrick-Joling, who has served as a Newport councilwoman. Her father is a former Los Angeles police officer and former Fresno County sheriff's deputy.
A grand jury indicted O'Dea on a negligent wounding charge, but a Harney County judge agreed to a civil compromise and dismissed the charge.
The committee's recommendation will now go before the full Board of Public Safety Standards and Training at its next meeting July 26.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian