Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt confirms more investigations into police officer conduct Schmidt told OPB’s “Think Out Loud” his office is looking at multiple cases. After announcing a Portland Police officer’s indictment on Tuesday for assault on a protester last year, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt confirmed on Wednesday that other use-of-force incidents are still under review. “We have looked at multiple cases already and I think there are still several more that we’re continuing to look at,” Schmidt told OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” Officer Corey Budworth was indicted this week by a Multnomah County grand jury for fourth-degree assault. Budworth was filmed in August hitting a protester’s head and neck from behind with his baton multiple times as she walked away. The protester, activist and photographer Terri Jacobs, settled a lawsuit with the city over the incident in September for $50,000. “This is one case of multiple that we’re looking at and have looked at,” Schmidt told OPB. “So it’s not necessarily an outlier that way.” In a statement, the Portland Police Association, the union representing rank and file officers, said Budworth acted according to his training, a claim Schmidt also addressed. “If that’s true, I think that is problematic,” Schmidt said. “We can’t be training officers to do things that violate criminal law.” If convicted, Budworth faces a maximum of one year in prison plus a $6,250 fine. Hours after announcing Budworth’s indictment, Schmidt’s office confirmed it had referred an investigation into Portland police Det. Erik Kammerer’s use of force during protests to the Oregon State Department of Justice for review. That investigation was referred to state prosecutors because Kammerer is a homicide detective who works closely with the DA’s office. The Oregon Department of Justice declined… Read More
Work in Progress Claims of gender bias at Multnomah District Attorney‘s Office Last week, an attorney at the Multnomah District Attorney’s Office, Amber Kinney, submitted her letter of resignation to her boss, Mike Schmidt, who was elected in 2020 on his platform of criminal justice system reform and police accountability. Kinney explained that she was not quitting because of any “philosophical differences” with Schmidt’s policies — for which he was elected in a landslide — but rather due to her workload and his gender discrimination, which she stated had impacted the promotion and retention of women prosecutors. Kinney noted that the problem of gender discrimination predated Schmidt’s arrival at the office, but asserted that it had worsened under him — even going so far as to claim that “women’s forward progress” had been “set back decades” under his leadership. She included statistics in her letter to support her allegations: Women mostly have not been hired or promoted into leadership roles under Schmidt; and of the people who have resigned since Schmidt’s election, the majority were women. Those stats appear compelling at a glance, but Kinney’s data was produced in a relatively small office (77 attorneys) during an atypical period of time (Covid, Portland protests, absolute mess left after the dramatic resignation of Schmidt’s predecessor, etc.).¹ Under those conditions, it wouldn’t take much to skew the numbers dramatically and lead to a faulty hypothesis. More significantly, Kinney cannot speak for the other women who resigned. Regardless, the interesting part of Kinney’s letter — which the Oregonian wisely chose to exclude from its article about her departure — was her suggestion of work accommodations for women: “Increased workloads disproportionately impact women. Women, especially those of us who are also mothers, are often tasked with much of the domestic responsibilities in addition to… Read More
