Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea is retiring after it was discovered that he shot his friend and lied about it.
O'Dea was on a hunting trip in April when he pulled a Dick Cheney and shot his friend, 54-year-old Robert Dempsey, in the lower back. (The Oregonian reports that Dempsey was “airlifted to a trauma hospital in Boise, Idaho where he was treated and released.”) Also with the two was retired Portland Police Sgt. Steve Buchtel, a former firearms training instructor. Yep.
Remarkably, O'Dea and Portland Mayor Charlie Hales managed to keep the whole incident under wraps for more than a month. Originally, the Harney County Sheriff's office had been told that the gunshot was self-inflicted—even though the 54-year-old victim was shot in the back. From The Oregonian:
O'Dea told the Harney County deputy that his friend may have accidentally shot himself while putting his pistol in his shoulder holster while they were shooting ground squirrels, sheriff's reports show.
The deputy reported smelling alcohol on O'Dea's breath, his report said. O'Dea had told the deputy he didn't have his rifle in his hand at the time, but was reaching for a drink out of a cooler and heard his friend scream. But O'Dea sometime later called Dempsey to apologize for shooting him.
Remarkably, Sheriff Dave Ward didn't even know that the police chief was involved until he read about it in the news. Even more shady, O'Dea told the mayor what happened four days after the incident—yet neither bothered to correct the false information that had been given to the sheriff’s office. Ultimately, it wasn't until Willamette Week received a tip about the shooting that O'Dea and Hales came clean.
On Monday, Hales announced that O'Dea is retiring after almost 30 years with the department. He is doing so “amid criminal and internal investigations" about the shootings. From The Oregonian:
State police, assisted by the state Department of Justice, are continuing the criminal inquiry, which is expected to be completed soon.
The city's Independent Police Review Division in late May also initiated a separate administrative review into why O'Dea, the bureau's four assistant police chiefs and the internal affairs captain didn't call for an internal investigation themselves. O'Dea told all five colleagues about the shooting.
Yes, that's six different people in the department that are being investigated over this incident. (Current reports do not indicate that Hales is being investigated for not being forthcoming with the truth.)
By choosing to retire and not resign, O'Dea gets to keep his cushy pension—a fact that has angered some in the police department.
O'Dea served as chief for a year and a half after rising steadily through the ranks…O'Dea made $192,504 a year in the top job. His annual pension would be about 82 percent of that, or about $160,000, depending on the percentage he chooses for survivor benefits.
It's not clear if the mayor or the city has made any other severance agreement with O'Dea.
While it’s not totally clear who would take his job, the understanding is that Hales will choose only an interim chief.
Hales will appoint a captain – someone other than the four assistant chiefs under an administrative investigation themselves -- to serve as interim chief until a successor is determined, likely after Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler takes office in January[.]
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