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US OR: Policing Police
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n941/a10.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 2
Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jul 2004
Source: Eugene Weekly (OR)
Copyright: 2004 Eugene Weekly
Contact: editor@eugeneweekly.com
Website: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/136
Author: Alan Pittman
POLICING POLICE
Magana verdict leaves many unanswered questions about police policing
themselves.
Roger Magana was convicted Wednesday on 42 out of 45 charges that he
sexually abused women while a Eugene police officer.
The jury has answered the question of Magana's guilt or innocence. But the
massive trial involving alleged crimes including rape, sex abuse,
kidnapping, sodomy, coercion, harassment and official misconduct has raised
a host of unanswered questions about the need to reform how the Eugene
Police Department polices itself.
Prosecutor Robert Lane told the jury in closing arguments last week,
"There's nothing you can do that's going to restore any shine to the badge.
There's nothing you can do to make women feel safer in Eugene or elsewhere.
The cops have to do that for themselves."
Exactly how they will do that remains unclear. But it is clear that the
public trial has left EPD's secretive police discipline system much to
answer for. What follows is a rundown of some of the bigger police
accountability questions raised by the trial this past week.
Officers Dismissed Complaints
Last summer police Detective Scott McKee first contacted one woman who
Magana allegedly forced oral sex from on multiple occasions by threatening
to arrest or shoot her.
In a taped conversation of McKee's call, the woman said she had told officer
Jerry Webber and police Lt. Pete Kerns and was "99 percent sure" she'd also
told officer Roberto Rios of the abuse when it was happening, but the
officers did nothing.
"Why the hell didn't they listen to me? That's gravely offensive," the woman
told McKee.
"It's disturbing to me," McKee admitted.
"It's absolutely horrendous," the woman said. She compared it to police
failing to investigate the Green River serial murders because they involved
prostitutes.
Other officers also heard allegations against Magana and also apparently
failed to act. Police Officer Larry Crompton said he was doing a bar check
at Diablos one night with Magana. A man came up and angrily confronted
Magana and "there was some pretty pointed allegations made."
The judge in the Magana trial did not allow Crompton to specify the exact
nature of the allegations because of a defense objection that they were
hearsay. Crompton said he thought the confrontation was "pretty unusual,"
but he apparently did not report the man's allegations to superiors for
investigation.
In his opening statement in the trial, defense attorney Russell Barnett said
it was hard to believe that a competent police department would have let
Magana's alleged crimes continue for so long against so many victims without
detection. "He's either the slickest guy working with the dumbest people,
or perhaps the accusations don't add up."
Prosecutor Lane said police did not see what Magana did and did not believe
the complaints from drug users against their fellow officer. "This bunch of
cops are not stupid."
But Lane himself pointed out to the jury that most of Magana's victims were
not drug users and that even drug users are often held up by police as
reliable informants in cases against criminals.
Policing Themselves
Eugene police have trouble policing themselves, according to testimony.
The alleged victim in the taped phone conversation asked how McKee felt
investigating a fellow officer.
"Initially it was very uncomfortable and you can't help but feel some
loyalty" to an officer with 10 years on the job, McKee said.
Lane told the jury that McKee investigating a fellow officer at first "chose
to, let's face it, adopt a strategy of trying to clear this guy" by using
police records to place him somewhere else. "He failed."
Police officer Jeff Glemser said officers often discredit complaints against
police officers from drug users. He said he would tell superiors of a
complaint involving coerced oral sex, "but on the other hand, you take that
kind of thing with a grain of salt."
Police Officer Mel Thompson testified that he has often heard charges from
drug users that "so and so is dating a cop" but has brushed them off.
Magana isn't the only EPD cop to be accused of sex on the job. Members of
the EPD Rapid Deployment Unit were accused about five years ago of drug use,
money theft and consorting with prostitutes, according to testimony from
Officer Thompson. Thompson said the allegations weren't true, but it's
unclear what the police did to investigate.
One thing the police didn't do was conduct a sting operation. Police
regularly use stings to catch people using prostitutes. Det. McKee
testified that Officer Webber proposed that the police check the allegations
against the police unit by doing a sting with fake prostitutes, but EPD Lt.
Jim Fields refused to authorize the sting.
Two of the alleged Magana victims also offered to help with a sting against
Magana, but police did not apparently follow through, according to
testimony.
Police had another opportunity to stop Magana's alleged sex crime spree
three years ago when a woman filed a complaint that Magana had sexually
harassed her, according to testimony.
Sgt. Willy Harris said the complaint "caused me some concern." Stopping the
woman late at night appeared lawful, but Magana inexplicably did not report
on information gathered from the woman nor did he run a computer check on
her for warrants, according to Harris. But Harris said he could not "make a
definitive determination" that Magana acted unlawfully and the department
dismissed the complaint.
Lane asked Police Chief Robert Lehner if he was aware that a 2001 audit of
police complaints found that the department should have found Magana guilty
of wrongdoing at that time. Lehner said he was not aware of that.
The woman stopped by Magana while looking for her cat testified that Magana
asked if she was pregnant and asked if she had a boyfriend. The on-duty
officer asked her to call him on his day off. "I felt very afraid when I
was speaking with him," she said.
Lax Supervision
Magana lacked effective supervision and had apparent free reign to allegedly
victimize women while on duty, according to testimony.
Magana's most recent supervisor, Sgt. Harris, was apparently clueless about
Magana's alleged criminal activity. "I never had any concerns as to where
he was," Harris said. Harris testified that he gave Magana positive
performance evaluations and praised him for his knowledge of police work and
for working a lot of hours.
Harris apparently did not regularly check up on officers on the s
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