The Foxworth Files - Updated with Willamette Week's response.

[April 5th, 2006] On Monday, a civilian employee of the Portland Police Bureau, Angela Oswalt, leveled an explosive complaint against Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth. The substance of her complaint, contained in a tort claim filed with the city, alleges sexual harassment. Oswalt's filing contains graphic excerpts from emails Oswalt claims Foxworth sent her beginning in 2000. WW has no independent knowledge that Foxworth actually wrote the emails, because city officials declined to comment on their authenticity.

One of the bits of information Angela Oswalt includes in her tort claim against Derrick Foxworth is a reference to Willamette Week.

The tort claim says:

On another occasion, Foxworth told the claimant that he had been called into Chief Kroeker's office and was told that Mayor Katz and the Willamette Week had information about his 'blonde girlfriend' and that he was ordered to break off the relationship. Foxworth told claimant that he told Kroeker to go to hell and also told the claimant that Katz and Kroeker could do a lot of harm to the claimant. Foxworth also told claimant that he had a connection at the Willamette Week that would protect him.

Nick Budnick, who covered the Portland Police for many years for WW, left the paper last year and is now at the Portland Tribune. When contacted, he said, "It's true that years ago I had heard something about Foxworth possibly dating a blonde woman. That was the full extent of my knowledge. I had no idea of the woman's identity, let alone where she worked. I did not pursue the tip as I had no reason to think it was anything other than a non-work thing."

As to the idea that Foxworth had a connection at WW that would protect him, both Budnick and WW editor Mark Zusman said that such a comment was laughable.

Philip Dawdy, who worked at WW for a few years and also covered the cops, now works at the Seattle Weekly. When contacted, he said, "It was very casually joked about from time to time by Portland cops that Foxworth had affairs with women. No assertions were ever made to me by any source in either PPB or city government concerning Foxworth having an affair with a specific individual, much less a PPB employee."

Click www.wweek.com/media/7416.pdf to read Oswalt's complaint.

NOTE: This story published to the web on 4/5/2006 and updated on 4/7/2006