Sheriff Dan Staton's Former Executive Assistant Files Notice of Intent to Sue Staton

Former Multnomah County Sheriff's Lt. Brent Ritchie has filed a tort claim notice with the county, notifying it that he intends to sue Sheriff Dan Staton.

"It is our assertion that Sheriff Staton ostracized Mr. Ritchie, created a hostile work environment environment and/or threatened to demote Mr. Ritchie in whole or in part due to his participation in the use of force audit," wrote Ritchie's attorney, Sean Riddell, on Feb. 25.

The notice threatening a lawsuit is the third against Staton in a month—and the latest fallout from a report showing corrections officers use force disproportionately against black inmates in the county jails.

Ritchie, 52, who retired in November 2015, spent most of the final year of his quarter-century career in the sheriff's office as Staton's executive assistant.

One of his assignments in that position, the tort claim says, was to assess whether the 805-employee sheriff's department, which runs the county jails and provides law enforcement services to parts of the county, was in compliance with federal Department of Justice guidelines regarding use of force.

In recent years, the DOJ has investigated numerous law enforcement agencies, including the Portland and Seattle police departments, for excessive use of force.

"In early 2015, Mr. Ritchie began a use of force audit modeled after similar investigations done by the U.S. Department of Justice," the tort claim notice says. "The team completed the initial summary of the project in August of 2015."

Ritchie says in the filing that he and Staton's internal affairs chief, Lt. Harry Smith, presented the use-of-force findings to Staton on Aug. 26, 2015. There is a reference to that meeting noted on Staton's calendar, but Staton has said he only learned of the use-of-force audit earlier this month.

The audit, based on an analysis of nearly 3,700 use-of-force reports on incidents in Multnomah County jails from 2012 to 2014, showed that corrections deputies disproportionately used force against black inmates.

The tort claim notice says the Aug. 26, 2015, meeting with Staton effectively ended Ritchie's law enforcement career.

"The day after presenting the draft report to Sheriff Staton, Mr. Ritchie's office was moved from the Multnomah County Building [at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd.] to the Hansen Building in East Portland. Mr. Ritchie was stripped of his job duties and most responsibilities," the notice says.

Staton's has previously denied Ritchie was punished for the report, saying he was moved out of county headquarters as a result of a union dispute about whether he'd been properly promoted to lieutenant.

Ritchie's claim is the third tort claim notice filed against Staton in the past month. Staton already settled the first one, filed by former Chief Deputy Linda Yankee on Jan. 29, at a cost of nearly $300,000 to his agency.

On Tuesday, Barbara Elizabeth Trojan, one of 15 members of the Multnomah County Charter Review Committee, filed a tort claim notice after learning that Staton had allegedly gathered personal information about her and other committee members. The committee is considering, among other policy changes, whether the sheriff should be appointed rather than elected.

Staton is under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice for those allegations.

Alexander, Staton's spokesman, says the sheriff's office will have no response to Ritchie's tort claim notice because it does not comment on pending litigation.

Willamette Week