A Bodyguard to Mayor Charlie Hales Reportedly Admitted Using Excessive Force as a Cop At Least 10 Times

The City Hall security guard was the subject of a Los Angeles Times investigative report. The mayor's office says it didn't know.

One of Portland Mayor Charlie Hales' bodyguards is a retired Los Angeles County police officer who in 2010 reportedly admitted using excessive force at least 10 times.

That's an admission the mayor's office says it didn't know about until informed by WW this month—even though the Los Angeles Times reported it nearly three years ago.

The allegations come at a time when Hales is under fire for his lax oversight of the Portland Police Bureau and when citizens are outraged at the concessions he recently made to the Portland Police Association in closed-door contract negotiations.

Protesters angry about a new police union contract have swarmed City Hall, leading to tense confrontations and arrests. The former L.A. County cop, Michael D. Cohen, has faced off against protesters as part of City Hall's private security force.

Criminal justice activists are alarmed that a person with Cohen's history works in City Hall—and carries a gun while doing so.

"There are so many things about it that strike me as wrong," says Portland civil rights lawyer Ashlee Albies. "I don't see how Hales or his staff could miss that this would be a major concern. I find that incredibly offensive."

Cohen, 52, has worked on the City Hall security detail since early 2013. He rotates through posts guarding City Hall, the Portland Building and the mayor's office.

Cohen served as one of two sergeants-at-arms for the City Council on the morning of the Oct. 12 police contract vote, which was held behind closed doors after Hales became concerned protesters would attempt to "occupy" the meeting.

In December 2013, Cohen was the subject of the report by the Los Angeles Times, which obtained his hiring records.

"Officer Michael Cohen […] admitted to knowingly using excessive force at least 10 times, obtaining official records for personal use at least 50 times and lying to supervisors or in reports at least 30 times, hiring records show," the Times wrote.

Hales' chief of staff, Tera Pierce, says her office can't be expected to know the full histories of people working in City Hall.

"The process of hiring our security is not handled in the mayor's office," says Pierce. "We have processes in place to make sure a rigorous background check was done before putting them in place. We have to trust our systems."

Don't Shoot Portland founder Teressa Raiford marches to Mayor Charlie Hales' house on Oct. 14, 2016. (Joe Riedl) Don’t Shoot Portland founder Teressa Raiford marches to Mayor Charlie Hales’ house on Oct. 14, 2016. (Joe Riedl)

Cohen's job on Hales' security detail is part of a larger contract the city has had since 2006 with G4S Security Systems, a London-based multinational security firm formerly known as Wackenhut.

Originally a one-year contract worth $1.1 million, it has grown over the past 10 years. The company currently has a five-year, $6.9 million contract for its work with the city.

In 2010, Mayor Sam Adams outsourced the work of his security detail, previously handled by the Portland Police Bureau. The mayor's office says contracting out the work to a rotating crew of six or seven security guards provides a cost savings for the city.

As part of this detail, Cohen is responsible at times for keeping order in City Council sessions—which includes calling the police to eject protesters who disrupt public hearings.

Cohen has used physical force against protesters at least twice while working for Hales. Video footage appears to show him shoving a protester at a parade last year, though it's not clear from the footage who started the altercation.

Pierce defends Cohen's record of service in the mayor's security detail, where he has worked since early 2013.

"A few weeks ago, when we had a protest here in City Hall, he stood in front of our doors while getting shouted at," says Pierce. "I couldn't have handled it for five minutes. He stood there, calm and cool and collected."

The mayor's office also provided an email testimonial from Ronault "Polo" Catalani, who runs the New Portlander Policy Commission, the city's immigrant and refugee integration program, and observed protesters' recent interactions with Cohen.

"[Cohen's] demeanor is what folks in many if not most of our ethnic minority communities would call that of a kind elder uncle," writes Catalani. "His professional conduct, his personal style are an ideal I believe we should all emulate in times of conflict between Portlanders."

Cohen is tall and beefy, with a thick white mustache. He moves slowly and cautiously. Video obtained by WW of him interacting with protesters last month shows him chatting pleasantly with a massive crowd packed in the hallway outside the mayor's office door demanding to see the mayor.

"Why do you have gun on you?" asks one of the protesters.

"I'm one of the mayor's bodyguards," he says, fidgeting almost shyly, hands in his pockets. "You go to every city in United States. Usually, it's a police officer. We're the only city that uses retired police officers."

"You're a police officer?"

"Retired," Cohen corrects the protester, smiling and rubbing his nose. "I was not a police officer here in Portland. I was a police officer in Los Angeles."

A Portland City Council hearing this month. (Emily Joan Greene) A Portland City Council hearing this month. (Emily Joan Greene)

When the Los Angeles Times reported Cohen's admission of using excessive force, the paper based its report on confidential hiring files from when Cohen applied to work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which took over the duties of the county's Office of Public Safety. (The L.A. County Office of Public Safety, where Cohen worked, had been eliminated that year as part of a county workforce reduction.)

As part of that application process, Cohen and other officers underwent a polygraph exam, according to an age-discrimination lawsuit later filed by Cohen and other officers, most of whom were denied jobs in the sheriff's office. In some cases, investigators for the sheriff's office who handled the hiring process asked follow-up questions to officers who failed the polygraph, according to the Times story.

It's not clear from the Times' reporting why exactly Cohen acknowledged the reported misdeeds, or if he made the admission during the polygraph. Under California law, the hiring files are confidential. (The Times and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department both declined to provide a copy of Cohen's file to WW.)

Cohen, who was never hired by the sheriff's department and retired from police duty after 21 years of service, declined WW's repeated requests to talk about his reported admissions. He was never prosecuted.

"Cohen disputes a lot of the information in the report," says Pierce, though she says Cohen acknowledges being disciplined two times for use of force within the first five years of becoming a police officer.

The information hid in plain view for nearly three years—a mere Google search away.

The mayor's office pointed to multiple background checks that Cohen has gone through. Between his retirement in Los Angeles in late 2010 and his services as the mayor's bodyguard, Cohen first went overseas for a year with G4S, requiring a federal background check the mayor's office cited as stringent and proof of the company's own high standards. He then worked for a year as a manager in G4S's Portland office before starting at City Hall.

The Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training licensed Cohen as an armed and an unarmed security guard and as a trainer of unarmed guards beginning in early 2012. But DPSST doesn't conduct full background checks on applicants.

"We don't do Google searches on people," says Suzy Herring, program manager at DPSST. "We don't do reference checks or anything."

John Chandler, who oversees the mayor's safety detail for G4S, says he was also unaware of the allegations.

"Mike was part of the detail that was with the mayor when he met with the president," says Chandler. "You don't get through Secret Service unless you've been vetted very, very deeply."

He says City Hall security guards also receive an annual background check from the Portland Police Bureau, which would include an assessment of Cohen's job performance. But the background check conducted by the Portland Police Bureau is limited.

"It would not include researching Google, social media, etc.," says PPB spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson. "All we are looking for is criminal information that would potentially prevent them from being in a secure area."

The decision by the mayor's office to downplay Cohen's past could add to Hales' reputation as detached from public concerns, particularly on policing.

This spring, when Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea accidentally shot a friend in the back on a hunting trip, Hales failed to acknowledge the shooting for more than three weeks, until after WW broke the news of the incident. Last week, The Oregonian reported that the U.S. Department of Justice took the mayor to task for his failure to immediately launch an investigation of O'Dea's hunting accident.

Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler, who takes office in January, declined to say whether Cohen would serve as one of his bodyguards.

"I have not decided if I will have a security detail, and I haven't decided how it would be organized or who would be part of it," says Wheeler. "I don't know Mr. Cohen. I do know this: Integrity and honesty are of great importance to me, and I expect my team to reflect those values."

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