Skip to main contentBernie Giusto is known as a guy who gets his way. If he's unhappy (or bored) with your end of the conversation, he'll loudly rap his finger ring on the table--knock knock knock!--to urge you to wrap it up. The new Multnomah County Sheriff calls the speeches he's been giving his 885 new subordinates "Bernie 101."
Given Giusto's take-charge style, it's odd that the former Gresham police chief is now criticized for doing the bidding of someone else. Specifically, critics say, he's taking direction from Gary Walker, a former sheriff's major who left the department in 1999 while under investigation for alleged misconduct.
Walker, who served as Giusto's top campaign adviser and point man on the transition team, calls the claim ridiculous. "I'm not the sheriff, and I don't assume to be," he says.
Giusto's predecessor is not so sure. Dan Noelle chose to retire rather than run again, but he found himself frequently attacked in the course of Giusto's easy defeat of his weaker opponents. Noelle suspects Walker, whom he had demoted, then forced out of the department, was behind it. "I think this was his opportunity to try to screw with me," Noelle said over coffee last month.
Noelle had run for the job against a "good old boys" network that dominated the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office prior to his election. Under Noelle's predecessor, Bob Skipper, a number of allegations against Walker went nowhere, even when Internal Affairs found evidence to support the allegations ("Above the Law," WW, Feb. 22, 1995).
In 1991, for example, an employee claimed to have heard Walker refer to an intern as "a new piece of meat." In 1992, at a sexual harassment training, Walker wore Mickey Mouse T-shirt and allegedly told a co-worker that the class was "Mickey Mouse."
In 1993, Jacqueline Jamieson and three other female officers filed a complaint against Walker claiming that he harbored a hostile attitude toward women and that he had misappropriated tax levy funds. And in 1997, sheriff's records show, Walker was accused of making a disparaging comment to a disabled employee.
Walker denies the allegations, and says that of the four official Internal Affairs complaints against him, none went anywhere. In December 1999, after suing the department, Walker agreed in a legal settlement to leave. He now works as an aide to County Commissioner Lonnie Roberts.
Giusto wasn't sworn in until last week, but he's been making changes in the office since last month, after Noelle appointed him undersheriff to aide with the transition. And, again, Noelle says he saw Walker's fingerprints.
For instance, the head of Inverness Jail, Capt. Bobbi Luna, who once accused Walker of sexism, has been demoted by Giusto to be a night-shift lieutenant at the Multnomah County Detention Center. "I know Gary Walker had an intense dislike for Bobbi," says Noelle. "But she is an outstanding manager."
Giusto also has proposed undoing many of the changes Noelle made to the sheriff's Internal Affairs unit, which oversees discipline. Noelle suspects these changes are being engineered by Walker--who, he says, could be considered "a poster child" for why the reforms were needed.
Finally, Giusto is demoting "a disproportionately large" number of women and minorities, according to Noelle, who says he fears the pattern could make the county vulnerable to lawsuits.
Giusto, for his part, says the changes he is making are all about cutting costs, promoting fairness and streamlining the process. He defends Walker as having gotten a bum deal from the Noelle administration. Walker says he had nothing to do with Luna's demotion, and laughs at the notion that Noelle made Internal Affairs more fair, saying, "It became Dan's private KGB."
Asked why he attracted so many complaints, Walker says, "My job was to move things forward and get things done. I guess if you aren't doing anything, you aren't controversial."
WWeek 2015