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A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury decided on May 31 that former Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton retaliated against a his former assistant, then-Sgt. Brent Ritchie.
The result came after a four-day trial which rehashed the unceremonious and abrupt conclusion to Staton's law enforcement career.
In 2015, Ritchie worked with three other colleagues in the sheriff's office to examine the use of physical force against inmates in the county's jails. That examination, which resulted in a draft audit, found that county corrections deputies disproportionately used force against black inmates.
"I thought we needed to take an immediate look at the results and what was causing them and figure out how to become a better agency," Ritchie told WW in a 2016 interview.
But Staton did not receive the information well.
The analyst who prepared the document soon got laid off under questionable circumstances and, after Ritchie and a colleague presented the draft audit to Staton, Ritchie said he was demoted and sent to the MCSO equivalent of purgatory.
Ritchie took early retirement and filed a tort claim notice shortly afterwards.
Under pressure from his handling of the draft audit and a number of other miscues, Staton reigned in August 2016.
Following the verdict, which came late Friday afternoon, Ritchie's attorney, Sean Riddell declined to comment directly on the case, pointing instead to one of the four questions the jury was required to answer: "Did Plaintiff Ritchie prove by a preponderance of evidence that Sheriff Staton, with a retaliatory motive, discipline or threatened to discipline Plaintiff Ritchie?"
The jury answered "yes" to that and all three related questions, awarding Ritchie $250,000 and Riddell's fees.