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A Multnomah County jury found a member of Portland Fire & Rescue guilty March 8 of two counts of kidnapping.
The convictions relate to an incident in August 2021 when Portland firefighter Douglas Bourland and two associates kidnapped a man named Colby Fleishman, whom they suspected of stealing cannabis from the Oregon Hemp House, a South Portland weed store Bourland owned.
On the night of Aug. 14, 2021, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court, Bourland drove a black Range Rover downtown to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where Fleishman was eating with friends.
Related: Portland Firefighter Charged With Kidnapping in His Quest to Recover Stolen Weed
An associate of Bourland’s, Hong Dieu Lee, later told police he and Bourland had been drinking and “wanted to teach Fleishman a lesson.”
When Fleishman left the restaurant, Lee stepped out of the Range Rover, pointed a gun at Fleishman and his friends, and then pistol-whipped Fleishman to get him into the vehicle.
Bourland, Lee and a third man, Edward Simmons, then drove to a cannabis farm in Estacada where they locked Fleishman in a storage container. Lee told police the plan was to leave Fleishman in the container overnight and then, in the morning, take him to recover the stolen cannabis. But an alert Uber driver who witnessed the abduction notified police and gave them a photo of Bourland’s vehicle, so police could rescue Fleishman that night.
The jury found Bourland, now 48, guilty of separate charges: one count of first-degree kidnapping for taking Fleishman against his will and one count of first-degree kidnapping for confining him.
(Lee previously pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful use of a weapon in May 2023. Simmons pleaded guilty to kidnapping on March 1, shortly before Bourland went to trial.)
Rick Graves, a spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue, says Bourland is still a member of the fire bureau, but was placed on unpaid administrative leave when he was indicted in 2021.
“Now that he has been found guilty, Portland Fire & Rescue is proceeding with its own internal investigation of firefighter Bourland’s conduct,” Graves says. “The city and bureau have policies related to felony convictions for its employees, and are analyzing Mr. Bourland’s case carefully against those policies to determine appropriate next steps related to his employment.”
Bourland is scheduled to be sentenced April 5. First-degree kidnapping is a Measure 11 crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 90 months. His attorney, Josephine Townsend, says Bourland will appeal his convictions.