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State officials are accusing a former Multnomah County corrections deputy of dishonesty, discrimination and use of excessive force while working in the jail in 2021, according to a memo filed by the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training on Nov. 7.
The memo alleges Nicholas Alberts, 27, punched an inmate in the face without justification on April 6, 2021, while working on a mental health unit in one of the county’s jails.
Following a complaint, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the incident in December of that year.
While he was being investigated, Alberts ran for county sheriff on a platform of making more arrests and filling the county jails. He raised no outside money and finished a distant third in the May 2022 primary, with 4.17% of the vote—even though no media outlet ever noticed he was running while under investigation.
On May 19, 2022, two days after the election, he resigned and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office closed the investigation.
Now the DPSST, Oregon’s law enforcement certification agency, is reviewing the case. The department’s board will make two decisions in the coming months: first, whether to revoke Alberts law enforcement certification and, second, whether to grant his recent request to become an unarmed security guard.
Alberts did not respond to calls or emails to a phone number and address on file with the state. WW reached out to MCSO on Thursday and was told by a spokesman on Friday that the agency would be unable to answer questions until next week.
The accusations stem from an April 6, 2021, incident in which Alberts was caught on video punching an inmate in the face, according to the DPSST memo. The cameras had just been installed. Then, the memo says, Alberts refused to write up a report, telling a superior, according to the memo: “Am I the fucking criminal now?”
The incident was referred to prosecutors, who declined to file charges. Alberts served a four-day suspension in 2021 for his comments to the superior, but MCSO’s broader investigation into the incident was cut short when Alberts resigned shortly after losing the election to Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell.
His resignation in the midst of an ongoing investigation triggered a review of the incident by DPSST, which concluded he’d violated its “moral fitness standards.” There were discrepancies between an initial report written by Alberts at the time of the incident and a subsequent report written several months later after he’d viewed video footage of what happened.
He then intentionally used incorrect pronouns when referring to the inmate, a transgender woman, in a subsequent report and interview, the memo says. A logbook reviewed by investigators said the inmate “was upset because she does not feel safe when male staff put their hands on her” and was supposed to be escorted by female staff.
“Alberts’s intentional misgendering of the [inmate] in his official reporting would lead a reasonable person to conclude that Alberts cannot perform the duties of the office in a fair and impartial manner,” the memo says.
It’ll now be up to the department’s board whether they want to pull Albert’s state certification, potentially making him ineligible to work in law enforcement in Oregon in the future. His case will be reviewed in May, a DPSST spokesman said.
Prior to being hired in 2018 as a county deputy, Alberts worked for the security company Portland Patrol Inc. And in September, he filed paperwork with the DPSST to renew his “unarmed professional” certification.
“Any action by the board will be taken into account as the agency reviews his application,” says DPSST deputy director Brian Henson.