Skip to main contentThree months ago, a county grand jury cried "Coverup!" in the case of two off-duty cops accused of a brutal beating downtown. Now, WW has learned, detectives are investigating a new set of allegations that an officer may have tampered with police records.
Last week, county prosecutors filed a 15-count indictment against Portland Police Officer Michael Pimentel, 37, a 10-year veteran accused of assaulting and terrorizing his girlfriend earlier this summer.
Lost in the hubbub over the alleged domestic violence, according to law-enforcement sources, is that detectives continue to probe what happened inside the cop shop.
Prosecutor Stacy Heyworth would say only that the internal investigation concerns "the unlawful use of a public-servant position." Sources say it centers on whether Pimentel and at least one fellow officer used their positions to prevent his domestic difficulties from being investigated almost a year ago.
The suspicion is that either Pimentel or his friends persuaded a police records clerk to not properly classify a harassment complaint made against him in August 2001, presumably by his girlfriend. Because the incident was not classified as domestic-violence-related, it was not investigated by police. A second incident in June 2002, however, was labeled "DV" and resulted in last week's felony indictment.
It's possible the charges won't stick. As first reported in the Portland Tribune, Pimentel's girlfriend, presumably a key witness to the prosecution, is said to feel that Heyworth's office has blown the case out of proportion. But even if those charges go away, Pimentel must still contend with the record-tampering probe.
Michael Pimentel
WWeek 2015