Nick Jones was not certified as a private security guard when Pacific Patrol Services assigned him to patrol Portland's downtown living room in late November 2009. Just five days on the job, Jones got into a scuffle with a skateboarder he was attempting to exclude from the square.

Jones tried photographing the skateboarder. When the skateboarder pushed the camera away from his face, Jones punched him, grabbed the board and struck him in the head with the wheels of the board.

This month, a civil lawsuit by the skateboarder Brian Baca alleging false arrest, battery and negligence by Pacific Patrol Services was tentatively settled just before it was set to go to trial. Attorneys say they're still negotiating the final agreement, but Baca's lawyer said a central point of the case was the shoddy oversight of its guards by Pacific Patrol Services.

Baca's complaint to the state Department of Public Safety, Standards and Training resulted in an audit last August that found Pacific Patrol Services had 16 other security guards working who had not completed their state-required certification.

Alan Pendergrass, the owner of Pacific Patrol Services, described the violations as an administrative oversight, and agreed to pay half of the proposed $1,000 civil penalty, under a stipulated agreement with the state agency.

, urging both to deny any request by the private security company to service additional city parks.

"You should find a different way to provide security in city parks other than relying on 'churn and burn' private security companies that assign uncertified guards who later commit assaults only to brag about their actions in the safety of their own offices," Schwartz wrote.

Pacific Patrol, previously known as Portland Patrol Services, provides security for Pioneer Courthouse Square and Director's Park. It is one of seven private companies that have submitted bids in the last several weeks to provide security coverage for 16 additional city parks, between 5 p.m. and 1 a.m.

The city's request for private proposals marks the first time the city has gone to competitive bidding for private security for city parks since 1997. The Portland Business Alliance, previously known as the Association for Portland Progress, has had a lock on the city's downtown park security contract for the last 15 years.

Art Hendricks, public safety manager for city parks, said city park rangers will now provide security during the day at the downtown parks. A selection committee will help choose the private firm to provide the evening security. "It's always in our interest to go to competitive bid because we think that's in the public's interest," Hendricks said.

Jim Blackwood, Fish's policy director, said he sent Schwartz's letter to the city attorney's office for guidance, but he doesn't expect it to affect the city's selection process for park security. "My sense it's an independent matter."

Lee Aronson, the attorney for Pacific Patrol, said the lapse of certification of guards was due to paperwork not getting filed properly. "I think it was much to do about nothing," Aronson said.

Pacific Patrol argued in court papers that Baca and his friends went to the square to skateboard and catch tricks on film, when they knew it wasn't allowed. They argued the young men refused to stop when asked and were the aggressors when guards intervened.

Jones was attempting to photograph Baca to exclude him from the square, under city ordinance, when the scuffle ensured.

Court records indicate that Jones chuckled about the Nov. 25, 2009 skateboard encounter to another security guard, according to the other guard's report. Portland police responded and were on the verge of charging Jones with assault. The security manager asked police not to and promised to handle the case in-house, according to court documents.

"They knew this went down," Schwartz said. "To me, they were covering up."

While preparing for trial, Baca's lawyer learned that:

At the time of Jones' confrontation in the Square with skateboarders, Jones was not certified, nor had a temporary work permit. He only applied to the state certification department 21 days after the encounter. It was signed Dec. 15, 2009.

"Did DPSST give him any authority to be in that square on Nov. 25, 2009?" Schwartz asked Michelle Timfichuk, the company president, in depositions.

"No," Timfichuk replied.

Timfichuk blamed a paperwork foul-up, called it "human error," and not intentional.

Former Pacific Patrol Services Officer Brett Parker, who was not on duty that evening, asked Jones what happened. In a report he described how Jones "chuckled" before telling him that one of the skateboards lifted his board to push his camera away. Jones then told Parker he punched the skater.

"He told me that he knew as soon as his fist was starting to clinch that he knew he should not be doing it. He then stated with a smile, 'I just could not stop it,' " Parker wrote in a report.

Parker asked Jones if he was trained on that kind of use of force. Jones replied, "It was nothing I was trained on it just happened."

Jones, no longer working for PPS, told attorneys during a deposition that he "believed" he was certified when he was working at the Square in November 2009. He didn't realize he was not certified until receiving an email in mid-December. He said he felt "relatively new, still fairly unsure of the situation," on Nov. 25, 2009.

Jones described how the skateboarder hit his camera with the skateboard. After that, Jones said he struck the assailant in the face with his right hand because he had no means to defend himself. He said he got him to the ground and then backed up.

"Then I picked up a skateboard that was on the ground and struck that person with it because that person already struck me with a skateboard."

Jones said he wasn't trained to deal with that specific situation, other than a packet that said Pacific Patrol is a "hands-off" company and advises guards to use verbal commands when capable. He said he was following the lead of a more senior guard.

"I didn't feel under-qualified. I felt that I wasn't mentally prepared at that moment to deal with, you know, physical and verbal aggressiveness," he said in his deposition.

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