kruger.jpg

To settle a tort notice, the city has agreed to pay Portland police Capt. Mark Kruger back for the 80-hour suspension without pay he received in 2010 after police internal affairs found he brought "discredit and disgrace upon the Bureau" when he nailed "memorial plaques" of five Nazi-era soldiers to a tree on Rocky Butte Park.

(Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian)

To settle a legal claim, the city of Portland has agreed to pay $5,000 to Portland police Capt. Mark Kruger and erase two disciplinary actions from his personnel record: a suspension for his public tribute to five Nazi-era German soldiers at a city park and a reprimand for retaliating against a female lieutenant.

The steps are part of a negotiated settlement reached after Kruger, now in charge of the Drugs and Vice Division, filed a notice of his intent to sue the city in January 2013.

Kruger, through his attorney, argued that the city and the police bureau's Director of Services Mike Kuykendall slandered him in a series of text messages. Kuykendall repeatedly referred to Kruger as a Nazi in an exchange of texts with Lt. Kristy Galvan.

"It goes without saying that Captain Kruger is highly offended by Lt. Galvan's and Mr. Kuykendall's comments,'' Kruger's attorney Sean Riddell wrote in the 2013 tort notice. "It would appear that Mr. Kuykendall was planning on or used his position in the Chief's office to protect Lt. Galvan or harm Captain Kruger.''

Kruger made the text messages public in his tort claim. Kuykendall wrote in one that Kruger hasn't liked a book since he read "Mein Kamph,'' misspelling the name of Adolf Hitler's manifesto.

In another text, Kuykendall referred to himself as Galvan's "DOS (for Director of Services) Guardian Angel'' and her "DOS Daddy."

The tort notice led to the sudden resignation of Kuykendall, who served as Police Chief Mike Reese's right-hand man in the bureau's top civilian position at the time.

The city denied the validity of Kruger's legal claim, but said it wanted to bring it and all potential claims by Kruger to a close.

As part of the unusual settlement with Kruger, the city agreed to pay him back for the 80 hours suspension without pay he received in 2010 for nailing "memorial plaques'' of five Nazi soldiers to a tree on the east side of Rocky Butte Park sometime between 1999 and 2001. Kruger was a Portland officer at the time, but wasn't on duty when he erected the plaques as a shrine he called "Ehrenbaum" or "Honor Tree.''

Under the settlement, the 80 hours will be added as vacation pay to Kruger's vacation bank. The 2010 disciplinary letter, in which Reese had cited Kruger for bringing "discredit and disgrace upon the Bureau and the City,'' will be removed from Kruger's Police Bureau and human resources file.

Under the deal, the police chief also will provide a complimentary three-paragraph letter to Kruger, saying he's performed "above expectations'' in his work on the force and has strengthened ties with the community.

"I am writing to affirm that I consider you to be a competent and valuable member of the Portland Police Bureau. Your skills and talents as a Critical Incident Commander and ability to connect with the community are outstanding,'' the letter from Reese reads in part. "As well, your work with the immigrant community has strengthened our relationship with new Portlanders.''

Settlement letter from Police Chief Mike Reese to Capt Mark Kruger

"I am writing to affirm that I consider you to be a competent and valuable member of the Portland Police Bureau. Your skills and talents as a Critical Incident Commander and ability to connect with the community are outstanding. In an incident last year, your decision making and sound judgement led to the safe rescue of a woman being held by a gunman. As well, your work with the immigrant community has strengthened our relationship with new Portlanders. On many occasions over your 20 years of employment, you have performed above expectations in your assignments.

"The Bureau recognizes your integral role with the Portland Police Bureau and notes that you have completely fulfilled all of the conditions set forth in the 2010 discipline letter. The City agrees to remove the 2010 discipline letter relating to conduct occurring sometime between 1999 and 2001 from your Police Bureau personnel file. This will give all parties the opportunity to move on from this past conduct.

"I look forward to continuing to work with you in the future as we move ahead and continue to serve the community."

Reese declined comment.

Kruger, through his attorney Sean Riddell, said of the settlement Wednesday: "My record now accurately reflects the high quality of my work serving the citizens of Portland. I am looking forward to getting back to business of protecting the public and keeping the peace.''

The 2010 Portland police internal affairs investigation of Kruger over the controversial plaques was initiated only under pressure and through a complaint from Robert Seaver, a former friend of Kruger's who knew about the plaques.

Internal affairs found Kruger had taken the plaques down while he was facing federal lawsuits between 2002 and 2005 alleging excessive force during downtown anti-war protests. He gave them to the city attorney's office, which stashed them away for years and vigorously fought against producing them during discovery in the federal case. They weren't uncovered until a police internal affairs investigator found them in the city attorney's office about four years ago.

Attorney Alan Graf -- one of the plaintiff's lawyers in the federal lawsuit against Kruger who had fought to obtain the plaques as part of discovery -- was outraged by the city's settlement with Kruger.

"That's sick, sick,'' said Graf, now a lawyer in Virginia. "It's unbelievable. The only conclusion that I can come to is that Kruger has dirt on some of the people in power, and they're afraid of him. The City of Portland should be ashamed of itself.''

Tracy Reeve, who as a deputy city attorney represented Kruger in the federal case, is now the city attorney for Portland. She said outside counsel for the city negotiated this settlement with Kruger.

"Because I had previously represented Captain Kruger ... the City elected to retain outside counsel to represent it in the mediation of Captain Kruger's claims. I was not involved in the settlement of those claims and have no comment,'' Reeve said in an email.

The city's letter exonerating Capt. Mark Kruger of workplace harassment, found posted on his East Precinct office door. The letter did not contain the complainant's name, but the complainant's name was added to the posted letter with red marker. Lt. Kristy Galvan complained Kruger's posting of the letter was an act of retaliation against her. The city agreed.

When he was disciplined in 2010, Kruger wrote a letter of apology to the chief, the bureau, the City Council and community. He described himself as a European and military history buff, but denied any admiration for Nazis, and said he had no knowledge that one of the officers he honored was involved in war crimes.

In 2010, Reese also ordered Kruger to take "Tools for Tolerance" training, and participate in a "mentorship arrangement'' for at least six months to up to two years. At the time, the chief found Kruger violated a bureau directive on professional conduct and Portland city code, which says no person shall attach anything to property in a city park. "Your conduct, the publicity surrounding it, and negative perceptions about its nature raise legitimate questions about your ability to be effective in your job," Reese wrote then.

As part of the current settlement, Reese wrote that Kruger "completely fulfilled all of the conditions'' set out in his 2010 discipline letter. The removal of Kruger's discipline stemming from the plaques, the chief wrote, "will give all parties the opportunity to move on from this past conduct.''

The city also agreed to remove a 2014 letter of reprimand from Kruger's file that followed a city finding that Kruger retaliated against Lt. Galvan.

The discipline came after Kruger posted a letter on his East Precinct door that exonerated him from Galvan's earlier claims that he'd been harassing her. The typed letter did not have Galvan's name on it, but her name was handwritten in red on top of the letter Kruger posted to his office door.

While the letter of reprimand on the retaliation finding will be removed immediately from Kruger's police file, the city Bureau of Human Resources won't remove the letter from its files until Feb. 21, "if no similar issues arise.''

Galvan voluntarily resigned from the bureau this year. As part of her own settlement with the city stemming from her legal claim of workplace harassment against the city and Kruger, the city will pay her $50,000.

City Commissioner Steve Novick, who learned about the settlement Wednesday afternoon through The Oregonian story online, said he's "equally outraged and astonished,'' by the terms of the agreement and the fact that no one in the city informed any council member about the settlement.

"It's outrageous,'' Novick said, of the city's agreement to erase Kruger's discipline stemming from his controversial Nazi-memorial plaques. He said the soldiers that Kruger memorialized were part of the military arm of the Nazi party. He called the removal of the discipline "an insult to anyone of Jewish or Russian or Polish descent.''

"The irony of the fact that we heard of this the week after Chief Reese completed a diversity training does not escape me,'' Novick said.

--Maxine Bernstein