Former Portland police Detective Robert Norvell Hollins III misused his take-home police car, racking up nearly 100,000 miles in three years -- including 15,635 miles in under five months, according to a newly released report.

A unanimous Police Review Board in April recommended Hollins be fired for “untruthfulness” for not being honest about what led to the excessive mileage on his unmarked police car. The finding followed two separate internal affairs inquiries, according to the board’s summary report.

The summary also disclosed that Hollins left a police surveillance assignment to take care of family affairs out of town without notifying a supervisor.

Then-Police Chief Danielle Outlaw didn’t agree that Hollins was untruthful and instead demoted the veteran detective. The report didn’t say why Outlaw came to a different conclusion than the review board.

The demotion became effective last Sept. 7 and Hollins left the bureau at the end of September. He was part of a retire/rehire program and had been rehired the day after he retired on Sept. 29, 2017. The rehiring runs for up to two years.

The Police Review Board, made up of peer officers, supervisors, a community member and representative of the city’s Independent Police Review oversight division, found the mileage Hollins put on his take-home car was “excessive.’’

It reviewed two investigations into Hollins’ misuse of his police car, once in December 2018 and again in April.

Hollins’ extracurricular use of the car was discovered after it needed repairs because of the additional mileage, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiries who weren’t designated to speak publicly about them.

The Police Bureau prohibits the personal use of city-owned cars. Officers may drive them to and from work and for other police-related activities, but not for recreation or vacation trips.

The detective admitted to taking multiple trips with his wife to Seaside in the police car, including overnight stays, “in clear violation of the take-home vehicle’s intended use” and with no explanation of why he didn’t use his personal car, according to the Police Review Board’s report.

“Some members said the inappropriate use of city resources could be considered criminal,’’ the report said.

According to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, the Police Bureau never forwarded any police reports or investigation to the office for review for potential prosecution.

The review board noted that the “abuse of the privilege of a take-home vehicle’’ occurred over an extended period.

One review board member said he was troubled to learn Hollins was “at times living in the vehicle," but never disclosed that to internal affairs. The report doesn’t explain why Hollins was living in the car.

As part of the second internal inquiry, investigators found that Hollins had left a police surveillance mission and used his police car to pick up a family member, drive to Happy Valley, drive a family member to school and then drive to a business parking lot near the airport. The report redacted details of the locations.

Yet in a memo Hollins wrote and in an initial interview with a sergeant, he “neglected to account for the personal reasons’’ for which he used his police car, the board unanimously found, leading to the unanimous untruthfulness finding against him.

In later interviews, Hollins told investigators he has a family member who suffers from a mental illness and explained that one of the locations he went to in his police car helps calm that family member.

The board found that if Hollins had asked ahead of time for permission, his sergeant likely would have allowed Hollins to “attend to” his relative, given the sergeant’s history of understanding Hollins’ family situation.

Hollins didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, declined to comment on the case.

The Police Review Board’s summary report was made public Dec. 23 on the Police Bureau’s website and first noted by the police watchdog group Portland Copwatch.

The board report also described the case of an officer, Alfonso Valadez Jr., who resigned instead of being fired after chasing a car in April 2018 that crashed head-on into another car on Interstate 84.

The officer was chasing a car involved in a hit-and-run crash and following it into oncoming traffic. The chase ended with the suspect’s death when his car crashed into an oncoming car on the freeway.

The board said the officer violated the bureau’s directive on police vehicle pursuits and created an “undue risk to public safety.’’

The report doesn’t name the officer or the date or location of the crash, but the details match the circumstances of a police chase for a hit-and-run suspect that Valadez had been under scrutiny for in 2018.

Police said then that Christopher Connard, 59, was killed when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 84 and collided with another car during a police chase after Connard drove away from the scene of a crash in outer Northeast Portland.

Valadez was deceptive and untruthful in his police report about his actions that day and in an interview with internal affairs in an apparent attempt to “avoid responsibility and discipline,’’ the board found.

Valadez resigned in September instead of being fired, according to the board report.

Valadez had been fired once before by former Chief Mike Marshman in February 2017, then reinstated after an arbitrator found the chief didn’t have "just cause'' to fire Valadez but did have cause to suspend him for 40 hours without pay because of unprofessional conduct. The arbitrator ruled the bureau couldn’t prove that Valadez sexually assaulted a woman who complained that she may have been drugged and was "incapable of consent'' during a party at his home near Vancouver. Valadez was returned to work in early April 2018.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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