Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts says he’s done working with outside consultants who issued an unsparing report a year ago criticizing how his staff handled a detective’s misconduct investigating sex abuse cases.

Roberts told county leaders he won’t allow OIR Group to do another review of the Sheriff’s Office policies and training even though the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners hired the firm in March for up to $37,500 to do a follow-up analysis.

More than three months later, no work has been done.

Roberts wrote to Chairman Jim Bernard in April, saying his staff “cooperated fully” with OIR during the original audit, according to emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request.

“My office spent countless hours and staff resources to support OIR’s work,” the sheriff wrote.

He said his office has carried out many of the recommendations, while others are subject to collective bargaining with the union representing staff.

The county commissioned OIR to conduct the initial review after a veteran sergeant blew the whistle on what he said was a longtime detective's pattern of ignoring cases, including sex crimes and crimes against children.

Sgt. Matt Swanson accused Sheriff's Office command staff of brushing off his complaints about the shoddy performance of Detective Jeff Green. Green pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to investigate reports of child abuse and retired in 2015. He died late last year.

“In response to the Green matter my office fully cooperated with the board’s request to review our policies and practices,” Roberts wrote. “I remain committed to constant improvement.”

However, he wrote, “We are done engaging with OIR.”

Bernard responded, saying the purpose of the follow-up review was “only to make sure when possible that the recommendations had been implemented.”

“We are responsible to our constituents to assure them that the effort you have made and we have made is consistent with the report’s recommendations,” Bernard wrote.

In his reply, Roberts repeated his position: “We consider CCSO’s engagement with OIR to be complete.”

Bernard didn’t respond to an email from The Oregonian/OregonLive seeking comment.

Commissioner Sonya Fischer released an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive that Bernard sent to Roberts on Thursday. Bernard told the sheriff that the board wants to use OIR to “confirm that we are doing all that we can to protect all residents in our community.”

“As a Board, we absolutely respect your elected authority to run the sheriff’s office,” Bernard wrote. “As commissioners we take our role of fiscal oversight in making sure we are doing all we can to reduce the county’s liability very seriously.”

Bernard wrote that the sheriff agreed to allow his staff to meet with the county’s lawyer, Stephen Madkour, for a review OIR’s recommendations and an update on their status. Madkour will share the information with OIR, which will in turn update commissioners on the agency’s progress.

“We expect that this effort will address any outstanding issues and we will not need further updates on this issue,” Bernard told Roberts in his email.

On Thursday, Roberts issued a statement saying OIR’s review of his agency is “complete.”

“We carefully reviewed and implemented the majority of the suggested changes,” he said, adding that the consultants’ recommendations and the agency’s response has been posted on the Sheriff’s Office website.

Roberts said a “quality assurance program” and new technology that allows the agency to track overdue cases have been implemented.

“Both of these programs would have detected Green’s lack of performance,” the sheriff told Bernard in an email.

The consultants’ original audit offered a stinging analysis of the Sheriff’s Office’s history of responding to problems involving its deputies. It concluded that the agency brushed off the sergeant who blew the whistle on Green and had rejected a suggestion that an outside agency examine the role of supervisors in failing to deal with the detective’s substandard work.

OIR also found that Sheriff’s Office leaders had refused to take responsibility for mishandling the sergeant’s complaint.

OIR focuses on police oversight and has a long history of reviewing the Portland Police Bureau.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

ncrombie@oregonian.com

@noellecrombie

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