UPDATED Thurs., Oct. 24, 2019: The state Board on Public Safety Standards & Training on Thursday adopted its police policy committee’s recommendations to revoke for 10 years former Portland police Cmdr. Steven Jones’ police certification, and to suspend for three years the certification of former Portland police Sgt. Gregg Lewis.

A state committee has recommended revoking for 10 years the police certification of former Portland police Cmdr. Steven Jones, who drove drunk while on call in a police SUV and crashed into a light pole.

Jones eventually resigned instead of being fired.

The same committee has recommended suspending for three years the police certification of former Portland police Sgt. Gregg Lewis for his inflammatory and racial remarks during roll call.

Both former Portland officers were found to have engaged in “gross misconduct,’’ warranting the loss of their certification for some period, members of the state police policy committee agreed.

Their recommendations will go to the state Board of Public Safety Standards & Training for consideration on Oct. 24.

Lewis made his first public statements about his roll call comments when he addressed the committee before its vote. He and union attorney Anil Karia urged committee members to consider Lewis’ 26-year career with the Police Bureau with no prior discipline and the context of his remarks.

While Lewis said he took responsibility for his statements, he also said he had concerns about the fairness of the internal police investigation and claimed it was “sort of a forgone conclusion as it proceeded.’’

Lewis said his remarks were made during a Sunday afternoon roll-call when no command staff are in the precinct and the officer gathering “can be a little bit free-flowing.’’

Earlier in the locker room, he and officers had been talking about media coverage of two police shootings in Portland that occurred on the same day. They were discussing some reaction posted online to an Oregonian/OregonLive article, in which a commenter contended officers shoot to wound white people but shoot to kill African American people.

“It was just a hot topic,’’ Lewis told the committee.

During roll call, Lewis and officers were discussing how to place civil holds on people to take them to a detoxification center when they’re inebriated in public or in parking garages. They were debating when those steps should be taken.

“I was just merely saying, ‘You know, well, you just need to be smart on how you detox people, unless, of course, it’s a black guy and we just shoot them,’’’ Lewis told the committee.

“It was very flip. It was off the cuff, and it was inappropriate,’’ Lewis said. “I have accepted that, as a supervisor, I should have known better. It just rolled off, and my mouth got ahead of my brain.’’

Under a settlement Portland’s City Council adopted, Lewis was allowed to retire in December, after he was reinstated with back pay after his initial firing on Feb. 2, 2018, under the condition that he never wear a city police uniform again.

Lewis had been a sergeant who was rehired after retiring under a bureau program designed to help fill vacancies due to staffing shortages. He was first hired on April 25, 1991, and retired on Oct. 26, 2016, before he was rehired as a sergeant Dec. 1, 2016.

Karia, in a letter to the committee, said Lewis was absolutely not telling his officers to go out and shoot black people. “Rather, he made a sarcastic comment to defuse his officers’ concerns about the insidious media accounts of racist officers so that they brushed the ‘silly,’ ‘BS stuff..in the media’ aside and focused on their good work for the community,’’ Karia wrote, arguing that Lewis’ comments did not rise to gross misconduct.

“Did Mr. Lewis make a bad joke? An inappropriate one at that? Sure. He admitted that his statement was in poor taste and owned it, knowing that City of Portland employment policy (Human Resources Rule) 2.02 exposes employees to strict liability for bad jokes regardless of their intent. Lewis even apologized for his comment, knowing that it could be taken out of context.’’

But Karia argued that officers interviewed knew Lewis was being sarcastic.

The roll call remarks were reported by two other sergeants and one acting sergeant before the end of their shift to Central Precinct’s acting lieutenant, according to records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“Did I think that Sergeant Lewis was going to go outside and start shooting black people? NO. Did I think that it was just absolutely unprofessional, ridiculous and has no basis being in the city? Yes,’’ one of the other sergeants told the internal affairs investigator.

Another sergeant, in a memo he wrote to internal affairs, recalled that an officer in roll call exclaimed, “Oh my God!’’ after Lewis’ comments, and that Lewis then laughed, “threw his hands up in the air and said, ‘(expletive) it, what do I care?’’

Members of the state’s police policy committee were divided as to how long Lewis’ certification should be revoked, or if it should be stripped from him at all.

Bradley Robertson, a Multnomah County sheriff’s deputy, urged his colleagues to consider Lewis’ 26-year career with Portland police.

Dale Cummins, Prineville police chief, agreed. “It’s unfortunate that in today’s world, words speak louder than actions. Unfortunately, he’s going to be defined by that statement.’’

On the other hand, Cummins said the sergeant should have known that if he wants to speak his mind, it can’t be during roll call when officers are required to sit and listen.

Oregon State Police Supt. Travis Hampton and Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett said they found no mitigating circumstances in Lewis’ case.

“This is a police roll call in a city that’s dealing with this on a day to day basis. This is so inappropriate at any level,’’ Hampton said. “I cannot find any daylight that makes it appropriate, flippant or not. It’s so offensive that it should not be uttered in public and not by a police leader in a roll call.’’

Garrett said other officers were disturbed by the remarks during roll call. “It strikes a very significant blow to the relationships that his agency has with the community,’’ the sheriff said. “Words have meaning. So do actions … the statements are inexcusable. There’s no context where they can be acceptable, given his leadership role.’’

Keizer Police Chief John Teague said he didn’t think the matter necessitated any revocation of certification, arguing that the police bureau’s actions were sufficient. “I just think board action is an overreaction to this matter,’’ he said.

Mark Rauch, a citizen member of the police committee, also opposed yanking Lewis’ certification, saying he didn’t believe the sergeant meant what he said but uttered the comments “out of frustration’’ and “was being sarcastic.’’

An initial motion to take no action on Lewis’ police certification failed, with Teague, Cummins, Robertson, Woodburn Officer Lawrence Halupowski and Rauch on the losing end.

The committee then voted to support a three-year loss of certification for Lewis. That passed, although Hampton, Garrett and Bend Sgt. Liz Lawrence opposed it, arguing that three years wasn’t long enough.

The committee’s vote on a 10-year revocation for Jones’ certification was unanimous.

Jones, who was head of the bureau’s Professional Standards Division at the time of his drunken driving crash, resigned May 3 instead of facing termination, according to bureau records.

Chief Danielle Outlaw had recommended Jones’ firing in a Dec. 17, 2018, letter, after the bureau’s Police Review Board had unanimously recommended his termination upon finding he violated the law and the bureau’s directives on professional conduct, satisfactory performance and off-duty use of police vehicles.

Jones, 47, pleaded no contest to reckless driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants last year in Multnomah County Circuit Court. In December, Jones’ driver’s license was suspended for three months and he agreed to pay the city $38,240 in restitution within 60 days to cover damage to the police SUV and the pole, according to court records. Jones was alone in the SUV and uninjured.

Oregon State Police cited Jones for alleged drunken driving and reckless driving at 3:26 a.m. June 28 near Southwest Third Avenue and Arthur Street, according to court records. A witness told police he saw the police SUV speeding when it traveled onto a median and crashed into the pole and a tree, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.

The witness stopped to check on the driver, "but the driver initially held his door shut from the inside and said that he was a police officer and that police were already responding,'' according to the investigation.

Officers described Jones, who smelled of alcohol, as swaying. A state trooper found Jones' blood-alcohol content was at a level of .10 percent, over the state’s .08 percent legal limit.

Jones has completed a court diversion program and remains on probation for a year. If he abides by the conditions of his probation for one year, his pleas will be withdrawn and the charges dismissed. If not, he could face up to a year in jail.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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