A state board on Thursday voted 14-to-4 to revoke former Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea's police certification for 10 years for dishonesty.

City investigations found that O'Dea misled investigators about his 2016 off-duty shooting of a friend and failed to immediately act on an employee's complaint of a hostile work environment.

In April, the state Board of Public Safety Standards and Training had refused to accept an earlier recommendation from its police policy committee to leave O'Dea's certification alone. The board sent it back to the committee for further review.

On May 17, the committee reversed course, voting to recommend that O'Dea lose his certification for 10 years for dishonesty. The committee also recommended a three-year suspension of O'Dea's certification for gross misconduct.

The proposed revocation initially was on the board's consent agenda , but John Teague, Keizer police chief and vice chair of the police policy committee, asked that O'Dea's case be removed from the agenda for discussion.

"I asked for this case to be pulled because it's heavily nuanced,'' Teague told the board.

He criticized Portland's investigations of O'Dea. Teague complained that the Portland investigative reports were "heavily redacted'' and called their conclusions "obtuse based on impressions,'' not clear information.

He urged a vote against O'Dea's revocation, suggesting a "momentary lack of moral judgment'' doesn't provide a "window to the soul'' that there's a lack of moral judgment.

There was little discussion. The board chair, Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers, urged the committee's recommendation be accepted, saying it was the right one, and a vote followed.

Portland's current police Chief Danielle Outlaw, participating in the meeting by phone, originally voted against revoking O'Dea's certification but changed her vote later in the session. She said afterward that the agenda item was unclear and she "chimed in at the end and was able to ensure my vote reflected me being in favor of upholding the revocation."

In a prepared statement, the board explained its vote, citing the findings of its police committee that "O'Dea's conduct impacts his ability to be employed as a public safety professional because it violates the Code of Ethics, sworn and affirmed by him, to safeguard lives and property; to protect all persons against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder.''

The board said the committee found O'Dea's conduct "particularly egregious because as a police officer he attempted to conceal his behavior and provided misleading information. O'Dea's demonstrated gross misconduct and dishonesty render him ineffective to serve as a public safety officer.''

O'Dea retired in June 2016 while he was under criminal investigation for shooting Robert Dempsey with his .22-caliber rifle during a camping trip in Harney County two months earlier.

O'Dea and his friends were on lawn chairs, shooting at ground squirrels. A hollow-point bullet from O'Dea's rifle hit Dempsey in the lower back and fragmented. Dempsey was released from the hospital the next day, the bullet still in his body.

The day of the shooting, O'Dea told a Harney County deputy that he thought Dempsey had shot himself. A subsequent administrative investigation by Portland's Independent Review office found that O'Dea delayed reporting the shooting and then lied to investigators about the shooting while he was still chief.

A separate investigation by city human resources officials found that O'Dea failed to follow reporting requirements when an administrative assistant in his office came to him with allegations that the Police Bureau's diversity manager, Elle Weatheroy, had made racist remarks to her. Investigators found that O'Dea lied about what he knew when they interviewed him.

A grand jury indicted O'Dea on a negligent wounding charge in the shooting, but a Harney County judge agreed to a civil compromise and dismissed the charge.

O'Dea's attorney Derek Ashton said in May he was disturbed by the police policy committee's reversal. At that time, he said, "Some members seemed to focus on facts that supported their preconceived conclusion. The result appears manipulated. Going forward, persons should be hesitant to place much faith in this system.''

On Thursday, Ashton said he hadn't yet received notice of the board's vote.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian