The lawyer for an African American man arrested in a disturbing case of retaliation and racism was incensed this week when Portland police released a related report that he’d never seen before.

Attorney Paul Buchanan said the report should have been turned over long ago when he subpoenaed all the Portland Police Bureau’s records after filing two civil suits stemming from the spurious arrest and indictment of his client, Michael Fesser.

The November 2017 report contained misleading information about Fesser, Buchanan said.

That police didn’t divulge it until now is one more insult to injury in a series of police misconduct, he said.

The Police Bureau posted the report on its website Wednesday in what Police Chief Jami Resch called an “effort to be transparent.’’

The report bolsters Fesser’s case that Mike Stradley, a West Linn police lieutenant at the time who had retired from Portland Police Bureau, made up claims against Fesser to justify police actions, Buchanan said.

The report revealed that Stradley contacted a Portland police gang enforcement officer in November 2017 after a grand jury had indicted Fesser on first-degree theft charges.

Stradley told the gang enforcement officer that there was a warrant for Fesser’s arrest and to be on alert because Fesser had made threats to assault his former boss at A&B Towing, Eric Benson, as well as Benson’s employees and made threats to “damage his business,’’ according to the police report.

Stradley’s information, coupled with a notation that Fesser had a prior arrest for first-degree assault and a juvenile arrest (which was redacted in public release this week), led Portland police to flag Fesser in the computer dispatch system as a potential danger and provide extra protection to A&B Towing in Southeast Portland.

The police report directly contradicted the sworn statements that Stradley and Benson gave to Fesser’s lawyer in the course of Fesser’s federal civil suit. Both said they had no knowledge of any threats Fesser had made.

The police report also didn’t note the year of Fesser’s assault arrest, which was 1997, and the fact that prosecutors had dismissed the charge.

“It is so scary that the police can so readily make up claims that are not true,’’ Buchanan said. “But in this case, they can’t get away with it because we have sworn testimony in two civil cases and subpoenas that very clearly reveal the claims reflected in this November 2017 report from Stradley were lies.’’

Stradley in 2017 told Portland police that Michael Fesser had made threats to his boss at A&B Towing and other co-workers, directly contradicting what he said in a sworn deposition to Fesser's civil attorney later.

West Linn this week paid $600,000 to Fesser, 48, to settle a racial discrimination and unlawful arrest suit he filed against West Linn police in 2017. A&B Towing earlier paid Fesser $415,000 to settle a separate racial discrimination and retaliation suit.

Fesser said they targeted him for arrest in Portland in February 2017 as a favor to a fishing buddy of former West Linn Chief Terry Timeus. The fishing buddy was A&B Towing’s Benson.

Fesser said his arrest was in retaliation for his complaints about a racially hostile workplace at the Portland tow company.

Stradley enlisted Portland’s gang enforcement officers to assist West Linn in arresting Fesser on Feb. 25, 2017, on allegations that he stole from A&B Towing. Stradley had been on the gang team and told West Linn officers that Fesser was a gang associate.

In a deposition, Stradley later admitted that he hadn’t had contact with Fesser for more than 20 years and had no direct knowledge that Fesser was tied to a gang, beyond knowing he had been seen with gang members two decades earlier and had attended trials of known gang members.

After Fesser’s arrest, prosecutors immediately dropped the aggravated theft charge. But he was indicted that November after he filed the lawsuit against A&B Towing.

It was then that Stradley directly contacted Portland gang enforcement Officer Charles Asheim and relayed that Fesser had made threats against A&B Towing, according to the Portland police report.

But in a sworn deposition, Benson said Fesser never threatened him.

In his sworn deposition, Stradley admitted that he was aware of no particular instance where Fesser had threatened someone. He also said he wasn’t involved in labeling Fesser as an “officer safety concern.’’

Fesser’s attorney said the newly public police report shows Stradley lied.

“This November 2017 report evidences a continuation of the West Linn Police’s misconduct, aided and abetted by the Portland police,” Buchanan said. “This conduct is despicable and should result in termination of Mr. Stradley from his current position training new police officers at the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training and criminal liability. Mr. Stradley cannot even keep his lies straight, as his deposition and the testimony of Mr. Benson make clear.’’

Portland police Lt. Tina Jones, who signed off on the officer safety report as a sergeant for the gang enforcement team at the time, initially referred questions to the City Attorney’s Office about why this report wasn’t turned over in response to multiple subpoenas by Buchanan.

“The City Attorney’s Office staff had communications with Mr. Fesser’s attorneys. They would be best suited to handle this inquiry,’’ Jones said in an email.

City Attorney Tracy Reeve called it an “inadvertent oversight’’ that the November 2017 report wasn’t among the records shared with Fesser’s lawyer.

The report apparently was written after the city had provided a batch of police documents to Fesser’s lawyer in response to an initial civil suit subpoena. When the city received an additional subpoena later for all police reports, the city asked the Police Bureau for all records and bureau officials said they had already provided them.

"After a careful review, we have determined that due to an inadvertent error we failed to locate and release the November 10, 2017 record when we released the other responsive documents,'' Reeve said in an email. "We regret the oversight.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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