Portland Police Chief Mike Reese, facing harsh criticism from a city official and community leaders involved in police oversight, now plans to remove Lt. Todd Wyatt from supervising the bureau detectives that investigate sex assaults and human trafficking cases.

"After further consideration, Chief Mike Reese did not want to leave any doubt that the Portland Police Bureau takes harassment complaints very seriously and today has decided to reassign Lt. Wyatt," according to a statement his spokesman released Monday night. "Lt. Wyatt's assignment has yet to be determined."

The chief this month had reassigned Wyatt to supervise sex crime detectives after finding he had inappropriate physical contact with women under his command in the records division in 2010. Yet, the chief's reassignment put Wyatt in daily contact with one of the victims who had complained about his harassment and was now working in the sex crimes unit.

Reese's reversal came on the same day that The Oregonian had inquired why the chief would assign Wyatt to a division where he'd have daily contact with one of his victims.

It also follows strong criticism from Mary-Beth Baptista, the director of the Independent Police Review Division, and leaders of the Citizen Review Committee, who questioned the chief's judgement when he placed Wyatt in a supervisory role handling sex-related investigations.

Reese in late December had demoted Wyatt, despite a nearly unanimous recommendation by the Portland Police Review Board to fire Wyatt.

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The board voted 5 to 1 to fire Wyatt after internal police investigations found Wyatt had inappropriately touched more than one woman who worked for him in the bureau's records division. The board also found Wyatt had escalated an off-duty road confrontation in Idaho in August 2011, by flashing his badge and holstered revolver at another motorist. The board further urged Wyatt's firing because of his "untruthfulness" in both internal police investigations.

In his Dec. 13 letter of demotion to Wyatt, the chief said he lost confidence in Wyatt's ability to lead a police division, but felt he could perform effectively with "close supervision," and reassigned Wyatt to oversee detectives who handle sex assault and human trafficking cases.

In a statement Monday, the chief said he initially assigned Wyatt to the detectives' sex crimes unit to be closely supervised by Cmdr. Donna Henderson, who oversees all downtown detectives. Reese said Henderson has a "demonstrated history of positively mentoring other command-level personnel."

In the detectives division, Wyatt was instructed that he would not supervise any of the non-sworn employees, including one of his victims in the physical harassment case, the chief said. The non-sworn civilian employee would report to a civilian administrative supervisor.

Yet the victim reported to co-workers that even though Wyatt was not her supervisor, she couldn't avoid seeing him daily because of his assignment.

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