The Oregon State Bar has rejected the application of a former Springfield police officer to become a lawyer after its investigators found that he had used his police position to exploit vulnerable women for sex and lied about it.

The Board of Bar Examiners determined that Neil Halttunen had not shown that he “is currently of good character” and denied him admission to the bar. A hearings panel later upheld the board’s decision.

Halttunen, 51, of Salem has appealed the decision to the Oregon Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on the case in May.

Halttunen’s appeal offers a glimpse into the bar’s confidential admission process, which is overseen by the Board of Bar Examiners. Ultimately, however, the Oregon Supreme Court has complete discretion over whether an applicant is admitted to the bar.

Details of the bar’s review of Halttunen’s application were disclosed in court filings, which offer an unsparing synopsis of the former officer’s on-duty conduct.

It depicts Halttunen as an officer who acted with impunity and used his badge to target and gain access to at least nine women for sex -- though Halttunen acknowledged that the actual number of women he had “some sexual contact with” was greater.

The court filing include accounts from women Halttunen met through routine police calls who said Halttunen pursued them for sex.

“The full extent” of Halttunen’s “predatory conduct is unclear, in part because” he “has consistently claimed difficulty remembering all of his instances of misconduct,” the bar wrote in court records last year.

During a hearing on Halttunen’s application for the bar, the Lane County District Attorney testified that the former officer’s actions constituted official misconduct, a misdemeanor.

“The hearing evidence revealed in excess of 30 violations or attempted violations of this statute,” the bar wrote in its filing.

The board took particular exception to Halttunen’s conduct during the hearing process. He began the hearing with a “thinly veiled threat” against some Springfield police officers on the witness list, then “acted on that threat” by sharing a copy of a recording of the confidential hearing with his former colleagues in the department for an internal affairs investigation into a lieutenant who testified, according to the court filing. The board characterized Halttunen’s conduct as retaliation.

Halttunen’s lawyers, David Elkanich and Nellie Barnard, acknowledged in court records that from 2009 through 2012, their client lacked “good moral character” and that “he feels great remorse and shame for his conduct.”

But they argued that a significant amount of time has passed since Halttunen was with the Springfield police department, that he has accepted responsibility for his actions and has cooperated with the bar. They said Halttunen has “completely and totally overhauled his life.”

They pointed to the support that Halttunen received from 20 attorneys, including former Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz, as proof that he has transformed himself. They argued that Halttunen was not charged with a crime and has taken significant steps to create a stable professional and personal life.

Halttunen worked in Springfield from 1996 until 2012, when he resigned while under investigation.

The bar’s court filing includes a detailed chronology of encounters Halttunen had with women on the job.

Among them:

-- He went to the house of a woman he planned to arrest on an outstanding warrant and later visited her in his patrol car. They ended up having multiple sexual encounters.

-- He frequently stopped by a Springfield strip club on duty and in uniform and required one woman to perform field sobriety tests “in high heels” and drove with her in his patrol car “making suggestive conversation.” He later took her into the police station “and asked her to remove a genital piercing in his presence while they were alone.” Halttunen denied the allegation, but the board said it “did not find his denial to be credible.” The woman said she felt “harassed and intimidated” by Halttunen.

-- While responding to “a suspicious person call,” he exchanged numbers with woman and later had sex with multiple times.

-- A woman said she was with her boyfriend when they were stopped by Halttunen. The boyfriend was arrested and taken away by another officer. The woman said Halttunen solicited her for sex, but she declined, she said. She said “she felt that she was in a vulnerable position because her boyfriend was in custody.”

Halttunen maintained that his sexual interactions with the women were consensual, but the board rejected that claim.

In court filings, the bar said records show Halttunen stopped, arrested and cited women at a disproportionately high rate and that he used police resources to obtain contact information for women he wanted to have sex with.

In 2012, Springfield police opened an investigation into Halttunen. During that investigation, the bar said Halttunen failed to disclose his conduct.

Halttunen resigned and surrendered his law enforcement certifications, ending the Springfield police investigation and the prospect of a state inquiry into his conduct.

He applied to Willamette University College of Law two years later, but the bar filing notes that he did not disclose in his application the circumstances leading to the end of his police career.

The Board of Bar examiners rejected Halttunen’s bar application in early 2018. He requested a hearing, which was held in January 2019. A majority of the hearing panel concluded that Halttunen lacked moral character to be an attorney.

“We doubt his personal morality, honesty, fairness, respect for the rights of others, respect for the law, and respect for the court at large,” the bar said in court filings.

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the matter on May 5.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

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