Oregon’s governor, a member of Congress and two district attorneys pushed Wednesday for investigations of wrongdoing by police in the rogue theft case against a black Portland man that has developed into a full-blown scandal with allegations of racially motivated cronyism.

In a day of fast-moving developments, authorities also announced that the two officers central to the case have been placed on leave.

The 2017 arrest of Michael Fesser has led to settlements of more than $1 million, admissions in court documents of officers lying and ignoring basic civil rights and accusations of “good-old-boy racism” against West Linn police.

An account of the case this week in The Oregonian/OregonLive prompted calls by residents for further investigation.

Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote and Multnomah County Attorney Rod Underhill both answered the calls, saying the report raised serious concerns about law enforcement in their jurisdictions.

As a result, the lead West Linn investigator in the case, Sgt. Tony Reeves, was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the scrutiny, West Linn Chief Terry Kruger announced.

Gov. Kate Brown also weighed in, directing the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training “to conduct a full and thorough review of this matter as swiftly as possible.'' Brown’s demand came a day after the department’s director said the agency “will be doing fact finding to gather more information” about the case.

Former West Linn Lt. Mike Stradley, who helped get the Portland police gang enforcement team involved in Fesser’s arrest, also has been placed on paid administrative leave by the state’s police training academy, where he now works as a supervisor of survival tactics training for police recruits.

”If what Oregonians are hearing about this case is true, everything about it is egregious, horrific and completely unacceptable. Law enforcement officers take a pledge to uphold the law and keep everyone safe - which is the opposite of active abuse of power, cronyism, hate crimes, and obstruction of justice,'' Brown said in a statement.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office wouldn’t comment whether it, too, planned to open an investigation.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, said he plans to make sure Oregon’s U.S. attorney is aware of Fesser’s arrest and “considers whether it merits a criminal or civil rights investigation.’’

A Portland commissioner also directed the city’s Bureau of Transportation to sever ties with one of its biggest towing contractors, A&B Towing, which is at the heart of the controversy.

In Clackamas County, Foote said his office will work to determine if any of the West Linn officers involved committed crimes in his county.

"We want to look at everything,'' Foote said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owen will supervise the investigation and will review the civil case record and Multnomah County arrest and prosecution files, Foote said.

His office also will determine if credibility concerns raised in the case about the involved officers should trigger a so-called Brady notice, an obligation under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland that requires prosecutors to disclose to defense lawyers any material that could impeach the credibility of a government witness.

Document: Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote’s letter to West Linn Chief Terry Kruger

Fesser, 48, sued West Linn police in 2017, alleging racial discrimination and unlawful arrest. He said they targeted him for arrest in Portland that February as a favor to a fishing buddy of former West Linn Chief Terry Timeus. The fishing buddy was Eric Benson, Fesser’s employer at the time.

Fesser said his arrest was in retaliation for his complaints about a racially hostile workplace at Benson’s A&B Towing in Southeast Portland.

Depositions from the federal civil suit and court records revealed West Linn police, with civilian help, made a surreptitious audio recording of Fesser at work in Portland without a warrant or court order, then arrested him without probable cause with the help of Portland gang enforcement officers. They also seized Fesser’s cash, cellphone and personal documents without a search warrant, according to the records.

The city of West Linn this week agreed to settle Fesser’s federal suit for $600,000. West Linn’s mayor, city manager, police chief and two police captains have agreed to meet with Fesser and his lawyer, a provision that Fesser sought in the settlement. Fesser and his lawyer earlier negotiated a $415,000 settlement with Benson and his company stemming from a separate civil racial discrimination and retaliation suit Fesser filed in state court.

In Multnomah County, Underhill announced that his office would initiate its own review of what led to Fesser’s arrest and indictment in Portland. Theft charges were twice dismissed against Fesser in the case.

"Maintaining the integrity of the criminal justice system is at the forefront of the work we do each day,'' Underhill said in a statement. "As such, we have initiated a full review of this case. This examination will be exhaustive. We will be looking at what information law enforcement provided us when they submitted the case for criminal consideration, what information was learned at grand jury, and what information we’ve learned since.''

In other fallout from the case, Portland Police Chief Jami Resch announced that she has asked her agency’s Professional Standards Division to look into the role that Portland’s gang enforcement team played in helping arrest Fesser. The review is standard bureau practice when there are civil lawsuits, Resch said.

Fesser’s lawsuit uncovered unprofessional, racist and crude banter between West Linn’s Reeves, who was a detective then, and the A&B Towing owner as they secretly recorded Fesser at work on Feb. 25, 2017. Later that night, West Linn officers, drawing on the help of the Portland officers, moved in to arrest Fesser during his drive home.

Stradley, a retired Portland police veteran working as a lieutenant for West Linn police at the time, had told Reeves that Fesser was a gang associate. Stradley helped connect Reeves to Portland’s gang enforcement team for the arrest. Stradley admitted in a deposition, however, that he hadn’t had any contact with Fesser in more than two decades and didn’t have specific information about Fesser.

Resch said in a statement that Portland participated in Fesser’s arrest "at the request'' of West Linn police "based upon probable cause for his investigation.''

The Portland Police Bureau released a report from that time that said: “(West Linn) Det. Poitras had been in contact with (Portland) Sgt. (Ken) Duilio and stated that he had probable cause to arrest Michael Fesser.” Poitras is the former name of West Linn’s Tony Reeves.

(In a deposition, the West Linn officer said he changed his name to his stepfather’s last name, Reeves, because that’s the man who raised him. He said his biological father, Daniel Poitras, was sentenced in Multnomah County in 2015 for running an illegal tow business in Portland. There’s no indication from the case reports that the senior Poitras was in any way associated with A&B Towing. )

Fesser’s lawyer, Paul Buchanan, has said Portland police didn’t ask West Linn police about the details of their investigation into Fesser before agreeing to pull him over, based on his depositions of the West Linn officers in the case.

Multnomah County prosecutors chose not to pursue an aggravated theft charge against Fesser when he appeared for arraignment in February 2017. A Multnomah County grand jury in November 2017 indicted Fesser on five counts of first-degree theft after Benson, the A&B Towing owner, pressed West Linn to revive the case, and West Linn police, in turn, urged the prosecutors to again pursue the theft allegations, according to court depositions.

A grand jury indictment was based on the testimony of Reeves, Benson and two other men who West Linn police repeatedly described as "dirty'' and "shady'' individuals, according to depositions taken in the federal civil case.

The indictment was dismissed as a civil compromise when Fesser settled with A&B Towing.

Portland Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who oversees the city’s Bureau of Transportation, Wednesday directed the bureau “to sever our business relationship with A&B Towing. We’re exploring how to do that expeditiously,’’ said John Brady, a transportation spokesman.

The city’s contract with A&B Towing was signed in October 2013 and was to run through September of this year. It’s valued at $750,000, meaning that’s the maximum amount the towing company could receive during the term of the contract, not a guaranteed figure, Brady said.

“I was sickened by the story of Portland resident, Michael Fesser, who was the victim of racially motivated harassment, surveillance, and arrest by former West Linn Police Chief, in collusion with Mr. Fesser’s employer—A&B Towing in SE Portland—after Mr. Fesser raised concerns about racial harassment in his workplace,’’ Eudaly said in a statement. “It came to my attention today that PBOT has a contract with A&B Towing. I have directed the bureau to sever the contract immediately.”

A&B Towing’s owner Benson did not return messages seeking his comment.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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