A Portland police sergeant who lied about the law to get a protester to stop filming him and other officers was suspended without pay for one day, according to recently released police records.

The bureau’s Police Review Board found Sgt. Erin Smith didn’t knowingly violate the police directive on truthfulness. The board is made up of officers, a representative from the city’s Independent Police Review and a citizen member.

Two months later, the Citizen Review Committee voted 7-0 that Smith had violated the truthfulness policy in a case involving protester Benjamin Kerensa. The committee is made up of made up of members of the public who hear appeals of police investigative findings.

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw concluded the matter was a performance issue rather than a violation of the truthfulness directive, and that Smith deserved a one day suspension.

She found Smith had inappropriately used deception, which is allowed in limited circumstances for legitimate law enforcement purposes, according to a summary released of findings by the chief and the review board.

"Chief Outlaw determined the employee was not untruthful in their accounting of the events that occurred, and found the employee inappropriately applied the exception in the Truthfulness Directive,'' the summary said.

The sergeant acknowledged he misrepresented the law to get Kerensa to stop videotaping him during a Nov. 30, 2016, demonstration in front of fuel storage facilities in Northwest Portland over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Smith admitted to falsely telling Kerensa that he didn't have the right to film officers and threatened Kerensa that he could be arrested if he didn’t stop.

Smith’s supervisor, Traffic Capt. Stephanie Lourenco, found Smith’s deception was permitted under an exception in the policy that says deception is permitted when “necessary to protect the physical safety’’ of an officer.

Four members of the Police Review Board voted not to sustain the untruthful allegation and one member said Smith should be exonerated. They argued that Smith didn’t knowingly violate the directive and that “deception’’ is an acceptable de-escalation tactic.

The board recommended a debriefing with the sergeant to discuss proper use of deception.

Kerensa, who had filed the complaint, said he was disappointed by the review board’s findings.

The ACLU has worked to ensure that police officers know that the public has the right to record them. Agency lawyers helped represent a woman who was detained by transit police in 2013 for video-recording them arresting a stranger on a public sidewalk just outside downtown Portland. The woman, Carrie Medina, took police to court in 2015, and as part of a settlement reached, the city of Gresham agreed to pay $85,000 to Medina, and police in Gresham and Portland enacted new policies about the rights of bystanders to record their actions in public. The Portland police adopted a new policy in October 2016.

Kerensa is OK with the one day suspension but said he’s upset that the review board didn’t recognize the officer violated policy and law. It shows "their continued disregard for citizens rights to film officers as protected under state law and the Oregon and U.S. Constitution,'' he said.

"It was pretty clear based on the memorandum remarks that the Chief of Police and (Police Review Board) still don’t understand their legal obligation to allow citizens to film,'' he added.

Smith’s case was among a number of police investigations examined by the Police Review Board between Nov. 17, 2018, and July 29. The bureau’s website recently published a summary of those cases. The summary doesn’t identify the officers involved and often redacts key facts.

Other cases included:

-- An officer who was fired after writing a false report about his police car crash in 2016 and gave an account of the crash that didn’t fit evidence from the scene. Police declined to identify the officer who was fired. A public records request is pending.

-- An officer retired instead of facing a proposed one-week suspension without pay after inappropriately recommending a recent retiree for the police retire/rehire program even though that retiree didn’t pass a firearms qualification test.

-- An officer was suspended without pay for two weeks after “spark-testing’’ a Taser stun gun on himself or herself in a public place where civilians were present in violation of police training. The same officer was found to have been unprofessional by hugging and kissing a fellow officer while on duty.

-- A police supervisor was suspended for one week for singing the lyrics of an undisclosed song in front of members of other agencies, using poor judgment and acting unprofessionally. The majority of the board also found the song constituted a violation of the city rule against workplace harassment and discrimination. The board summary redacted the name of the song, where it was sung and the supervisor’s name.

-- One-day unpaid suspensions were given to an officer who used OC chemical spray on two unidentified bystanders when trying to stop a suspect trying to take an officer’s bike during a protest and an officer who contacted juveniles on social media late at night.

-- Officers actions in three police shootings and one death in custody were found by the board and chief to have followed bureau policy:

-A police exchange of gunfire with a burglary suspect, Sarah Michelle Brown, on March 8, 2018 at 806 S.W. King Ave. The board found officers’ firing at the suspect after issuing commands to drop her gun were reasonable considering the severity of the threat. Brown, now 28, was wounded. She’s facing allegations of attempted murder, burglary and other charges in connection with the shooting.

- The police fatal shooting of John A. Elifritz, 48, who had a knife inside the CityTeam Ministries homeless shelter at 526 S.E. Grand Ave. on April 8, 2018. The board found the officers’ actions were “reasonable and justified given the threat of death or injury.’’ Some board members said a police supervisor “should have taken a more assertive role as a scene supervisor’’ and detailed roles for each officer as the encounter unfolded, and remained in a supervisory role after the shooting to make sure all necessary notifications were made. The board also recommended further training for police on active threats when the suspect isn’t armed with a gun but a knife. The board further urged the bureau to consider when it’s appropriate to release video footage of a shooting to the public. Elifritz’s family is suing the city, contending excessive force was used and police failed to take steps to de-escalate the confrontation.

-The board found the Sept. 30, 2018 police fatal shooting of Patrick Kimmons, 27, in downtown Portland was within bureau policy, noting that Kimmons posed a threat to the two officers who arrived on scene first and a threat to the community. Kimmons had shot two other men and ran toward the officers holding a gun in a downtown parking lot when he was fatally shot by two officers, police said. Kimmons turned to run between two parked cars and collapsed from the gunshots. The board found police stopped firing once Kimmons fell to the ground. The two officers fired a total of 12 shots. Kimmons was hit nine times and pronounced dead a short time later at OHSU Hospital, police said.

Again, the board recommended that the police training division re-emphasize for sergeants the need to supervise a scene and not “directly engage in operations’’ except in unusual circumstances.

The board also unanimously agreed that the bureau should reviews its policy and consider releasing video evidence of a police shooting to the public much quicker to “resolve any misconceived notions of misconduct’’ and to “strengthen transparency.’’

-The board found that officers assisting Portland State University officers in restraining a man who was reported to have been running in the streets and yelling in November 2018, and later died at a hospital, acted according to bureau policy. Officers restrained the man, Richard A. Barry, 52, near Southwest 6th Avenue and Mill Street, and had him taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died on Thanksgiving. The board advised officers receive more training on excited delirium.

An autopsy found Barry died of acute methamphetamine and cocaine toxicity and the manner of death was ruled an accident resulting from Barry’s ingestion of a large amount of controlled substances, according to police.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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