Source: PDXS - Portland, OR's Art, Music and Politics magazine
Contact:  http://www.pdxs.com/
Pubdate: March 13-26, 1998
Volume 7, Number 22 pp. 2 & 5

GET REAL - THE STEVEN DONS CASE - POLICE STATE ASSISTED SUICIDE?

Everything about the Steven Dons case stinks.

Dons is the alleged marijuana grower involved in the controversial January
27 shootout with police. Portland Police Officer Colleen Waibel was killed
during the gun battle. Officer Kim Keist was seriously wounded, and
Sergeant Jim Hudson suffered a hand wound. Dons was shot by police and
paralyzed from the waist down. He committed suicide less than a month later
in me medical unit of the downtown Justice Center Jail.

A surprisingly large number of Portlanders are questioning the official
versions of both the initial raid and the alleged suicide. Even callers to
such mainstream radio stations as KOTK and KXL believe the police screwed
up the raid. On February 25, the day Dons was found dead, over 50 percent
of The callers to KXL accused the police of murdering him. As these callers
saw it, the police were afraid the courts were going to dismiss all charges
against Dons because the raid was illegal Killing him was the only way' to
escape this embarrassment and avenge Waibel's death.

The protests continued on Friday, March 6, when over 60 activists gathered
near Portland City Hall to voice their anger over the botched drug raid and
alleged suicide. "It sure was convenient for Mayor Vera Katz and Portland
Police Chief Charles Moose that Steven Dons didn't have his day In court,"
said one speaker. As another put it, "Marijuana has never killed anybody,
but prohibition has."

As this issue of 'PDXS' goes to press, the shootout is being investigated
by the Portland Police Bureau. Dons' death is being investigated by a
variety of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the
Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, the Multnomah County District Attorney's
Office, the Oregon State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
All information related to the suicide will reportedly be presented to a
Multnomah County grand jury.

These investigations will probably not answer all of the questions raised
by these incidents, however. It is unrealistic to expect law enforcement
officials to criticize each other, especially when one of their own has
been killed. Even though Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle - who oversees
the jail where Dons died - has promised to release the investigative
documents after the grand jury rules on the alleged suicide, much of the
potential evidence was compromised before the "outside" agencies got
involved. And it would be a miracle if the Portland Police Bureau released
everything it learns about the initial shootout. Under the "leadership" of
Mayor Vera Katz. and Police Chief Charles Moose, the bureau has developed a
history of stonewalling the press and public on controversial issues.

The 'Oregonian' presented one version of the knock-and-talk visit on
Sunday, March 8. The paper reported Multnomah County Senior District
Attorney Jim McIntyre's "re-creation" of the events leading up to the
shootout and Dons' subsequent arrest. The article quoted Dons' former
attorneys as denouncing McIntyre's version, even though they declined to
offer any alternative, citing the Oregon State Bar Association's rules on
attorney-client privilege. Despite that, even McIntyre's version of events
showed why the police did not want this case to go to trial. Here are just
a few of the most obvious questions, gleaned from press coverage of the
raid, shootout and suicide, and from conversations with local defense
attorneys.

* What was the evidence inside the house?

Critics claim that the police may have tampered with the evidence uncovered
from Dons' house to justify the initial raid. The Portland police had
complete control of the house, located at 2612 SE 122Avenue, for two days
after the shooting. No one was allowed in without police approval, and no
photographs have been released from inside the house. There are several
contradictions in the news accounts about the evidence, however.

***

[PDXS photo caption:]

Local activists protested the Marijuana Task Force on Friday, March 6, at
the park block across from the Justice Service Center. Demonstrations are
scheduled every Friday from 4 pm to 6 pm until further notice.

***

The police claim they found 51 marijuana plants in the house, including a
couple in the stove. In an 'Oregonian' interview, however, wounded Officer
Keist expressed dismay that Dons was willing to shoot her over "a couple"
of marijuana plants. Dons' roommate, Jeffery Harlan Moore (who was not home
at the time of the raid), is on record as saying he saw no marijuana in the
house.

Similar confusion exists over the gun that Dons allegedly used to shoot the
police. The March 8 issue of the 'Oregonian' describes it as an SKS
semi-automatic rifle with a 14-round banana clip. But, in an unchallenged
opinion piece in the next day's paper. Portlander Ralph Thomas said the gun
had a 7-round fixed magazine.

Even if the police release all records from their search of the house, how
will the public ever know the evidence wasn't altered?

* Did the Police know Dons lived in the house - and if not, why not?

It is not clear from published reports whether the police knew Dons lived
in the house. The March 8 story in the 'Oregonian' only says the police
knew Dons "might live there." The article also suggests the police thought
the house was empty when they determined that Moore was at work on the
morning of the raid.

At the same time, the police should have known that Dons lived there. For
starters, they had inside information - an unnamed informant had tipped
them off about the house. The 'Oregonian' also says that the police had the
house under surveillance. And the paper says the police "knew Dons
associated with marijuana growers.

The 'Oregonian' says the police "certainly knew nothing about [Dons']
potential for violence." Why not? He had a police record in Nevada that
included assaulting police officers. After the initial shootout, the
Portland press interviewed several of Dons' associates and neighbors who
knew he was heavily armed and hated the police. The police knew where Dons'
roommate worked - why didn't they know anything about him?

* Did the police allow Dons to grow marijuana?

The police will not say how the Marijuana Task Force - which apparently
conducted the investigation - first learned that Dons was growing
marijuana. But, according to DA McIntyre's statements in the 'Oregonian,'
"police saw people taking marijuana growing equipment into the house at
2612 SE 111th Ave. before Jan.27." This suggests that the MTF may have
allowed Dons to grow marijuana before raiding the house. MTF members
claimed they could smell marijuana outside the house on January 27. It take
six to eight weeks for marijuana plants to reach the point where they put
out a noticeable odor. Does this mean the MTF waited up to two months to
bust Dons? And if so, why?

One reason could be money. Under this nation's draconian anti-drug laws,
the police can seize any property acquired with drug profits including
cash, cars, boats and homes. According to the 'Oregonian,' in 1996, the
last year for which such figures are available, the MTF confiscated $2.1
million worth of cash and property, including 42 houses. Did the police
allow Dons to grow marijuana so they could raid the house and seize it?
Only a complete disclosure of the events leading up to the raid can answer
that question.

* Who was in charge?

In the 'Oregonian' story, DA McIntyre offered the first clear explanation
of which officers were at Dons' house at what time. Unfortunately, it
suggests that the officers who originally investigated the alleged
marijuana grow operation - the officers with the most information about the
case - were not present during the raid.

According to McIntyre, three MTF members stopped by Dons' house at
approximately 10:45 am on January 27 - Portland police officers Nathan
Shropshire and Brian Schmautz and Oregon State Police Detective Tom
McCartney. They knocked on the front door but no one answered. As they
started to drive away, however, Shropshire said he thought he smelled
marijuana. The three returned to the house and agreed they smelled
marijuana, and also saw mold and condensation on windows, which they took
as evidence of a grow operation.

They then called Portland General Electric and were told the house had used
an average of 2,622 kilowatt. hours of electricity in the past 13 months,
enough to sustain a grow operation. The three of them then drove away to
get a search warrant.

At approximately the same time, Portland Police Officer Kim Keist and
Portland Police Sergeant Jim Hudson drove up to the house in an unmarked
pickup. It is not clear why Keist and Hudson came to the house at this
time, or what, if anything, they learned from the three MTF members. But
after approximately 15 minutes of waiting, Keist reportedly saw smoke
coming from the chimney. Assuming someone was burning the evidence, the two
called for uniformed officers to back them up. After an unspecified period
of time, four officers arrived Wayne Gwilliam, Jeffery Parker, Colleen
Waibel and Steve Morrow. It is not clear whether any of these officers had
been involved in the initial surveillance of the house - or what, if
anything, they knew about Dons. But these six officers decided to break
down the door before the search warrant was approved on that fateful day.

* Were Dons' Constitutional rights violated?

We're not bleeding heart liberals who put the rights of criminals above the
lives of police officers. But it is important to know whether Dons' rights
were violated to understand whether the charges against him might have been
thrown out of court on Constitutional grounds.

According to all published accounts, the police did not have enough
evidence for a search warrant when three MTF members visited Dons' home on
January 27. No search warrant had been issued by the time the six other
officers decided to break in. Instead, they acted on their own, reportedly
to prevent Dons from burning marijuana plants.

Several defense attorneys have told 'PDXS' that this decision was not
legally justified. Although law enforcement officers can break into a house
under emergency circumstances, these lawyers insist that stopping a
suspected marijuana grower from burning his plants isn't one of them. Among
other things. it was unlikely Dons could completely destroy all of his
plants before the police could get a warrant. And even it he did, the house
would still have contained other evidence, such as grow lights and potting
soil.

* Did Dons know the police were breaking into his house?

According to the official version of events, the police yelled "Portland
police" before breaking down the front door. According to one court
document, Sergeant Hudson also yelled they had a warrant, even though that
wasn't true. But did Dons know they were police? His roommate, Jeffery
Moore, says no, perhaps because he was partially deaf. "He didn't know who
they were," Moore said. Dons told him before he died, "He really regrets
what he's done."

DA McIntyre suggests Dons must have known the people breaking down his
front door were police. According to McIntyre, a video camera mounted in
the front hallway was connected to a television set in Dons' bedroom. But
that assumes Dons was in his bedroom at the time of the raid. If he was in
another room, he could not have seen the monitors.

As revealed in the March 8 issue of the 'Oregonian,' Dons could not see the
officers when he first opened fire. Dons was standing in a hallway and
fired through a wooden door between him and the officers. Since Dons was
alone in the house at the time of the raid, the police cannot disprove his
reported statement that he did not know who was breaking into his house. In
this case, he could have at least argued "self-defense" when the case went
to trial.

A similar incident occurred almost 20 years ago when the Portland police
raided the headquarters of the Outsider motorcycle club. One officer was
killed in the shootout. The man who killed him successfully argued that he
did not know it was the police who were raiding the house. He escaped a
murder conviction.

* Was Dons denied proper medical treatment?

According to the official version of events, the police who broke into the
house immediately returned fire, striking Dons. CA McIntyre says Dons was
immediately paralyzed from the waist down. Despite that, the police waited
over two-and-a-half hours before entering the house to arrest him. In that
time, they subjected him to searing tear gas and reportedly hit him twice
with "non-lethal beanbag" rounds.

Even after the police entered the house and found Dons, they denied him
proper medical treatment. Instead of calling in emergency medical
technicians, they hauled him out, stripped off his clothes, and threw him
on the back of an armored personnel carrier. Many people were shocked by
the television images of Dons' naked body being driven down the street.
"Remember the photo?" one Portlander e-mailed 'PDXS.' "Nobody was kneeling
over him, caring for this wounded man. Why were they carting his naked body
around on the back of a tank. like some goddamned trophy?"

* Was there an initial cover-up?

By the time Dons was finally hauled away from his house, police commanders
had plenty of time to realize they had blown the raid. Is that why Mayor
Katz and Police Chief Moose tried to change the subject? Talking to
reporters at the hospital where the wounded officers had been taken, Katz
called for tougher gun control laws. Moose went even further, launching
into a tirade about how television news helicopters had endangered the
officers during the siege. Both claims were bogus. Officer Waibel was not
killed by "high-powered rounds that went through her bullet proof vest," as
originally reported. And Dons was reportedly out of commission by the time
the helicopters arrived. Nevertheless, Katz and Moose succeeded in shifting
press attention off the details of the raid.

* Did Dons kill himself?

Dons was originally taken to the Oregon Health Sciences University, where
he was arraigned on drug and murder charges. He was reportedly transferred
to the medical unit in the Justice Center Jail on February 10. Who made the
decision to transfer him to the Justice Center, which also houses much of
the Portland Police Bureau? Why did he have to be moved less than two weeks
after being paralyzed? It's not like he was going anywhere.

According to the official version of events, Dons committed suicide
sometime between 1:30 and 4:30 am on the morning of February 25. He
reportedly tied a sheet around his neck and the frame of his bed, then used
the remote control to raise the head of the bed enough to strangle himself
Although theoretically possible, it's hard to know whether such a novel
method of suicide would work in the real world, or whether the paralyzed
Dons was capable of doing it.

Although medical workers did not see Dons between 1:30 am and 4:30 am,
corrections officers reportedly checked him every half hour. According to
the official version of events, they only looked through a window in the
door to his room and did not realize he was dead, perhaps because they
could not see the sheet around his neck. At the same time, Dons' position
in the room did change at some point during those three hours - he
allegedly raised his bed to commit suicide. Was this change noticed? Of
course, it's always possible that the corrections officers realized Dons
was killing himself, and chose not to interfere.

There are many questions which need to be asked and answered about the
circumstances surrounding Dons' death. Who was on the floor that night?
Does everyone log in, or can corrections officers (and others) come and go
at will, if they have the keys? Do video cameras monitor the floor? If so,
are they hooked to tape machines or just video monitors? Who, if anyone,
watches the monitors?

Within 12 hours of Dons' death, the State Medical Examiner declared that he
committed suicide. This was well before all toxicology tests could have
been conducted. Dons was reportedly receiving a mix of antibiotics, pain
killers, and muscle relaxants at the time of his death. Did Dons have the
mental and physical ability to commit suicide with all these drugs in his
system? Have medical tests found any other drugs in his body?

No one seemed to think that Dons was suicidal before his death. One of his
lawyers, Andrew Bates, described him as "upbeat" over his defense.
Multnomah County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Martinek said Dons did not seem
depressed and was not on a suicide watch. "There was no reason to believe,
and we had no information that we should suspect that," he said. "There are
usually very apparent, very red-flag conditions. There was none of that
information available to us."

***

[PDXS photo caption:]

Who can forget the shocking image of Steven Dons' naked, paralyzed body
being hauled off on the bumper of an armored personnel carrier from the
front page of the February 28 issue of the 'Oregonian.' Did the police
jeopardize their case against him by violating his constitutional rights?

***

* Was the investigation compromised?

Unfortunately, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office did not preserve the
scene of Dons' death before the investigative team was put together. Even
though the staff members who discovered Dons' body were reportedly certain
he was dead, they apparently untied the sheet and tried to revive him. This
means no photos were taken which show the exact details of the "suicide."

More than that, according to a March 3rd story by the Associated Press,
"Investigators said they did not check Dons' cell for finger-prints. No
fiber evidence was collected and, only hours after Dons' body was removed
from the room, reporters and camera crews were given a tour of the cell."
In other words, the room was contaminated before Sheriff Noelle asked the
FBI to get involved in the investigation to assure its "independence."

The day after Dons' death, the editorial board of the 'Oregonian' - of all
people - reported some disturbing news about the condition of the room
where Dons died. According to an editorial titled "Jail death inquest,"
there was a glass-enclosed video camera in one corner of the ceiling. But
it could not have captured the scene in the room for two reasons. First,
according to the editorial, it was covered with toothpaste. And, second,
law enforcement officers say it was obsolete and not in use at the time.
Why not? The camera must have been installed for a reason. Why go to the
trouble of creating a system for monitoring inmates, and then allow it to
be vandalized and fall into disrepair? How many other cameras in the
Justice Center aren't working, and why?

* What is Steven Dons' version of events?

We've heard the official version of events from DA McIntyre. But what did
Dons say happened inside his house on January 27? Although his attorneys
refuse to reveal what Dons told them, his former roommate, Jeffery Moore,
has offered a partial explanation. According to Moore, Dons might have been
asleep when the police originally arrived at the house. Awakened by the
sound of the front door being smashed in, Dons might have thought he was
being attacked by as-yet-unnamed enemies, perhaps competing drug dealers.
Under this scenario, Dons could have fired at the officers without knowing
who they were.

Dons' attorneys - Gwenn Butkovsky and Andrew Bates - should reveal what he
told them before he died. Dons deserves to have his side aired, and the
public needs to know what else might have happened during the shootout.
Rumors are already flying that Dons was not shot and paralyzed during the
initial exchange of gunfire. Neighbors have allegedly said that he walked
out onto the front porch naked, where he was shot by police while trying to
surrender. We need to know all possibilities to put such charges to rest.

* Will there be a public review?

An editorial in the February 28 issue of the 'Oregonian' called for a
public inquest into Dons' death. This was a surprising and courageous stand
for the Portland daily, which hardly ever questions the actions of local
law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the 'Oregonian' immediately
dropped its demand. It hasn't called for a public inquest since.

Not everyone is convinced the current investigation into Dons' suicide will
be fair, however. "We're not saying that there has been foul play. We're
saying an investigation is needed to rule that out," the AP quoted defense
attorney Butkovsky as saying. "Our problem is that the sheriff's office is
still involved in it, so it's not completely independent."

It's always possible that Dons actually committed suicide. He was not only
paralyzed for life, but facing the death penalty. At the same time, it's
pretty clear that the local law enforcement community wasn't looking
forward to the trial. Sheriff Noelle promises the investigative reports
will be released after the grand jury rules on the suicide. But how will we
know if anything was intentionally left out of them?

Multnomah County Senior District Attorney Jim McIntyre made a bizarre
statement for a law enforcement official in the March 8 issue of the
'Oregonian.' Speaking about the fact that Dons' former lawyers disagree
with his version of events, Mclntrye said, "It's ridiculous in this day and
age that we can only judge his guilt in a courtroom trial."

We don't know what McIntyre means by "this day and age." Maybe he's talking
about the recent Anti-Terrorism Act which undermines freedoms of speech and
association. Perhaps he's referring to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings
limiting Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and
seizures. Whatever the case, we at 'PDXS' think that courtroom trials are
where this society ultimately judges guilt - and the extent of guilt. Dons
may well have killed Portland Police Officer Colleen Waibel, and wounded
Officer Keist and Sergeant Jim Hudson. But he may not have known who he was
shooting at. Dons may have sincerely believed he was defending himself from
a home invasion.

Even if McIntyre is only talking about the court of public opinion, it is
unreasonable for him to expect people to accept his version of events
without knowing all the facts. The Portland Police Bureau and the Multnomah
County District Attorney's Office should immediately release all their
records on the Steven Dons case. Otherwise, this stinks.

- - Jim Redden