City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty filed a $5 million lawsuit on Monday against the city’s police union, its former president Brian Hunzeker, and a Portland Police Bureau officer named Kerri Ottoman, alleging they leaked information that falsely implicated Hardesty in a hit-and-run crash last spring.
Hardesty is seeking $3 million in damages from the police union, the Portland Police Association. She also seeks $1 million from Hunzeker, $1 million from Ottoman, and one dollar from the city of Portland, which is also named as a defendant. That brings the total monetary damages sought to $5,000,001.
Hardesty’s attorneys Matthew Ellis and Stephen Brischetto issued a statement on Monday.
“Commissioner Hardesty’s advocacy for true police accountability and reform makes her Public Enemy No. 1 for many at the PPB and PPA,” they wrote. “Yet, despite attempts to punish her for her advocacy and force her out of office in retribution for her tireless and effective advocacy, Commissioner Hardesty will not be silenced. In the spirit of transparency, accountability, and justice, we look forward to her day in court when she can tell her side of this story to a jury of her peers.”
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, provides insight into a complex, murky saga that began more than nine months ago. On March 3, shortly before midnight, a white woman named Evelyn Ellis called 911 to report that her car had been rear-ended hours earlier, and that she was “starstruck” because...
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