James Philip Chasse, Jr. (May 7, 1964 – September 17, 2006) was an American from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. In 2006 his death while in the custody of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

law enforcement officers caused an outcry over civil rights and an examination of the lack of mental health crisis management training given to Portland police officers. At the time of his death, he was living in an apartment in downtown Portland and had been diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

Death

Chasse died after a physical confrontation with two Portland Police officers and a

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

deputy on September 17, 2006. Officers at the scene described Chasse as a homeless person and said that he ran away from them and fought with them. He was beaten and a Taser was employed multiple times on him. After the incident, Chasse was cleared medically by fire and ambulance personnel. He was then restrained and driven to jail, where nursing staff refused to admit him because of his injuries. The officers were told by jail staff to drive him to a hospital across town. He died en route. Chasse suffered fractures in 16 of his ribs and had a total of 26 broken bones, as well as a punctured lung, broken collar bone and torn spleen. The Multnomah County

Medical Examiner The medical examiner is an appointed official in some American jurisdictions who is trained in pathology that investigates deaths that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictio ...

ruled the cause of death to be both "accidental" and the result of "blunt force trauma". Over 500 friends and family members remembered Chasse at a candlelight vigil and memorial on October 14, 2006.

Reports

After three years and public pressure, the

Portland Police Bureau The Portland Police Bureau (PPB), officially the Portland Bureau of Police, is the law enforcement agency of the city of Portland, the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. While oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City ...

released an internal investigation on the death of Chasse. The investigation included six items, a "detective notebook" with six photos by witness Jamie Marquez, two separate two page disciplinary letters to Portland Police officers Kyle Nice and Christopher Humphreys, suspending them for 80 hours without pay. Both were disciplined for unacceptable conduct and violation of the department's taser policy. After arbitration in July 2012 with the police union, both letters were revoked and Nice and Humphreys were repaid for time lost. "IAD" or "Internal Affairs Division" is a 389-page report including witness, expert and officer interviews, case chronology and exhibits. Detectives included Portland's training manual about mental illness, and a 623-page narrative (archived here in three parts) review of Chasse's killing with redacted training materials. The city's auditor commissioned an investigation on the investigation of the death of Chasse in July 2010.

Public outcry

Chasse's death produced an outcry in the Oregon media, with hundreds of news stories, editorials and front-page articles following the case, and from civil rights and mental health advocates. Although

District Attorney Michael Schrunk failed to bring an indictment against the officers, he did release all testimony presented to the

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

. Portland mayor

Tom Potter Thomas Jay Potter (born September 12, 1940) is a former American politician and law enforcement officer in the U.S. state of Oregon. He served as Mayor of Portland from 2005 to 2009, and had been the chief of the Portland Police Bureau. As mayor ...

apologized to the Chasse family, convened a Mental Health Task Force to review the city's policies, and implemented a crisis intervention training program to improve the way in which city and county police respond to situations involving mental illness, but failed to discipline the officers who beat Chasse: Kyle Nice, Christopher Humphreys and Bret Barton. A documentary film about Chasse, '' Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse'', made by Oregon filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, premiered on February 15, 2013, in Portland.Alien Boy
Mental Health Association of Portland, Retrieved November 13, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chasse, James 1964 births 2006 deaths Police brutality in the United States People from Portland, Oregon Law enforcement in Oregon People with schizophrenia Deaths in police custody in the United States

Death

Reports

Public outcry

See also

References