PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A former Portland police officer whose assault of a man led to the city’s largest police brutality jury verdict is now being sued by a colleague over alleged sexual harassment at the police bureau where he continued to work as a civilian investigator.
Robert Bruders resigned from the Police Bureau in 2016, two years after a jury awarded more than $500,000 to a man who Bruders repeatedly punched in the face, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. But he was rehired immediately as a non-sworn employee to do background checks on new police recruits.
A co-worker in the police bureau’s Personnel Division on Tuesday sued the city, claiming Bruders stalked her for three years. The colleague, identified by initials “P.L.,” alleges the Police Bureau was negligent in failing to properly supervise or hold Bruders accountable for his behavior.
She is seeking $500,000 in damages.
The woman reported Bruders “staring and stalking” her and cornering her alone in a kitchen and photocopy room. She said Bruders created a hostile and intimidating work environment that forced her to change her work habits at police headquarters in downtown Portland.
Bruders declined comment on the allegations.
P.L. filed a complaint against Bruders with her sergeant in January 2018. Bruders’ boss later found Bruders made inappropriate and unprofessional remarks about his co-worker’s appearance and his presence disrupted the workplace.
The Police Bureau took steps to “reduce interactions between” Bruders and the woman, according to Lt. Tina Jones, bureau spokeswoman. Jones declined to identify what the steps were.
The woman requested that Bruders be transferred, but a human resources representative instead suggested P.L. develop a “safety plan.” That human resources official, Rebecca McKechnie, advised P.L. that Bruders “makes me uncomfortable too,” according to the suit.
Last month, P.L. heard she would be laid off on Aug. 5 due to budget cuts. She contends retaliation in the suit, noting that two other investigators with less seniority and experience were retained. Bruders is also set to be laid off Aug. 5, the bureau said.
In 2014, a Multnomah County jury awarded $562,000 to Jason Cox after Portland police knocked him face-down to the ground and repeatedly pummeled and zapped him with a Taser on June 28, 2011. Bruders struck Cox in the face multiple times with a closed fist once Cox was already down, a surveillance video showed.
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