PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Wasco County District Attorney is seeking to dismiss more than 100 cases connected to a former officer that was removed from The Dalles police force in 2021 over “dishonesty,” The Dalles Police Department announced on Facebook.
District Attorney Matt Ellis placed ex-Officer Jeff Kienlen on the so-called Brady List, which consists of officers who have either been convicted of a crime or been found to be untruthful. Kienlen was found to be the latter, resulting in his dismissal in March of 2021, according to The Dalles PD.
In reviewing cases involving Kienlen, Ellis worked with a legal advocacy group, the FA:IR Law Project of the Oregon Justice Resource Center. According to The Dalles PD, the review revealed “concerns” with the ex-officer’s use of force and contact with the public, which did not meet the department’s standard.
When Ellis took over as county prosecutor in 2021, he said he found a letter dated 2011 that the former Dalles police chief wrote to former officer Jeff Kienlen, admonishing him for lying, saying in part “if you are not truthful, you have no integrity, without integrity, you can’t be a good police officer”.
Ellis said that letter was never disclosed to defense attorneys representing people in cases that involved Keinlen.
Ellis contacted the Oregon Innocence Project to look over all the convictions Keinlen was involved in.
Ellis told KOIN 6 the organization reviewed hundreds of cases and recently recommended 169 cases be dismissed.
Ellis said one of the more disturbing cases was from 2016 involving a woman who was having a mental health crisis. Dalles police were called to the home, and officer Kienlen responded.
“She was trying to, she was trying to take pills and drink alcohol,” said Ellis. “He tried to stop her from doing that. She tried to push him out of her mother’s bedroom and in doing so, he did a takedown measure on her, in her own bedroom, and then dragged her out, arrested her, said that she was being placed in a mental health hold. And then during that interaction, she allegedly spit on him.”
Ellis went on to share what the woman was charged with.
“So she got charged with aggravated harassment for propelling saliva at a safety officer. She was charged with a felony, convicted of a felony and forced to pay him a $250 compensatory fine,” continued Ellis. “That went to Officer Keinlen. I looked at that and I was so disgusted by that case when I found it that I picked up the phone and I called her personally and apologized and said, we are gonna try to even get you your $250 back.”
Before a case can be retroactively dismissed or expunged, the DA is required to ask a judge to make an evaluation of the decision.
So far, Ellis said that half of the 169 cases have been signed off on.
The Dalles Police Department said the recommendations made in the report have been taken care of.