The Oregonian's Saturday story on the outside review of the city's investigation into the death of James Chasse while in police custody carried this little snippet,which hasn't received the attention it deserves:
The report revealed that Multnomah County refused to allow its employees to be interviewed by internal affairs investigators until after they were deposed in a civil lawsuit, which was pending at the time. That meant internal affairs waited until April 2008 [19 months after Mr. Chasse was killed - Isaac] to interview sheriff's Deputy Bret Burton, who by then had been hired by Portland police.
I read it and then thought of this bit of Oregon law, ORS 162.235:
162.235 Obstructing governmental or judicial administration. (1) A person commits the crime of obstructing governmental or judicial administration if the person intentionally obstructs, impairs or hinders the administration of law or other governmental or judicial function by means of intimidation, force, physical or economic interference or obstacle.
(2) This section shall not apply to the obstruction of unlawful governmental or judicial action or interference with the making of an arrest.
(3) Obstructing governmental or judicial administration is a Class A misdemeanor.
The question that occurred to me when I read this provision, and that likely won't be answered by anyone in authority, is whether the Multnomah County employee who instructed the county's employees not to cooperate with the police investigation committed the crime of obstructing governmental or judicial action. It's also a little unreasonable for the county to complain that a private citizen (for instance, this one) isn't cooperating with a police investigation if the county sometimes orders its own employees not to cooperate with another police investigation.