Oregon Cops Illegally Parked Cars, Arrested Tow Truck Employees Who Asked for Proof of Ownership, Lawsuit Alleges

A federal lawsuit filed in Portland, Oregon

accuses officers from the Salem and Keizer police
departments and from the DEA of abusing their authority after five
of their unmarked police cars were towed and impounded in the
course of a stake-out in January 2012.

The cars were parked illegally on a private lot. A local
business owner noticed it, and instead of calling a tow truck
immediately, he tried to do the courteous thing. It didn’t pay off,

via the Oregonian:

[A] business owner noticed unauthorized cars in the lot
at 4743 Lancaster Drive NE, the complaint states. The business
owner left a note on the windshield and, the next day, spoke
personally with one of the drivers who “responded with expletives”
that they would not be moving the cars, the lawsuit
states.

The driver, presumably, was either one of the undercover cops or
someone working for them. It was only after receiving such an
anti-social response to such a basic attempt at being polite that
the business owner called the property trustee, who called the
towing company.

Eventually, a couple of police officers made their way to the
towing company to get their unmarked police cars back, BUT:

They were unable to provide license plate or the
vehicle ID number or other proof of ownership, the complaint
states, but one officer was allowed to retrieve a bag that had
his name on it from one of the cars. The two officers left, saying
they would return with the necessary information, the complaint
states.

Instead, the Oregonian reports, a larger group of cops,
in and out of uniform, came into the towing company office:

[T]hat’s when Sgt. Andrew Roberts flashed his badge at
the two tow-truck employees, telling them that it was all the
identification he needed to get the cars, the complaint states. The
employees soon found themselves arrested and handcuffed in the back
of a patrol car.

The lawsuit claims the cops didn’t have probable cause for the
arrest, and that the towing employees constitutional rights to due
process and against unreasonable seizures were violated. The
lawsuit also claims Roberts threatened to arrest the lawyer of the
detainees for asking questions. The tow truck company fought in
court for a year over the incident, and the lawsuit seeks to recoup
relevant losses, and asks for $500,000 for each of the two arrested
employees for pain and suffering.

The city of Keizer wants the judge to dismiss them from the
lawsuit, it claims only one of the cops were from their department
and he did nothing wrong. The city of Salem declined to comment to
the Oregonian, while there are few details as to the DEA’s
role in the specific incident or whatever wider investigation the
cops were involved in.

h/t Brian L