Oregon police officer charged for not arresting off-duty colleague who allegedly ‘terrorized’ family over BLM flag
One Oregon officer is now facing charges after one was accused of vandalizing a home and terrorizing a family over a Black Lives Matter flag. An second drove his the first officer home after the incident.
Residents of Forest Grove, Oregon resident Mirella Castaneda and her husband, Pablo Weimann, were woken up by the sound of their truck alarm going off on Oct. 31. They allegedly saw Forest Grove police officer Steven Teets, who was off-duty at the time in their driveway around 12:30 a.m., hitting their Black Lives Matter sign that hung over their garage. According to Castaneda, he then went their front door and started kicking and pounding it.
Teets was allegedly “highly intoxicated” during the incident.
“I have never encountered anyone as aggressive and angry as this guy,” Castaneda told Pamplin Media Group. “He was scary. … This guy was violent.”
Now Teets faces charges of second-degree criminal mischief and second-degree disorderly conduct. Along with being placed on administrative desk duty since last November.
The Nov. 10 indictment says “did unlawfully and intentionally damage holiday decorations, outdoor lighting, and other items of personal property” belonging to the couple. It also reads he “did unlawfully and recklessly create a risk of … alarm” by engaging in “violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior.”
On Thursday, May 6, a second officer Bradley Schuetz, was indicted by a grand jury on one count of first-degree official misconduct for driving Teets home after the incident, instead of arresting. Schuetz was arrested, cited and released, police said.
“We came up short in some areas,” Forest Grove sheriff Pat Garrett said of the department’s response. “We accept that. And we are in the process of learning how we’re going to do that better.”
Forest Grove police chief Henry Reimann expressed his hesitance at release too many details about the investigation, however, says that “transparency is a key component of our policing plan in Forest Grove.”
“I also understand that there is substantial public interest in the status of the investigations into the incident that occurred on Halloween night, including how members of the Forest Grove Police Department responded to an incident involving an off-duty Forest Grove police officer,” reads the statement. “Investigations into that incident are under review by a number of outside public agencies and any information the City has at this moment is unverified and incomplete. Sharing such information at this time (or rushing to make decisions based on partial information) could do more harm than good and could potentially hinder the City’s ability to address these important issues.”
Castaneda has since filed a lawsuit against the Forest Grove Police Department, claiming that police allegedly “worked in concert, either intentionally, or subconsciously due to implicit bias, to deprive Ms. Castaneda of her Constitutional rights” during their investigation of the events that took place on Halloween night.
Teets’ attSorney, Derek Ashton, issued a statement saying, “Steven is a 10-year Army veteran whose service included combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, he was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant, earned a bachelor’s degree, and became a Forest Grove police officer. These are stressful times for the strongest among us. Steven is addressing a personal issue for which he deserves support and understanding rather than condemnation.”
Teets’ trial has been scheduled for this summer.
16-Year Old Headed to College, Chooses HBCU Over Yale and Harvard