PORTLAND — Three police recruits have resigned amid internal affairs investigations into their roles in the serious injury of another student at the state’s basic training academy.
Oregon State Police rookie officers Austin Daugherty and Dylan Hansen resigned on Thursday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Daughterty is the stepson of Deschutes County Sheriff L. Shane Nelson and son of Bend Police Officer Lisa Nelson. Deschutes County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph DeLance resigned April 16.
The three had been hired by their respective agencies and then were sent to the state’s police academy to complete their basic training.
A separate criminal investigation by Salem police raised alarms about each recruit’s candor and credibility surrounding what led to the hospitalization of Portland police recruit Dustyn Matlock Oct. 17. He was hurt in a dorm at the training complex operated by the state Department of Public Safety Standards & Training.
Matlock suffered a brain bleed, a fractured vertebra, an orbital fracture and a broken wrist. Doctors said the injuries suggested Matlock was body-slammed into the ground.
Matlock returned to the Portland Police Bureau on desk duty. The 28-year-old has been getting stronger and plans complete the basic police academy class so he can work as an officer.
Matlock also has obtained civil attorneys, who have filed a notice of intent to sue the state public safety training agency, Oregon State Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for Matlock’s injuries, seeking more than $1 million in damages.
The behavior of his three fellow recruits was “antithetical to what real officers do: protect others,’’ Marion County Deputy District Attorney Matt Kemmy concluded in a scathing memo released in January after the criminal investigation.
Investigators couldn’t determine what led to Matlock’s injuries because the accounts of the three recruits were inconsistent and Matlock had no memory of how he got hurt, according to Kemmy.
DeLance, Daugherty and Hansen were allowed to graduate from the academy in Salem on Nov. 1. They weren’t put on paid administrative leave by their respective agencies until after the prosecutor’s memo was made public. Their agencies then initiated internal investigations.
