Officer found excessive force used
A federal jury found that Eugene Sgt. Bill Solesbee used excessive force in the arrest of Josh Schlossberg in March of 2009. Schlossberg was awarded $5,583 in damages following the unanimous decision.
Schlossberg encountered the sergeant outside of the Umpqua Bank on 7th Avenue and Oak Street, where Solesbee used excessive force and subjected him to false arrest. However, it was also ruled that battery when Schlossberg was taken into custody could not be proven.
Before the trial began, a judge ruled that when Solesbee took Schlossberg’s video camera that recorded the incident and viewed the contents without a warrant, he was in violation of Schlossberg’s rights.
Schlossberg had been protesting the bank’s board chairman.
Driver of car injured in school bus crash
68-year-old Donna Brooks was hospitalized Wednesday after she ran a red light, colliding with a school bus at the intersection of East Broadway and High Street. No children were inside the bus, and the driver of the bus was not injured.
Brooks was cited for careless driving. She was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend in Springfield with non-life-threatening injuries.
Man arrested in recent robberies
After 13 armed robberies in Eugene and Springfield over the past two months, police arrested Derek Bouchet, 27, and are currently holding him in the Lane County Jail.
Bouchet, a local transient, was charged with 13 counts of second-degree robbery, three counts of third-degree robbery, one count of resisting arrest, possession of methamphetamine and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Bail has currently not been set for Bouchet. He was eventually caught when someone saw him at Porky’s Palace and called the police.
Police hopeful exclusion law will become permanent
The success of Eugene’s downtown exclusion law prompted Eugene Police Department Chief Pete Kerns to ask the City Council to make it permanent.
The law states that people accused of crimes like assault, disorderly conduct, trespassing and drug and alcohol offenses can be excluded from a 20-square-block area of downtown for up to a year. Over the past three years, 185 exclusions have been issued by authorities under this law.
The law was first approved in 2008, and renewed in 2010 until April 30 of this year. According to The Register Guard, these exclusions only account for 3.3 percent of the citations or arrests given out in the last three years.
Kerns made the presentation on Wednesday, but the council was not expected to take any immediate action on the matter.