The private investigator who resigned May 1 from the case examining police officers’ use of force in tasing then-University student Ian Van Ornum was not permitted to directly ask police officers questions, interim police auditor Dawn Reynolds said Thursday.
Private investigator Joyce Naffziger said issues such as limited interview access to officers prompted her departure, according to EPD’s announcement of her resignation. Reynolds told the Emerald that Naffziger’s task was a “quasi-independent investigation.”
The City of Eugene announced Wednesday that Naffziger quit the internal affairs probe into use of force by the police at an anti-pesticide rally held downtown last year where Van Ornum was tasered twice.
The high-interest criminal trial in which a Lane County jury found Van Ornum, 19, guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest raised questions of police force used to arrest him including hair-pulling, pushing and tasing. In the days following the conviction last month, jurors anonymously told The Register-Guard they were concerned the force was excessive.
Van Ornum, two other men arrested at the rally and at least three witnesses filed complaints against the Eugene Police Department, leading the police auditor to call for an internal affairs investigation.
Reynolds said Thursday that the constraints come from police union pressure to not allow the independent investigator to ask questions in interviews. Although a Eugene City Charter amendment allows the independent party to participate in investigative interviews, Reynolds said Naffziger “wouldn’t be allowed to directly ask questions of the police.”
Naffziger did not return a message asking for additional details on her resignation.
Under a new city ordinance allowing independent review of internal affairs, Reynolds hired Naffziger as an independent investigator, with the city acting as her boss.”She didn’t feel she could be independent in the investigation,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the conflict of interest the investigator cited is valid and reason for concern. “It’s a real problem,” she said.
The ordinance permitting the hiring of an independent investigator and the procedures in place will likely be revised. In the meantime, the auditor said she will not hire another outsider to work on the case.
Naffziger did not return a message asking for additional details on her resignation.
Sergeant Doug Mozan is handling the internal affairs investigation and could not be reached for comment. Eugene Police Department public information officer Jenna LaBounty said that the matter is a closed investigation, so no one at the department can offer comment.business, science, health and technology
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