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https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/11/cocaine-use-deletion-of-thousands-of-police-files-leads-to-ouster-of-2-portland-officers.html

Inside a Southeast Portland bar bathroom, one veteran Portland police officer said he stumbled on a sandwich bag of cocaine and began using the drug “off and on” for months before the Police Bureau found out.

Another veteran officer deleted nearly 3,000 files from a police server after her supervisors tried to transfer her to patrol, an investigation found.

The former officers – Mark Ellison and Michele Vergara – are among the 11 who have left the Portland Police Bureau since the beginning of 2024 while facing termination. The bureau allows officers to resign or retire before it issues discipline, although it sends any investigation to the state’s police certification agency anyway.

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Cocaine use, deletion of thousands of police files leads to ouster of 2 Portland officers

The Portland Police Bureau initially declined to release records related to one case.

oregonlive
Nov 11 at 11:47pmWeb
Show threadb҉Nov 11

Ellison, an 11-year officer, was disciplined twice before, records show. Former Chief Danielle Outlaw gave him a letter of reprimand in 2018 for letting a “scantily clad woman” get her picture taken on the hood of his patrol car.

Show threadb҉Nov 12

Police records say Vergara deleted around 2,900 files that included records on hiring and retention. Simon believed she was trying to “sabotage” the personnel division, investigators wrote.

Police officials recovered the files with an IT analyst’s help. But Simon said the record purge could have had major ramifications if the files weren’t recovered: “it puts the bureau in a very precarious position where we have to try to produce that stuff and we can’t.”

#infosec #pdx #portland #portlandpolice #ppb #ppa #acab