A judge has dismissed the charge against former Portland Police Chief Larry O’Dea, who shot a friend during a hunting trip last April.
O’Dea had faced a misdemeanor charge of negligent wounding. O’Dea’s attorney said Harney County Judge William Cramer accepted a civil compromise in the case Friday.
The shooting victim, Robert Dempsey, previously told the court that he didn’t wish to prosecute the former police chief, in part because the two are friends. Dempsey said he considered the shooting an accident.
“Prosecutorial discretion was not exercised. Someone asked me 'why did they go after Larry O’Dea?' I can’t answer the question. I still don’t see any compelling public interest in prosecuting someone in a camping accident where the friend doesn’t want to prosecute,” said Derek Ashton, O’Dea’s attorney.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s office said it's disappointed in the judge’s decision to dismiss the charge.
"We are still reviewing the decision and considering our options," Kristina Edmunson, a spokeswoman for the DOJ, said in an email.
The incident took place in Harney County, when Dempsey and O’Dea were hunting ground squirrels.
Initially, O’Dea told county deputies Dempsey shot himself, but O’Dea later acknowledged he was the one who shot Dempsey.
O'Dea and then-Portland Mayor Charlie Hales kept the shooting out of the public eye for nearly a month.
O’Dea eventually retired amid a state investigation into the incident.
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