Portland man awarded $600,000 after wrongful arrest

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) – A Portland man has been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars following a bogus investigation that ended in his arrest.

Michael Fesser worked at A & B Towing in Southeast Portland. In 2015, he says he started having some issues with co-workers. He thought he was the victim of racial discrimination and eventually brought his concerns to his boss, who was friends with West Linn Police Chief Terry Timeus.

According to court documents, in 2017, Timeus ordered some of his officers to go to Portland and investigate Fesser for theft, ultimately building a case against him. Alleging that he was stealing from the company he worked for.

“These police officers weren’t focused on protecting the citizens of West Linn,” said Paul Buchanan, Fesser’s attorney. “None of this even had anything to do with West Linn.”

Fesser was eventually arrested and jailed, but the case was later dropped. Court papers suggest that Fesser was not stealing from the company. His boss was just afraid of a possible racial discrimination lawsuit.

Fesser filed a lawsuit against the West Linn Police Department, Terry Timeus, who is no longer there, and some of the officers.