Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty denied on Thursday that she was involved in a minor hit-and-run accident in southeastern Portland that another driver reported to the police.
A driver told police she was beaten in the rear on Wednesday afternoon when stopped at a traffic light, according to sources familiar with the allegations, but not authorized to speak publicly.
The driver contacted the police about the collision after returning home. She said she had been side by side on the road before with the car that hit her and saw the other driver on the phone or looking down on her lap before the accident.
The driver gave the police the license plate of the car that hit her. Hardesty was listed as a suspect in a computer dispatch report. No injuries were reported.
Hardesty called the allegations a “smear campaign” against her and said he wants the report to be investigated because it “threatens to damage my reputation as a member of the City Council and as a transport commissioner”. She said she was home at the time of the reported incident.
“I didn’t hit anyone. I was not driving. Nobody drove my car. This whole claim is totally false, ”she said, speaking to the media in her home during an afternoon videoconference. “I am telling you today, these allegations are false and, to be frank, these allegations are suspect.”
She said her car, a Volkswagen Passat, has been out of her home and has been inoperative for the past six months because of a broken lock and a dead battery. She said she donated another car to Volunteers in America and did not know if that car was still registered in her name. She said she didn’t know the make and model of that car, but planned to release the information soon.
“After COVID happened, it was impossible to actually do the DMV transfer process, so it is quite possible that there is another car registered for me,” said Hardesty.
Hardesty turned his suspicions to a Facebook site called Savepdx.org,. He posted a live chat with Zoom on Thursday morning, presented by Jeff Reynolds, who quoted a Portland police incident report about a hit over Hardesty.
The Facebook site describes itself as a “Coalition to Save Portland” that is “fed up with appeasement policies that allow the quality of life in our cities to deteriorate”. The live chat was entitled “Scandal in the City Council. Guess who? “Reynolds, who served for four years as president of the Multnomah County Republican party, did not return messages asking for comment.
Portland Police Lieutenant Greg Pashley said the police received a report of a hit-and-run incident at 4:48 pm near the intersection of Southeast 148th Avenue and East Burnside Street. No quotations had been issued until Thursday morning.
“It is an open investigation. We are still investigating this, ”said the sergeant. John Holbrook, who investigates hit and run accidents. “It is in the initial phase of the investigation.”
Police chief Chuck Lovell informed Mayor Ted Wheeler of the accident investigation. Wheeler serves as the city’s police commissioner.
“There is a criminal investigation underway,” said Jim Middaugh, the mayor’s spokesman. “The mayor does not want to comment.”
– Maxine Bernstein
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