The Oregon Department of Justice has finished its review of former Oregon State Police Detective David Steele, who was convicted in 2014 of forging a document and official misconduct in a federal murder case he investigated.
The misconduct took place during the investigation and prosecution of white supremacist couple David Joey Pederson and Holly Grigsby, who went on a killing spree in three states, including Oregon, in 2011.
The couple was eventually sentenced to life in prison, but Senior U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty, who presided over the case, found that Oregon State Police Detective David Steele committed "egregious misconduct," during his investigation. He called on the Oregon Department of Justice to review Steele's conduct "to ensure that similar misconduct does not recur and that Detective Steele's prior conduct has not resulted in a miscarriage of justice in other cases."
The review, released this week by the OSP in response to a records request from The Oregonian, found that problems in the OSP Major Crimes Section contributed to some of Detective Steele's misconduct.
The review found that the Major Crimes Section was critically understaffed and its detectives managed high workloads with little supervision.
Investigators did not find evidence of a pattern of dishonest behavior, but "given the high workload and flexible work environment of MCS, dishonest, or even dilatory,behavior would be difficult to detect if it were to occur," the report concluded.
It also found that the Oregon State Police lacked a clear policy on how detectives should store and disclose digital evidence like recordings and photographs.
"Because technology is frequently used by criminals to commit crimes and by law enforcement as a means to collect evidence, some form of digital evidence will be present in almost any case. For that reason, we recommend that OSP adopt a specific evidence-handling and disclosure policy regarding digital records and recordings," investigators wrote.
OSP spokesman Lieutenant Bill Fugate said the agency is committed to making the necessary changes.
Detective Steele resigned last year after he was convicted of official misconduct and forgery. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation.
You can read the full Oregon Department of Justice review of the case.