The Oregon Department of Justice has cleared the officers involved in a deadly shooting last December. Officers stopped Michael Tyler Jacques in downtown Bend after receiving reports that Jacques was driving erratically.
Oregon State Police said officers first used a taser on Jacques before shooting him. Officials placed Scott Schaier and Marc Tisher on administrative leave following the shooting. Schaier is back on duty, Lt. Clint Burleigh of Bend Police told the Source Weekly Tuesday, while Tisher remains on leave.
Last week, the Oregon DOJ released a report stating investigators did not have enough evidence to find criminal liability in the shooting. The family now plans to file a civil lawsuit, according to the Jacques family attorney Jennifer Coughlin.
“This is not unexpected,” Coughlin said of the DOJ findings. “However, the Department of Justice letter honestly raises more questions than it does answers, and our job is now to pursue vigorously, on behalf of the family, whether or not Mr. Jacques’ constitutional rights were violated.”
Coughlin says she plans to obtain the entire file related to the investigation, and also to conduct her own interviews with eyewitnesses before seeking damages.
This article appears in Jul 20-26, 2017.
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