PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland police have released the report that wrongly identified Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run crash last week.
Hardesty issued a strong denial of the allegation and said someone was trying to harm her reputation. Portland police later said she was not a suspect.
According to a news release from police, a 911 caller reported being rear-ended in on March 3 around 4:48 p.m. near the intersection of Southeast 148th Avenue and East Burnside Street. The caller believed the person was Commissioner Hardesty. A police investigation ruled out Hardesty as a suspect the next day.
The police report linked to the hit-and-run investigation was given to the media on Friday.
The report says the victim of the crash thought the woman who hit her looked like Hardesty.
Officers say they went to talk to Hardesty after the crash but she wasn't home. So they took a look at surveillance video from the area where the crash happened and found out that it wasn't Hardesty's car.
It was a silver Honda Accord, registered to a pair of women who live in Vancouver. Police went to talk to the women and, according to a police officer, one of the women does resemble Hardesty.
The woman who police say was driving the car has denied it, saying she loaned her car to a friend that night. She has been charged with a misdemeanor.
