The Portland Police Bureau employee who triggered the investigation that eventually led to the demotion of then-police chief Derrick Foxworth back in 2006 now may lose her job as well.

kgw.com

Angela Oswalt in a photo released by the union.

Angela Oswalt was notified Thursday that the city of Portland was proposing she be terminated “for activities that she engaged in as a representative of her union, AFSCME Local 189, as well as for some events that occurred in 2006,” according to a press release sent to KGW from the union.

Oswalt is the Local 189’s vice president and shop steward. She has been on paid administrative leave since April 2, 2007, while the Bureau investigated allegations against her. At that time, she was accused of an off-duty driving incident, spreading rumors and also refusing to answer questions of internal investigators because they were about union matters.

Oswalt first made the news back in 2006, when she accused then-Police Chief Foxworth of sexual impropriety and misconduct. She also released emails containing sexually explicit language that she claimed Foxworth sent to her when she worked as a desk clerk.

 Background: Sex scandal involving Oswalt & Foxworth

Oswalt claimed that Foxworth, who was married at the time, coerced her into a secret sexual relationship and that she feared for her future employment if she did not submit.

James Hester, staff representative for Local 189 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents the Police Bureau¹s civil employees, said “this latest proposed discipline is a continuation of the illegal treatment of Ms. Oswalt that we have been fighting since March of 2007, when we filed an unfair labor practice with the state Employment Relations Board. We strongly believe that the city cannot interrogate a union representative through the internal affairs process about her union activity, such as conversations with co-workers about working conditions.”

He went on to argue that “the city cannot discipline a union representative who refused to talk about her union activity in an IA interview. Yet that is exactly what the city was trying to do.”

Hester said if Oswalt is terminated, the union will appeal.