Imagine this: Your boss is in trouble with the law. You spend your days at work helping him deal with the heat. You do such a good job that he hires you as his private attorney.
That means you now spend your off-hours and vacation time collecting a second paycheck on your own time from your boss’s personal bank account. You may end up having to call as witnesses some of your own subordinates from work. Oh yeah—and if you lose the case, your former rival could become your new boss.
If you work for Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto, that’s the position you may find yourself in. And if you’re Lt. Bruce McCain (pictured above), one of Giusto’s closest advisers and a lawyer accustomed to defending unpopular clients, you see no conflict in the arrangement.
“I’ve got a client who asked me to represent him, and I’ve agreed to do it,” McCain told WWire.
At the sheriff’s office, McCain is part of Giusto’s executive staff—acting as his main grant writer, running interference on legislative issues and working as his backup press spokesman. McCain is a 25-year veteran and makes $99,891 a year.
But these days he’s also moonlighting as his boss’s personal attorney, defending Giusto against the state agency that certifies Oregon law-enforcement officials.
The agency, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, is investigating whether Giusto repeatedly lied to the public—including about what he knew regarding former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sexual abuse in the 1970s of a teen-age girl. The board could strip Giusto of his badge after the Police Policy Committee hears his case Feb. 12.
When DPSST began investigating Giusto in April, Giusto made McCain the go-between for the sheriff’s office. In that role, McCain arranged interviews and handed over documents to DPSST. He also took over as press spokesman on the issue, helping Giusto defend himself to the public.
On Oct. 20, with the investigation winding down, Giusto officially retained McCain as his attorney. McCain immediately fired off a letter to DPSST informing them of the change. He asked that all further messages for Giusto be sent to McCain’s private address, email and phone, but said he would also continue to act as point man for DPSST at the sheriff’s office.
McCain says he’s using his accrued vacation time while he works as Giusto’s attorney, and that he hasn’t been in the sheriff’s office since Oct. 24. He insists no taxpayer money is being used to pay for him providing legal defense for Giusto.
“Please do not write that the Sheriff placed me ‘on paid leave’ to represent him,” McCain wrote in an email to WWire. “That is true only in the narrowest sense that the county is paying off some of my accrued vacation hours, which I have chosen to spend representing a client rather than in the tropics.”
Despite McCain’s efforts to draw a bright line between his work for the sheriff’s office and his work for Giusto, the strange setup highlights one of the murky uncertainties at the root of the Giusto investigation: Is the state investigating private citizen Bernie Giusto, or Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto?
“It might be both,” says Multnomah County Attorney Agnes Sowle. She notes that the county code says only she can represent the sheriff in his official capacity, unless she or the county commissioners make an exception. They haven’t made that exception.
McCain insists the investigation concerns Giusto as a private individual, so there’s no county approval required. But the case probes Giusto’s conduct both before — and after — he took office.
Some outsiders may question whether McCain was already advocating for Giusto — on taxpayers’ dime — before Giusto hired him as his attorney.
McCain insists that’s not the case. “I wasn’t practicing law,” he says. “If there was a DPSST-related question, I would simply answer them on behalf of the agency and on behalf of the sheriff.”
In many ways, McCain’s background makes him Giusto’s ideal attorney. He works as a part-time instructor for DPSST and is a graduate of the Lewis & Clark School of Law.
And McCain is used to the public spotlight, running against incumbent state Rep. Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) for the District 47 House seat in 2006. As a Republican, McCain ran far to the right of Merkley, accusing the four-term rep of being out of touch with voters. Merkley beat McCain with 64 percent of the vote.
As a lawyer, McCain hasn’t shied away from controversy either. He represented the conservative Oregon Citizens Alliance in its efforts to petition for a statewide anti-gay rights law in 1992. When several local businesses tried to ban OCA canvassers, McCain told a reporter it “would take us back to Mississippi in the 1950s” if they were barred.
McCain also has some personal stake in keeping Giusto as sheriff. If Giusto goes (and it’s unclear if Giusto losing his badge would disqualify him from serving as sheriff), the job would go to former Sheriff Bob Skipper, Giusto’s official chosen successor.
McCain lost a race against Skipper for sheriff in 1989. In that campaign, McCain alleged Skipper had been hand-picked as assistant sheriff in order to sabotage McCain’s campaign.
Office politics could also affect McCain’s work defending Giusto when it comes to calling witnesses for Giusto’s defense. McCain’s subordinates at work could be in the awkward position of being asked—by their boss—to testify for his client.
McCain says that won’t happen unless the DPSST board strips Giusto of his badge—a result McCain and Giusto will work hard to avoid. Giusto has said he’s confident he’ll be cleared of any wrongdoing.
McCain insists his role as Giusto’s lawyer can also stand up to scrutiny.
“That’s a legitimate concern, and anticipated well in advance,” McCain says. “We are being very transparent with this.”
Ask Brucie how he got his law degree. Heard of employer-paid tuition reimbursements? I think you’ll find the taxpayers are indeed paying for Bernie’s legal defense.
Portland has a long history of putting sociopaths in office and then being unwilling or unable to remove them..
can you say Penny Harrington?
Once again…Bernie is in the news in a negative way….the fact the he was Neil’s driver SHOULD have been enough to get rid of him….
McCain must be incredibly dense or has a very bad memory. Take a look at Lee Graham.
He did Bernie’s bidding until it all went bad & Bernie left him twisting in the wind.
The MCSO Dep’s Assoc went after him & he was forced to leave MCSO. Now he’s humping a district at a patrolman’s wage in Gresham.
His former boss says he left MCSO "to go back to the road." As if he couldn’t have simply picked up a set of keys to a marked MCSO unit and walked outside.
Gosh, I bet DPSST had to twist Graham’s arm to be interviewed for the current investigation. "Payback is a Medevac" Bernard.
Hope you got some better answers for DPSST than the flaming bullshit you spun on the Graham matter.
[...] “I’m ready to take on any police officer who wants to run for sheriff,” says McCain, who served as former Sheriff Bernie Giusto’s personal lawyer and top political aide. [...]