Baker City Manager Barry Murphy is proposing to use some of the taxes that guests pay at motels and other lodging businesses be diverted to the city's general fund, which includes the fire and police departments.

BAKER CITY — Shannon Regan, the Baker City police detective who had been on paid administrative leave since July 2021, was fired on Dec. 29, 2022, City Manager Jonathan Cannon said on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Cannon said that because this is a personnel matter, he is “limited” on what he can say regarding the specific reason that he dismissed Regan, a 17-year officer with the police department and its lead detective when she was put on leave.

“I know that the newspaper and citizens are interested in this matter, however, it is a personnel matter,” Cannon wrote in an emal to the Herald. “The law states that I am limited in what I can share publicly about employment matters. It is important that I respect the law and the rights of my employees and former employees.”

Police Chief Ty Duby placed Regan on leave after the attorney representing a murder suspect alleged that Regan, the lead detective in the case, listened to five phone calls between the suspect and the attorney in 2020, and by doing so violated the suspect’s constitutional rights.

The city had been paying Regan, who is a member of the police union, about $6,000 per month while she is on leave. She did not receive a severance package, Cannon said.

Officials from the Oregon Department of Justice who investigated the situation concluded in October 2022 there was no basis for criminal charges against Regan based on the allegations regarding the phone calls.

Dan Thenell, the Portland attorney who represents Regan, said in October that a letter from a senior assistant attorney general to Greg Baxter, Baker County district attorney, “completely vindicates Shannon.”

“She’s been on administrative leave for 16 months, and it’s time to put her back to work,” Thenell said on Oct. 21. “She’s suffered under the publicity of this investigation.”

Thenell said in a phone interview on Wednesday morning that he needed to check with Regan before making a statement about the end of her employment with the city.

Thenell had not been in touch again with the Herald before the deadline for Thursday’s issue.

The Baker City Council, meeting in an executive session closed to the public on Tuesday night, Jan. 3, discussed with a “labor attorney the potential impacts of the change in employment status of Shannon Regan,” Cannon wrote in an email to the Herald on Wednesday morning.

Cannon said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon that he scheduled the executive session to ensure councilors “were up to speed” on the situation and the possibility that Regan will legally challenge her dismissal.

Cannon said councilors talked with an attorney the city has hired from the Lake Oswego firm Peck Rubanoff & Hatfield. Cannon said the city uses attorneys from that firm for labor issues.

Oregon’s Public Meetings Law allows city councils to meet in executive sessions to discuss certain topics, although councilors can’t make any decisions during such sessions.

The exemption the city cited in its announcement of Tuesday’s meeting agenda is for consulting with an attorney regarding “current litigation or litigation likely to be filed.”

Duby has assigned another officer as the lead detective.

Cannon said the city will advertise for a patrol officer position that will return the department to its regular staffing level.

Accusation that led to administrative leave

Attorney Jim Schaeffer of La Grande sought during the summer of 2021 to have all charges dismissed against his client, Shawn Quentin Greenwood, arguing that Regan, by listening to the phone calls which Greenwood made while in the Baker County Jail, had violated Greenwood’s constitutional rights.

Schaeffer argued in court that Regan’s conduct was “egregious” and an “intrusion and violation of my client’s constitutional rights.”

Although police can legally access and listen to calls that jail inmates make to friends or family, conversations with attorneys are protected by attorney-client privilege.

Judge Matt Shirtcliff of Baker County Circuit Court declined to dismiss all charges against Greenwood.

But the judge did rule that Baxter couldn’t use at trial any evidence that Regan collected after Sept. 14, 2020, the day her computer was used to access and play recordings of the phone calls.

In early September 2021, prior to a scheduled trial, Greenwood accepted a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office in which he pleaded no contest to three lesser charges and was sentenced to 90 months in prison.

Greenwood, of Vale, had been charged with first-degree murder in the January 2020 fatal shooting of Angela Parrish in Baker City. He pleaded no contest (which has the same effect as a conviction) to criminally negligent homicide, first-degree burglary, and attempting to elude law enforcement.

Five other counts, including first-degree murder, were dismissed in a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office.

Baxter, in a press release at the time of Greenwood’s pleas, said: “The Baker County District Attorney’s Office offered the plea agreement in this case after it was apparent that many important pieces of evidence would not be available at trial due to the lead police investigator listening to privileged telephone conversations between the defendant and his attorney. The state believed that at trial, that the defense would have focused on the actions of Baker City Police Detective Shannon Regan thereby clouding the evidence concerning the crimes committed by Greenwood.”

In July 2021, after Schaeffer filed a motion to dismiss charges against Greenwood, citing the phone calls, Duby and Baxter asked Oregon State Police to investigate and determine whether Regan could be charged with official misconduct.

Thenell said in October that he believes Baxter “panicked” after Schaeffer filed his motion, and that Baxter overestimated the effect that Schaeffer’s claims about Regan’s actions had on the district attorney’s case against Greenwood.

Thenell contends that Baxter should have recognized that the situation “was not the constitutional crisis he made it out to be.”

Baxter declined to comment on Wednesday morning.

In October he released a written statement following the Department of Justice’s letter:

“The Baker County District Attorney’s Office appreciates the Department of Justice’s investigation into this conflict case for possible criminal charges involving Detective Shannon Regan. Beyond a reasonable doubt is a high standard and the DOJ determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with criminal charges. The District Attorney’s Office will now move forward with finalizing a decision on whether Detective Regan’s actions in the Greenwood case will allows the office to use her as a witness in future criminal cases. That determination has a different standard that must be applied.”

Thenell, however, contended in October that the different standards aren’t relevant, and that the Department of Justice’s conclusion about Regan should be sufficient to alleviate any concerns city officials might have about her ability to work as a detective, and concerns Baxter might have about being able to use her as a witness in criminal cases.