Keizer City Councilor Soraida Cross is facing a deeper state ethics investigation after initial work found she may have used her office to evade criminal trouble.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission on Friday, Oct. 10, voted unanimously to support an investigator’s recommendation that a full investigation was warranted. Results are expected by March.
The action relates to a late-night incident at Cross’s Keizer home last May when she was cited for harassment, accused of shoving a woman off a bar stool. Prosecutors later dropped the criminal charge but a citizen complaint triggered a separate ethics investigation.
A preliminary review by the ethics commission found that it appeared “attempted to use her position to avoid being issued a criminal citation” and used confidential information to reach Marion County Sheriff Nick Hunter as police were at her Keizer home.
READ IT: Ethics commission report
Cross told the ethics commission she had no intention of avoiding the citation. She said that “she did not request, imply or receive special treatment due to her position,” according to the ethics report.
She said she wanted the Salem Police Department officer to be aware he was dealing with a public official. She did so because the case could attract public attention, she said in her first known public comments on the incident.
Salem police were asked to handle a call reporting a possible assault. A Keizer woman visiting Cross’s ex-husband in a house they share said Cross without warning pushed her off a stool and onto a concrete garage floor.
The woman didn’t seek medical care but did want to press charges against Cross, a city councilor since 2023.
According to the ethics report and a police body camera recording obtained by Keizertimes showed Cross’s actions as a police officer advised her of her Miranda rights.
“You know I’m a city councilor,” she said. “You shouldn’t even be here,” she was recorded as saying.
She then mentioned her plan to play golf with Copeland and her personal friendship with Hunter. She told the Salem officer she intended to call Hunter.
WATCH THE VIDEO: Salem police body cam recording
According to the ethics report, Copeland said one of his officers told him at the time that police had responded to Cross’s home.
“He recalled telling the Keizer PD officers that he did not want to know anything further on the matter,” the report said. Copeland got a call that night from the city councilor but he didn’t answer or return the call, according to the ethics report.
Hunter said Cross texted him on his personal cell phone twice that night and then called him.
“He clarified that Ms. Cross was not asking him to do anything specific on her behalf but was insteading reaching out to ‘better understand the situation,’” the report said.
Hunter last month told Keizertimes he advised Cross to cooperate with officers.
This wasn’t Cross’s first brush with local police, she told the ethics commission. She said her then-husband had called police to their home “on multiple occasions” in an “attempt to manipulate and exert control and provoke confrontation rather than to resolve genuine safety concerns,” she said in an Aug. 11 statement to the ethics commission.
She said she referred to the Keizer chief and the Marion County sheriff in her conversation with the Salem officer “not to seek preferential treatment but to reference their prior knowledge of my circumstances.” She said this was “a matter of transparency, not leverage.”
She said she was committed to serving Keizer with integrity and transparency, the report said. Cross didn’t respond to written questions from Keizertimes about the ethics commission report and action. Cross has not responded to previous Keizertimes questions about the incident.
The preliminary review found that the initial information indicated Cross violated ethics laws by using her public office and confidential information – the sheriff’s personal phone number – that she obtained through her public service.
“It appears that Ms. Cross attempted to use her position to avoid being issued a criminal citation,” the review concluded. “It appears that Ms. Cross attempted to leverage her position as a city council member in an attempt to influence the Salem PD investigation.”
The review also found that “it appears that Ms. Cross used confidential information in an attempt to obtain a personal gain.”
READ IT: Soraida Cross statement
“This incident was not my finest hour, and I apologize for the way in which I stated law enforcement professionals’ names,” she wrote the commission.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
Keizer councilor’s comments draw ethics complaint
Keizer councilor advised officer of position, police connections during incident
Keizer councilor won’t face prosecution after May dust-up
Contact Editor Les Zaitz: [email protected]
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