A former Forest Grove police officer must complete community service and stay away from alcohol after a judge found him guilty of creating a drunken disturbance outside a stranger’s home displaying a Black Lives Matter flag in 2020.
Washington County Circuit Judge Gary Williams convicted Steven C. Teets of second-degree criminal mischief and acquitted him of second-degree disorderly conduct during a trial Thursday.
He sentenced Teets, now 45, to 80 hours of community service and ordered him to complete anger management and alcohol abuse counseling. The judge also ordered Teets to pay a $100 fine and stay sober.
Teets was fired from the Forest Grove Police Department in December and has agreed to give up his police certification as part of a separate legal settlement with Mirella Castaneda, the resident whose home he targeted.
“It was very traumatic. I considered moving,” Castaneda told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I really questioned if the family needed something that the Forest Grove Police Department was going to be there to help.”
Teets was off-duty and intoxicated when he stumbled into the family’s driveway around 1 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2020, and began banging on the front door and garage, which had been draped in a Black Lives Matter flag.
Another police officer, Bradley Schuetz, soon arrived on scene and found Teets wandering around about 50 feet away. The officer drove Teets back to his home less than a half-mile away.
Schuetz was found not guilty of official misconduct last week after Washington County Circuit Judge Brandon Thompson determined he didn’t have enough time to knowingly violate department policy after making a snap decision to take his fellow officer home.
Schuetz quit the police force last year, and another officer who responded to the scene, Amber Daniels, was fired.
Castaneda said she pushed the Washington County District Attorney’s Office to also file charges against Sgt. Jeremy Lazenby, the desk sergeant who told Schuetz it had been OK to take Teets home.
Lazenby has since retired, state records show.
“It makes it very difficult for me to say that I feel like there’s been accountability,” Castaneda said.
She filed a lawsuit symbolically seeking $1 from Teets, but settled the matter after Teets agreed to apologize, relinquish his police certification and donate $2,000 to the Mental Health Association of Portland.
Castaneda said she’s still waiting to meet with the former officer face to face.
— Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane
