QuickTake:

The committee was looking into several questionable actions by Matthew Walker, who remains a Cottage Grove police officer. But it partially blamed past leadership at the department for the culture it fostered.

A Cottage Grove police officer rehired after losing his job for misconduct should keep his law enforcement certification, a statewide police committee recommended Thursday, Aug. 20.

Matthew Walker’s October 2023 termination came after an independent investigation. Following arbitration, he regained employment in April 2025, according to information presented to the Police Policy Committee, a part of the statewide Board on Public Safety Standards and Training.

The statewide board will consider the committee’s Thursday recommendation at a future meeting. It has the power to revoke certification.

According to committee documents, Walker lost his job after an investigation found he:

  • Improperly kept a woman in the city jail in July 2022.
  • Failed to act after an agency’s Christmas party when individuals drove from the site of the party to the department despite displaying signs of intoxication.
  • Allowed friends and others to use two of the department’s automatic machine guns.  

At their meeting last week, members of the committee said Walker’s behavior took place under poor department leadership.

“I think the record is explicitly clear that the Cottage Grove Police Department was facing significant challenges in its executive leadership at the time,” Brian Hughes, Portland Police Bureau deputy chief, said during the meeting, calling the department’s leadership a “mitigating factor” in favor of Walker.

Committee members did not name the department’s past police chief. But published news reports from 2023 described the October 2022 resignation of Chief Scott Shepherd and Capt. Conrad Gagner. 

Before their resignations, Shepherd and Gagner received notices of potential termination that outlined “numerous” findings of wrongdoing, including sexual harassment in the department, according to the published reports.

Documents about Walker presented to the committee said the Cottage Grove Police Department hired an “independent investigator” to “investigate several allegations of misconduct by other members of the CGPD.” During this investigation, three findings of misconduct by Walker were sustained.

In a statement Tuesday to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, current Cottage Grove Police Chief Cory Chase said:

“I am proud of the work we are doing at the Cottage Grove Police Department and the service we are providing to our community. We have made significant strides in the time I have been here including implementing new accountability protocols and updated policies. We were also recently awarded accreditation through the Northwest Accreditation Alliance which further demonstrates our commitment to meeting the highest industry standards. We have a great team at CGPD, and I am proud of the work they are doing and their commitment to continuous improvement.”

Discussion about Walker

Walker spoke Thursday before the committee made its recommendation.

“Following a period of deep self-reflection, I have chosen the honorable path to take, which is full accountability for my actions,” Walker said. “This is including accepting the discipline that was handed down to me, including my demotion from a patrol sergeant to a patrol officer.”

Scotty Nowning, with the Salem Police Department and chair of the committee, said letters of support as well as backing from Chase, the current chief, were additional factors in favor of Walker.

But Nowning added: “I do think there’s things in here he’s doing wrong that probably anyone should know is wrong.”

The committee weighed whether to affirm an allegation of misuse of authority in connection with Walker’s handling of department weapons.

But discussion centered on Walker’s superiors and the department culture at the time.

“I’m inclined to not find misuse of authority because he was doing, I think, what the agency he grew up in allowed,” Nowning said.

The committee voted to negate an allegation of misuse of authority but affirm misconduct. Separately, members voted to take “no action” regarding Walker’s certification.

Misconduct allegations

The woman wrongly held in the Cottage Grove jail had been ordered released by a municipal judge, but had an outstanding warrant and was being prepared for transport to the Lane County Jail when Walker stepped in to stop the transfer, according to documents prepared for the committee.

“Walker indicated that when the woman was ordered to be released by the court, he met with another CGPD officer who was preparing to transport the woman and told the officer that he still needed to interview the woman as part of a broader investigation” into forgery charges, the committee document states.

The document prepared for the committee stated that Walker and two sergeants “believed they could hold someone for up to 72 hours.” The woman ended up being taken to the hospital “for an emergency” and issued a citation in lieu of custody “on the new charge.” She then was released from the hospital, the document states.

“No one really knew how long they could keep someone in the jail, and it just seemed like this information was kind of passed down through the ranks to be true, and it absolutely wasn’t,” said Nowning.

After the department’s Christmas party, Walker, while on duty, approved “at least one officer to come to the department to determine his level of impairment” by blowing in an Intoxilyzer, which measures alcohol on the breath.

“Several police officers and their family members drove from the party, after consuming alcohol, to the CGPD for testing,” the committee document states, including “the husband of one of the officers” who “displayed signs of impairment.”

“Walker told the investigator that he pulled the husband to the side and told him that he was showing signs of impairment and should not be driving or be at the police station,” the document stated. He “did not arrest or cite the man … but helped the group identify a sober driver who could drive the group home.”

Discussion about Walker, as the department’s armorer, taking guns and allowing others to use them referenced the investigation into Walker’s conduct but also the findings of the arbitrator, which differed from the investigation.

While the investigation concluded “Walker violated federal law which regulated machine guns and the state law for official misconduct,” the arbitrator did not find “sufficient evidence” of a violation of law.