Portland Police Conclude Investigation Involving Al Gore

Prosecutors will not pursue a Portland woman's allegations against former Vice President Al Gore.

Former Vice President Al Gore

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The Portland Police Bureau has concluded its investigation on allegations made against Mr. Al Gore. The completed investigation was forwarded to the Multnomah County District Attorney on July 27, 2010.

Since the District Attorney has announced the intention to decline the case for prosecution, the Police Bureau has made all reports available on its website, portlandpolicebureau.com, with confidential information redacted.

The investigation includes Portland Police Detectives’ interviews with the woman making the allegations, Mr. Gore, friends and associates of the woman and hotel staff. The case came to the public’s attention in June 2010, when a national tabloid published several articles about the allegations. The Police Bureau received public records requests for the police reports regarding these allegations and released the redacted reports as required by public records law.

On June 30, 2010, Chief Michael Reese made the decision to re-open the case due to procedural issues with the investigation that he felt merited a more thorough review. “Over the last several weeks, Portland Police Detectives investigated this case, interviewing the people involved and others who may have information regarding this incident,” said Chief Reese.

“It is our responsibility to both parties involved to conduct a complete and fair investigation in a timely manner, and I believe we fulfilled that commitment.” The allegations against Al Gore began in December 2006, when an attorney representing the woman involved contacted the Portland Police Bureau.

Detectives arranged to meet with the woman on three different occasions. All of these meetings were cancelled by the woman’s attorney. Detectives were then told by her attorney that the woman was pursuing civil litigation. The District Attorney was notified, but without the woman’s cooperation, the case was cleared.

In January 2009, the woman involved asked Portland Police Detectives to take her statement. She read a prepared statement and a Detective asked follow-up questions. Based on the information received during the interview and due to the delay in reporting the allegation, the detectives believed they would not be able to independently corroborate the woman’s statement and decided not to contact Mr. Gore or refer the case to the District Attorney.

This latest investigation includes the following investigative actions: re-interviewing the woman involved; interviewing Mr. Gore; obtaining any potential evidence and having it examined by the Oregon State Police crime laboratory; interviewing all involved staff at the hotel and obtaining any records from Mr. Gore’s visit; determining if there is any surveillance video, invoices, room charges, etc; obtaining records from the Oregon Board of Massage Therapists pertaining to the woman involved; interviewing two people who were quoted in the media that they had knowledge of the incident; interviewing friends and associates provided by the woman involved; and determining if there were any additional witnesses that would need to be interviewed. The completed case was then forwarded to the District Attorney.

Source: News release from Portland Police