Trimet stabbing saga part 2+3

Steve Duin

I think that if Fadi was able to con Trimet to this extent then he should be given a medal. I'm not saying that he did fake it, but if he did pull this off he's a better liar than Neil Mcfarlane himself!
Part 1 is HERE! 

Apparently Trimet ended the security detail after all these articles.
That story is HERE!

When TriMet driver Fadi Hamad reported he was stabbed on that July afternoon in 2013, it's hard to say who bought fully into his story.
One aggravated citizen - claiming to be a member of Hamad's extended family - certainly didn't. He contacted TriMet. He didn't hesitate to leave his phone number.

And the fallout from that call makes me wonder, once again, if Portland police were sufficiently aggressive in investigating the stabbing of Hamad, now a TriMet road supervisor.
According to police reports, Det. Paul Dolbey struck out in his initial investigation into the stabbing, which occurred outside the TriMet break room at Southeast Foster and 92^nd Avenue.
The incident was the second that spring involving TriMet drivers in southeast Portland.  A weapons expert, Paul McRedmond, has long argued that the drivers likely stabbed themselves.
In Hamad's case, police could find no witnesses. When the bureau's forensic sketch artist fleshed out the suspect - described by Hamad as a white male with a checkerboard tattoo across his throat - none of the leads panned out. Dolbey suspended his inquiry.
"Lack of tangible leads," he writes.

I say if Fadi conned his way into the supervisors job they should give him a medal

But in December 2013, the bureau was put on alert by David Hadley, an investigator hired by CorVel, the third-party administrator sorting through Hamad's workers comp claim.
Hadley - a former Multnomah County sheriff's deputy - said TriMet had received a tip from someone saying Hamad "stabbed himself, and then claimed he was attacked by an unknown individual."
The tipster was sufficiently annoyed that he left a call-back number with TriMet. Hadley texted him, and was surprised when the guy agreed to meet.
In that face-off, Hadley said, the tipster claimed he'd overheard Hamad say he'd "made up the description of the suspect," and that the driver's family was aghast.
Based on Hadley's notes from that conversation, Dolbey arranged his own meeting with the caller.
The tipster told Dolbey he spoke to Hamad on a weekly basis. He said he'd heard Hamad complain about his job and voice his desire to quit. He believed, Dolbey writes, that "Hamad would make up being stabbed just so he would not have to work any longer."
When Dolbey asked if Hamad had confessed to lying about being stabbed, the guy said, "(Fadi) is family. I really don't want to get involved."
Asked if he had direct knowledge that Hamad lied about the assault, the family member added, "Probably," then suggested the detective talk to another source who "knows what really happened."
That name has been blacked out of Dolbey's 2014 report.
And, curiously, there is no indication Dolbey conducted further interviews before forwarding his findings to the district attorney on the possibility of charging Hamad with initiating a false report.
Deputy DA John Copic said he was intrigued by the case. He was also concerned that CorVel, not the police bureau, was conducting the more aggressive investigation.
When TriMet received another anonymous tip disputing Hamad's story in May 2014, Hadley said Copic called him several times "to make sure I would not seek out this witness. He wanted to make sure I understood Portland police needed to do the follow-up."
"The insurance people presented interesting information," Copic said Tuesday. "But because of their bias in the case, it had to be investigated by an independent source. For me, that source was the Portland Police Bureau."
Copic said he made several requests to the PPB "to conduct a thorough investigation of all witnesses."
When that didn't happen, Copic decided he couldn't prosecute Hamad for initiating a false report. As he wrote on the no-complaint, "Additional follow-up and interview of named witnesses would be necessary."
TriMet, meanwhile, has gone out of its way to keep this entire mess under wraps. TriMet did not acknowledge a tape of this call existed until Tuesday, when spokeswoman Mary Fetsch confirmed that in December 2013 "an anonymous male called our Customer Service line to say that Hamad stabbed himself."
Because the tape was promptly turned over to CorVel as part of an active workers' comp case, Fetsch argues, it is exempt from disclosure.
If the DA's office wants to reconsider charges of initiating a false report against Hamad, it must do so before mid-July, when the statute of limitations expires.
Hamad did not respond to several requests for comment.
And, yes, TriMet is still paying $152,000 annually to keep a security guard parked outside the break room on S.E. Foster where, 21 months ago, someone pulled a knife.
-- Steve Duin
sduin@oregonian.com

Steve Duin: Portland police lethargic in probing TriMet stabbing case | OregonLive.com