White Knight, dark past

Why did Alex Stone leave policing for private security?

Pearl District leaders, dismayed by rampant crime, piles of garbage and flagrant drug use, could no longer rely on volunteer efforts to combat the neighborhood’s mounting problems.

In late 2022, a man appeared who offered a solution. Dustin “Alex” Stone told community leaders that his private security companies could outdo the police and make the Pearl safe and livable.

Neighborhood leaders put their trust in this white knight who promised much but about whom they knew little.

The Pearl District Neighborhood Association created a nonprofit, Northwest Community Conservancy, to employ Stone’s firms—Echelon Protective Services and Loving One Another—to patrol the streets and to coax campers into shelters.

Stone, 46, a muscular, 240-pounder, exudes confidence in body and manner. He’s persuasive and charismatic. Ask him about the limitations of private security and he offers sweeping sermons on street culture and community transformation, often touching on global topics such as nation-building and the Marshall Plan.

Northwest Community Conservancy pays Echelon $25,000 a month and LOA $20,000 a month from revenues that are on pace to reach nearly $1 million in the first year. The funds are derived from donations by major property owners, monthly allocations from condominium homeowners associations and contributions from businesses and renters.

About six months into the operation, progress is evident on the ground.

Stan Penkin, president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association and also a member of the NWCC board, cited an incident in which a person with a mental disturbance acted out on the street. Echelon was called, a trained outreach worker responded promptly and within five minutes all was calm.

“This is how things can be done,” Penkin said.

Another neighbor said, “I’m seeing a difference every day.”

But ask neighborhood leaders what they know about Stone’s background, and the answer is: almost nothing.

They are unaware that Stone ran afoul of his duty to be truthful and to uphold the law as a police officer.

The NW Examiner obtained records from the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards & Training, the agency that trains and certifies law enforcement officers.

Those records show that an internal affairs investigation determined Stone, a Clatskanie police officer from 2013 to 2016, was knowingly untruthful when he made sweeping accusations against his former police chief, fellow officers and the city manager. As a result, Stone faced disciplinary action, firing and the likelihood of being barred from future work in Oregon law enforcement. He voluntarily relinquished his state certification, ending his police career.

Pearl leaders had early signs of problems at Echelon, but they weren’t focused on Stone’s past.

An in-depth series on Echelon by Oregon Public Broadcasting in 2021, “The sudden and troubling rise of a private police force in Downtown Portland,” raised questions about alleged violations of individuals’ rights and Oregon’s limited regulation of private security firms.

OPB’s report did not dissuade the neighborhood association from teaming up with Echelon.

Stone called the OPB series “100 percent lies,” and his denials apparently satisfied the six Pearl neighbors who kicked off NWCC this year, making Stone’s firms the conservancy’s exclusive contractors.

Stone offers an impressive personal story. He overcame homelessness twice, once as a child and five years ago in Portland. Between those low spots, he served in the military and then made national news for his 2015 whistleblowing stand against Clatskanie Police Chief Marvin Hoover for mimicking a monkey in discounting a black woman’s complaint of police mistreatment. Hoover resigned two weeks after Stone went public.

But what Stone fails to disclose is what followed his time in the media spotlight: a seven-month investigation into his own conduct. The 2016 investigation was conducted by two experienced law enforcement officers. Initially, by former Marion County Undersheriff Greg Olson, then a follow-up inquiry by Don Johnson, who was Lake Oswego police chief at the time.

In January 2016, Stone filed a complaint against Clatskanie City Manager Greg Hinkelman for offending him by making a homophobic comment about then-Houston Mayor Annise Parker, a lesbian whom Stone said was a personal friend.

In response, the city hired Olson to look into the complaint.

Olson and Johnson each interviewed Stone three times over seven months. After hearing Stone’s wide-ranging allegations against Hoover and others, Olson and Johnson looked into the new charges and reported their findings to the city.

Police Chief Stan Grubbs summarized the results in a 19-page report in August 2016.

Stone’s most serious and alarming allegation: Hoover was a rapist who had sex with women and “young girls” while on duty and that Hoover repeatedly raped Pebbles Stone before she married Stone.

Aware that law enforcement officers have a duty to report such crimes, Stone said that if he had personal knowledge of sex crimes, “I would have come forward.”

He was not believed.

“I find that the allegation of sexual abuse by Hoover against ‘other females’ was an intentional fabrication,” Grubbs wrote. “The allegation of sexual abuse by a police officer while on duty without any basis for believing it is true is an extremely serious matter.”

Stone lodged other serious accusations against Hoover, but under questioning repeatedly cited loss of memory and lack of firsthand knowledge.

Grubbs concluded Stone was “knowingly untruthful” about “a very serious allegation of potentially criminal conduct that would subject a police officer to decertification.”

Hinkelman agreed.

“The sustained findings and policy violations appear to be well-founded, as well as Chief Grubbs’ conclusion that there has been irreparable damage to the city’s trust and confidence in your fitness to perform the duties of a police officer,” Hinkelman wrote in a Sep. 6, 2016 letter to Stone.

“Given the seriousness of your conduct, the disciplinary action I am contemplating is termination of your employment,” Hinkelman wrote.

Stone did not challenge the findings, voluntarily leaving the department on Sept. 30, 2016.

“He is not eligible for re-employment,” Hinkelman told the Examiner last month.

Stone told the Examiner he was prohibited from speaking about his work in Clatskanie under a nondisclosure agreement and settlement with the city.