A longtime Portland police officer filed a $2 million lawsuit this week against a woman after the officer fell down the front steps of her home while performing a welfare check on her.

Officer Bradley Jett’s lawsuit says “emergency personnel” had already transported Rosemary Southwood, 76, away from her home in Southeast Portland’s Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood when he tried to shut the front door and lock it. But instead, the suit says, the door handle suddenly came loose, Jett lost his balance and he tumbled down “approximately six concrete steps” — breaking his finger and injuring his head, arm and shoulder.

There were no railings on either side of the steps, the suit says, and that’s a violation of Portland city code, which requires outside staircases with more than three steps — like the ones at Southwood’s home — to have a handrail.

Southwood couldn’t be reached for comment.

Jett has been an officer with the Portland Police Bureau for 17 years, though he went on leave about six months after his fall on March 18, 2025, according to state law enforcement records. The suit states that Jett has suffered a “prolonged disability” and there’s “uncertainty concerning his ability to return to his career.”

Police seldom sue for injuries on the job.

One notable exception: In 2024, a different Portland police officer, Fred Wiechmann, filed a $1 million lawsuit saying the city and its insurance company refused to pay underinsured motorist benefits for his broken leg after a suspect ran over him in a stolen car. That suit was dismissed months later for reasons that weren’t elaborated upon in court records.

Noam Kopplestein, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jett, said the workers’ compensation system isn’t set up to adequately cover Jett’s losses, including lost wages and non-economic damages such as aggravation to Jett’s existing post-traumatic stress disorder from his years in law enforcement.

Though lawsuits like Jett’s are exceptionally rare, Kopplestein points to an Oregon Supreme Court case from earlier this year that he says increases the likelihood that injured police officers will prevail when they sue.

The suit says the month after Jett fell down the steps, Southwood installed black handrails down both sides of the stairs as part of a more extensive house remodel.

In addition to dislocating two fingers and breaking one of them, Jett suffered a disabling loss of motion and grip strength in his hand, the suit says.

The suit was filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5892791&forum_id=2#50065828)

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(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5892791&forum_id=2#50065902)