Sandy officer's DUII arrest surfaces

By Marcus Hathcock

The Sandy Post, Feb 6, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (200 Reader comments)

contributed photos - Washington County Sheriff's Office / Sandy Post

William J. Bergin's booking photos from his March 8, 2007, arrest.

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A Sandy police officer was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants while off-duty in Sherwood, recent court proceedings revealed.

Sherwood officers took William J. Bergin, 26, into custody early on March 8, 2007, after he showed up to his ex-girlfriend’s house drunk. According to police reports, he then repeatedly lied to officers, refused a breath test and threatened to hurt himself.

The information surfaced several weeks ago, during depositions for the federal lawsuit contesting the fatal police shooting of Fouad Kaady in 2005 – of which Bergin was a part. Kaady family attorney Michelle Burrows’ law office said the information wasn’t entirely important to their case, however, it was used as a test to see if Bergin would lie about what happened.

He didn’t.

At about 3:21 a.m. March 8, 2007, Amy Lynn Seely called Sherwood Police in tears, telling them that her ex-boyfriend, Bergin, had showed up at her house, unwanted, according to police reports. Bergin was off duty at the time, on personal leave.

Seely told authorities that Bergin probably was there to collect some of his items, since he was in the process of moving out of the Bedstraw Terrace home, but she didn’t feel comfortable with him there at such a late hour. She said he had been having emotional problems since the 2005 shooting.

When police arrived at the house, they found Bergin on his knees in the garage, trying to get inside the house by picking the door lock with a screwdriver.

“It was apparent to me that Mr. Bergin was likely intoxicated,” wrote Officer Randy Johnson. “(His) eyes were watery and bloodshot and his movements were slow and lethargic.”

For at least the next hour, Bergin had trouble keeping his balance, and officers caught him several times as he stumbled.

Bergin told the Sherwood officers that he was at the house to get some of his personal belongings and tools.

When Officer Jason Newton asked Bergin how much he had to drink, Bergin replied, “I don’t know, I had a few drinks downtown,” later specifying that he had four drinks at Rock Bottom and Kell’s Pub.

He admitted that after having four drinks in downtown Portland, he drove 18 miles to Sherwood. Then he said he drank two or three more beers in the garage.

He changed his story a couple times, the report stated.

“I asked him why he lied to me,” Officer Jason Newton wrote. “He told me that he was a cop and knew the routine.”

Bergin refused to perform voluntary field sobriety tests, saying, “No, I am a cop; I am not doing (a) test.” He said that as someone who nabs about three DUII drivers a week in Sandy, he knew the drill.

Bergin’s behavior stuck out to Newton.

“As we were talking, Mr. Bergin seemed to be having severe mood swings,” he wrote. “He would be talking with me one minute and then the next minute he would be crying and mumbling to the point where I had to keep asking him to calm down …”

According to the report, Bergin started crying, mentioning that he had shot Kaady.

“I informed him that I could (imagine) that he is having a hard time, but I had to do my job,” Newton wrote.

About an hour and a half after police were dispatched, Bergin agreed to take a breath test, and registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.12 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08.

At the Sherwood Police Department, Bergin asked to call his attorney alone in his holding cell. When given the chance, however, he decided to call Seely instead.

Officer Johnson, still at Seely’s house, was about to clear the scene, when Seely ran up to him.

“She was crying and told me she just got three or four calls coming from Bill,” Johnson said.

After Seely told Bergin their relationship was over, Bergin hung up the phone. He then called two more times, leaving chilling voicemail messages.

On one, Bergin said, “I hope you are happy because I’m dead!” On another he said, “Apparently you don’t care, I love you anyways. I’m done; I lost my job, my career, this is the last straw!”

He ended the message by saying, “I will get access to a gun and as soon as I am released I’m going to put a bullet in my head.”

Bergin later revealed that he was taking the antidepressants Trazodone and Celexa, as well as Wellbutrin.

(Recent studies have revealed that those antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior.)

As Newton completed Bergin’s paperwork, Bergin asked him if he could just go to Detox. He then told Newton that he “has pulled over plenty of drunken cops, and has given them a ride home,” the report stated.

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