A former Vancouver police officer is suing the department and a former commander who he says made false claims about him that landed him on what’s known as a Brady list, a database of officers whose testimony prosecutors have deemed untrustworthy.
David Chamblee alleges that the former commander, Amy Foster, lied about him because she has “a hostile animus towards white male officers.” She used her position in command, he alleges, to “criticize unfairly” white men like him.
Chamblee filed the lawsuit last week against the city of Vancouver and Foster in Clark County Superior Court. The Columbian was the first to report the suit.
A Vancouver city spokesperson declined to comment, and Foster could not immediately be reached.
Chamblee retired in 2022 after spending 15 years with the Vancouver Police Department, serving as an arson and gang investigator, among other roles.
Foster, who’s also now retired, testified against Vancouver police in a 2023 federal jury trial regarding allegations of gender discrimination at the Vancouver Police Department, according to reporting by OPB.
The internal investigation of Chamblee began in 2022, when, according to the lawsuit, Oregon State Police arrested and cited Chamblee on an allegation of driving under the influence. Chamblee said he was not driving but parked off the road. He pleaded guilty in April of that year and entered a diversion program, according to the suit.
Foster was the commander who reviewed the Vancouver Police Department’s internal-affairs investigation about Chamblee’s arrest. The lawsuit said she wrote a notice-of-findings letter that included a fabricated narrative.
The claim alleges that the letter falsely reported Chamblee was involved in a collision. The lawsuit also says Foster accused him of not being accurate and giving conflicting statements during the internal-affairs investigation.
The lawsuit said the letter left “a false impression that Chamblee was intentionally dishonest when he was not.”
In July 2022, Foster’s letter was sent to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office without Chamblee’s being notified, the lawsuit claims. The office then listed him as a “Brady officer.”
Chamblee only learned in 2023 that the letter had been sent when he was called to testify in the murder trial of a man who shot and killed Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Brown, the suit said. It said defense attorneys asked him to read a passage from Foster’s letter in the courtroom, and he was “shocked and humiliated.”
In July 2024, he testified in another murder trial and again was questioned about alleged dishonesty and shown Foster’s letter. Because of this, the lawsuit claims, he was placed on leave from his current job with the Oregon State Board of Nursing until the matter was investigated. He was on leave from the job until January.
According to the suit, Chamblee was devastated and experienced panic attacks.
Last September, he reached out to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to request removal from its Brady list, according to the lawsuit.
A committee of prosecuting attorneys ruled in his favor, voting unanimously to remove him from the list, according to the lawsuit. They ruled Chamblee was not dishonest in the criminal investigation related to his arrest, the internal affairs investigation or his testimony in trials.
But Chamblee said he still remains on an online Brady list maintained by a case-management-system company, tarnishing his reputation.
“Chamblee was wrongly listed as a Brady officer by Clark County from August of 2022 until April of 2025 because Foster generated a false report with her fabricated narrative,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges Foster defamed Chamblee and caused him to be blacklisted. The suit also claims he was discriminated against, and it cites negligence and breach of contract from Vancouver police.
Chamblee is seeking a civil trial and unspecified damages.
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