An Oregon State Police lieutenant is under internal investigation, accused of making antisemitic remarks during a conversation with another supervisor, according to an email to state lawmakers.
State police Capt. Kyle Kennedy on Monday confirmed the investigation and said it began almost immediately after agency officials received a complaint from a whistleblower last week.
The complaint named Lt. Casi Hegney, commander of the state police Capitol Mall patrol, and alleged she shared comments considered “well known hateful tropes” with a state police sergeant, according to the email.
Hegney, who joined state police 17 ½ years ago and was promoted to lieutenant in 2023, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Hegney remains on the job, Kennedy said.
“Lt. Hegney is not on administrative leave because the initial complaint did not warrant administrative leave,” he said. “However, the agency can change that decision with employees at any time during an investigation if the circumstances warrant doing so.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained the email sent to six state lawmakers and the state Department of Administrative Services.
It was from a state police lieutenant who identified himself as Jewish. He wrote in the email that he was concerned about the “integrity of the investigation process” because he said the lead investigator is a “close friend” of both Hegney and a key witness.
That creates “an appearance of compromised impartiality,” the lieutenant wrote in the email. He requested an outside, independent investigation of Hegney.
The lieutenant initially reported Hegney’s alleged remarks via a separate email that was forwarded to the state police Office of Professional Standards.
He wrote that a sergeant had come to him about a conversation with Hegney in December when Hegney allegedly shared the offensive remarks.
He also noted that he heard that leadership in the agency didn’t like that he originally shared the bias complaint in an email. That disapproval, he wrote, raises “concern that formal reporting and documentation may be being discouraged.” The Oregonian/OregonLive is not naming him to protect his identity as a whistleblower.
By Monday night, Kennedy said that the investigation would be handled by an outside agency but did not identify which agency. He said he did not know how long the inquiry would last.
As commander of the Capitol Mall patrol office, Hegney oversees patrol officers who provide law enforcement coverage for state buildings in downtown Salem and the surrounding area.
The Oregonian/OregonLive previously reported on two state police bias cases, including an extraordinary effort by state police supervisors and state lawyers to keep a sergeant on the job after he repeatedly used a racist slur for years at work.
Jeffrey A. Allison, demoted in March 2017 for his frequent use of a slur against Black people, was allowed to retire quietly in 2018 without his supervisors reporting his misconduct to the state agency that certifies police as required. A trooper angry at Allison for targeting him in an unrelated internal investigation finally reported his boss.
In another bias case reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive, state police in 2019 fired Trooper Peter Arnautov, a nearly 21-year state police veteran, five months after he was reported to said, “I hate gays,” once to other officers during a pause in firearms training. During a mitigation hearing, the union lawyer representing Arnautov challenged the firing, pointing to supervisors who were never disciplined for arguably worse behavior.
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