By Aimee Green
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — A long-time Portland police officer has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the city, its insurance company and the man who ran over him in a stolen car in 2022.
Fred Wiechmann states that the city and its Texas-based insurance company, USAA General Indemnity Company, has refused to pay underinsured motorist benefits for his broken leg and other injuries that have sidelined him from the police force for well over 1.5 years. The suit also seeks damages from Jacob Mathew Anderson, who was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for the second-degree assault of Wiechmann and for stealing a different car in a separate case.
Representatives from the city attorney’s office and the insurance company didn’t return requests for comment for this story.
Anderson, who is at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, couldn’t be reached for comment. It’s unlikely he could pay any significant amount of damages given that authorities say he was homeless at the time of his arrest, and he will be locked up for years to come.
Wiechmann, a 29-year veteran of the Police Bureau, responded to a report of a stolen truck in the 15300 block of Southeast Powell Boulevard around 9:30 a.m. on July 24, 2022 . Prosecutors said Wiechmann approached the pickup when it suddenly backed into the front yard of a home and then accelerated forward into Wiechmann. Surveillance video shows the truck running over Wiechmann’s body.
Anderson fled the state and was arrested nine days later in Idaho.
Wiechmann’s lawsuit states he’s racked up more than $50,000 in medical bills and lost wages. At the time of Anderson’s sentencing in March, he hadn’t been able to return to duty because of his injuries and multiple surgeries. A police spokesperson confirmed last week that Wiechmann is still on leave.
The lawsuit states that his medical expenses will continue to accumulate, including because he will need to undergo another surgery.
This isn’t the first time Wiechmann was struck by a car while on the job. In 2005, an intoxicated driver in Northeast Portland ran over the same leg that Anderson ran over in 2022.
The lawsuit was filed June 5 in Multnomah County Circuit Court . Lake Oswego attorney Daniel Thenell is representing Wiechmann.
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