A veteran Portland police officer says a routine welfare check turned into the injury that may have ended his career, after he tumbled down roughly six concrete steps outside a Sellwood-Moreland home that had no handrails on either side. Officer Bradley Jett has filed a $2 million lawsuit against 76-year-old homeowner Rosemary Southwood, claiming her staircase violated city code and left him with a broken finger, dislocated fingers, head and shoulder injuries, and lasting damage to his hand.
Jett, who has served with the Portland Police Bureau for 17 years, was checking on Southwood's welfare when he tried to shut and lock her front door and the handle suddenly came loose, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. He fell down the front steps, breaking one finger, dislocating two others, and suffering injuries to his head, arm and shoulder. Southwood was transported away from her southeast Portland home by emergency personnel, though the outlet's reporting does not detail her condition at the time.
A Stairway With No Rails, and a Code Requirement
At the heart of Jett's lawsuit, filed August 10 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, is a straightforward claim: Southwood's staircase had no railings on either side, in violation of Portland city code, which requires outside staircases with more than three steps to have a handrail. Under Portland City Code Section 29.30.080, exterior residential staircases with more than three risers that serve as regular access to a dwelling must have firmly fastened, well-maintained handrails, with those rails required to sit between 30 and 38 inches above the stair treads. Southwood installed black handrails down both sides of the stairs in 2025, after Jett's fall.
Jett's attorney, Kirk Mylander, filed the suit on his client's behalf and says workers' compensation does not adequately cover Jett's losses. Jett has non-economic damages including aggravation of an existing post-traumatic stress disorder, lost wages, and a disabling loss of motion and grip strength in his hand. He went on leave about six months after his fall, and his ability to return to his career remains uncertain, per the same account.
Why Oregon Officers Can Sue at All
Police officers suing over on-the-job injuries is exceptionally rare, but Oregon law gives them a clearer path than most states. In the 1984 case Christensen v. Murphy, the Oregon Supreme Court abolished the common-law “firefighter's rule,” which in many states bars first responders from suing property owners for hazards they encounter while on duty. That 1984 ruling means Jett is not legally barred from pursuing Southwood over the stairway hazard he says caused his fall.
Oregon law also lets injured workers collect statutory workers' compensation while separately suing a negligent third party for damages the comp system does not cover. Under Oregon Revised Statutes Section 656.154, employees injured on the job — including emergency responders — who receive workers' comp benefits retain the right to file third-party personal injury lawsuits against non-employer tortfeasors, according to Ricci Wolf Law. That distinction matters because Oregon workers' comp caps temporary total disability payouts at two-thirds of a worker's average weekly wage and explicitly excludes non-economic damages such as pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, per Lew, Kelly & Price — the exact category of damages Jett's $2 million demand leans on.
Legal Doctrines That Frame the Case
Jett's presence on Southwood's property was itself grounded in a specific legal doctrine. Under Article I, Section 9 of the Oregon Constitution, police officers conducting welfare checks may enter private property without a warrant under the emergency aid exception if they hold an objectively reasonable belief that an occupant needs immediate help, according to FindLaw.
Mylander has pointed to a December 2025 Oregon Supreme Court ruling, Stone v. Witt, which he says increased the likelihood that injured police officers will prevail when they sue. That decision expanded third-party tort principles by holding that defendants can face civil negligence liability when their conduct creates a foreseeable risk of physical injury to others.
Any defense of the case will likely lean on Oregon's modified comparative negligence statute, ORS 31.600, which allows an injured plaintiff to recover damages so long as their own fault does not exceed 50 percent — though any award gets reduced in proportion to that share of fault. That standard opens the door for Southwood's side to argue Jett contributed to his own fall, whether by pulling hard on the loose door handle or otherwise, which could shrink any eventual jury award even if Jett wins.
Not the First Officer Lawsuit Against the City
Jett's suit follows a separate, smaller case involving another Portland officer. Fred Wiechmann filed a $1 million lawsuit in 2024 after suffering a broken leg when a suspect ran him over in a stolen car, naming the city and its insurance company and claiming they refused to pay underinsured motorist benefits. That lawsuit was dismissed months later, and the Portland City Council instead voted in November 2024 to approve a $25,000 payout resolving the dispute.
Jett's case adds to a run of civil suits against Portland police and the city over on-duty conduct and injuries, including a $2.5 million stolen-car chase suit and a federal case from a Portland cyclist. Back in 2020, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office had publicly recognized Jett and the Portland Police Bureau's Street Crimes Unit for helping apprehend a fleeing driver who crashed and broke into an apartment — a highlight from a career now clouded by uncertainty over whether Jett can return to police work at all.
