The Associated Press
February 29, 2016
The Register-Guard says the police department issued a statement late Friday saying Carolyn McDermed "announced her retirement."
University police spokeswoman Kelly McIver says more information on the leadership transition will be available Monday.
In September, a federal jury awarded $755,000 to a former University of Oregon public safety officer after finding McDermed and a top lieutenant retaliated against him for speaking out about department wrongdoing. Jurors found McDermed violated James Cleavenger's First Amendment rights when she fired him in 2012 and in 2014 when she tried to prove he was too untruthful to testify.
McDermed testified that she ordered creation of a dossier portraying him as untruthful because she was worried Cleavenger was a danger to himself and other officers, not because he complained to her superiors and filed a lawsuit that made her and her department a national laughingstock. Jurors unanimously found that his filing of the lawsuit, along with his earlier complaints, were a driving factor in her decisions to punish him.
The university has appealed.
McDermed previously worked at the Eugene Police Department. She was first hired at the university in 2008 as assistant chief. She served as interim chief before being commissioned as chief in July 2013.