A Cottage Grove police officer rehired after being fired for misconduct should retain his law enforcement certification, a statewide police committee recommended Thursday, Aug. 20.
Matthew Walker’s October 2023 termination followed an independent investigation. After arbitration, he was reinstated in April 2025, according to information presented to the Police Policy Committee, which is part of the statewide Board on Public Safety Standards and Training.
The statewide board will take up the committee’s recommendation at an upcoming meeting. It has the authority to revoke certification.
According to committee documents, Walker was fired after an investigation determined he:
Improperly held a woman in the city jail in July 2022.
Failed to act after an agency Christmas party when individuals drove from the party to the department while showing signs of intoxication.
Allowed friends and others to use two of the department’s automatic machine guns.
At last week’s meeting, committee members noted that Walker’s actions occurred under poor department leadership.
“I think the record is explicitly clear that the Cottage Grove Police Department was facing significant challenges in its executive leadership at the time,” Brian Hughes, Portland Police Bureau deputy chief, said during the meeting, describing the department’s leadership as a “mitigating factor” in Walker’s favor.
Committee members did not identify the department’s former police chief. However, published news reports from 2023 detailed the October 2022 resignations of Chief Scott Shepherd and Capt. Conrad Gagner.
Before stepping down, Shepherd and Gagner had received notices of potential termination that outlined “numerous” findings of wrongdoing, including sexual harassment within the department, according to those reports.
Documents about Walker presented to the committee stated that the Cottage Grove Police Department brought in an “independent investigator” to “investigate several allegations of misconduct by other members of the CGPD.” During that investigation, three findings of misconduct by Walker were sustained.
In a statement Tuesday to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, current Cottage Grove Police Chief Cory Chase said:
“I am proud of the work we are doing at the Cottage Grove Police Department and the service we are providing to our community. We have made significant strides in the time I have been here including implementing new accountability protocols and updated policies. We were also recently awarded accreditation through the Northwest Accreditation Alliance which further demonstrates our commitment to meeting the highest industry standards. We have a great team at CGPD, and I am proud of the work they are doing and their commitment to continuous improvement.”
Walker addressed the committee Thursday before its recommendation was issued.
“Following a period of deep self-reflection, I have chosen the honorable path to take, which is full accountability for my actions,” Walker said. “This is including accepting the discipline that was handed down to me, including my demotion from a patrol sergeant to a patrol officer.”
Scotty Nowning, with the Salem Police Department and chair of the committee, said letters of support along with backing from Chase, the current chief, were additional factors weighing in Walker’s favor.
However, Nowning added: “I do think there’s things in here he’s doing wrong that probably anyone should know is wrong.”
The committee considered whether to affirm an allegation of misuse of authority related to Walker’s handling of department weapons.
But the conversation focused on Walker’s superiors and the department culture of that era.
“I’m inclined to not find misuse of authority because he was doing, I think, what the agency he grew up in allowed,” Nowning said.
The committee voted to negate the allegation of misuse of authority but affirm misconduct. Separately, members voted to take “no action” regarding Walker’s certification.
The woman who was wrongly held in the Cottage Grove jail had been ordered released by a municipal judge, but had an outstanding warrant and was being prepared for transport to the Lane County Jail when Walker intervened to halt the transfer, according to documents prepared for the committee.
“Walker indicated that when the woman was ordered to be released by the court, he met with another CGPD officer who was preparing to transport the woman and told the officer that he still needed to interview the woman as part of a broader investigation” into forgery charges, the committee document states.
The document prepared for the committee stated that Walker and two sergeants “believed they could hold someone for up to 72 hours.” The woman was ultimately taken to the hospital “for an emergency” and issued a citation in lieu of custody “on the new charge.” She was then released from the hospital, according to the document.
“No one really knew how long they could keep someone in the jail, and it just seemed like this information was kind of passed down through the ranks to be true, and it absolutely wasn’t,” said Nowning.
Following the department’s Christmas party, Walker, while on duty, approved “at least one officer to come to the department to determine his level of impairment” by blowing into an Intoxilyzer, which measures alcohol on the breath.
“Several police officers and their family members drove from the party, after consuming alcohol, to the CGPD for testing,” the committee document states, including “the husband of one of the officers” who “displayed signs of impairment.”
“Walker told the investigator that he pulled the husband to the side and told him that he was showing signs of impairment and should not be driving or be at the police station,” the document stated. He “did not arrest or cite the man … but helped the group identify a sober driver who could drive the group home.”
Discussion about Walker, as the department’s armorer, taking guns and allowing others to use them referenced the investigation into Walker’s conduct as well as the findings of the arbitrator, which differed from the investigation.
While the investigation concluded “Walker violated federal law which regulated machine guns and the state law for official misconduct,” the arbitrator did not find “sufficient evidence” of a violation of law.
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