Oregon Public Broadcasting

Charges against a woman who didn't pay her light rail ticket have been dropped. Her family says it's because Portland Police officer Chris Humphreys was involved in her arrest. Officer Humphreys has become a lightning rod for complaints against the Portland Police.Lisa Coppock was arrested two years ago after running away from Humphreys. She had been asked to get off the light rail for not paying. She told officers the ticket machine was broken and held out money to pay. But she said she sensed Humphreys' rage, and ran. After her arrest, she had to have stitches. Her mother, Marcia Meyers, said she is sharing Coppock's story to try to improve police accountability. "They wanted her to go away. And she didn't go away. She showed up to court 30 times. She has gone through huge amounts of stress.And less than a week before we were finally going to court and had to subpoena Chris Humphreys, they dropped it - because they didn't want to put him on the stand," she said.

Multnomah County's chief deputy DA, Norm Frink, said the case wasn't dropped because of Humphreys involvement. He didn't say why it was dropped.

Humphreys has been involved in a number of problem cases, the most public of which was the death of a mentally ill man, James Chasse.