Portland police said they decided to reopen its investigation into sexual assault allegations against former Vice President Al Gore after finding "procedural" mistakes in how the bureau handled the case in 2009. 
 
 The bureau's command-level supervisors should have reviewed the case and should have made the decision on whether the investigation should move forward when the complainant came to them last year -- the second time she went to police, Portland Police Chief Michael Reese said in a statement. 
 
 Although Portland massage therapist Molly Hagerty read a statement to detectives detailing accusations that Gore groped and kissed her during an October 2006 late-night massage at the Hotel Lucia, police never contacted Gore. In addition, detectives failed to consult with the Multnomah County district attorney's office on the matter. 
 
 Reese said the decision to reopen the case was solely the bureau's. 
 
 
 
 "It is our responsibility to both parties involved to conduct a thorough, fair and timely investigation," Reese said in his statement, adding that the bureau will not be commenting on the case during the investigation. "We ask for the public’s patience as we let the facts of the investigation guide us and ensure the integrity of the investigation. I have asked Detectives to assign appropriate resources in the interest of conducting a complete investigation in an expedited manner." 
 
 
 
 The case began in 2006 when an attorney representing Hagerty contacted Portland police. At that time, detectives tried to meet with Hagerty on three separate occasions, but the meetings were all cancelled by her attorney. The lawyer then told detectives that Hagerty was pursuing a civil lawsuit, the police statement said. Although police consulted the District Attorney's office at that time, the case was cleared due to Hagerty's lack of cooperation. 
 
 -- Helen Jung ||||| Portland Police Chief Michael Reese just released a statement on the Al Gore sexual assault allegations saying there were “procedural issues” with the original investigation that merited re-opening the case. 
 
 “In reviewing this case, we have determined there were procedural issues with the 2009 investigation that merit re-opening the case,” Reese said. “There should have been command level review at the time on the specifics of this case and decisions on whether the investigation should go forward.” 
 
 Remember, the police declined to pursue an investigation of the 2006 incident after a 2009 interview with the woman who accused Gore of sexual assault, Molly Hagerty. At the time they cited “insufficient evidence.” But now Reese appears to be saying that call should have been made at a higher level of the department. 
 
 Here’s what Reese has to say about how the investigation will unfold: 
 
 “It is our responsibility to both parties involved to conduct a thorough, fair and timely investigation. As with any open investigation, it is inappropriate for the Police Bureau to comment on any specifics regarding the investigation. We ask for the public’s patience as we let the facts of the investigation guide us and ensure the integrity of the investigation. I have asked Detectives to assign appropriate resources in the interest of conducting a complete investigation in an expedited manner.” 
 
 The full statement is below. ||||| Loading 
 
 Gore chase had no finish 
 
 With no evidence on pants, claims were hard to prove 
 
 Peter Macdiarmid / GETTY IMAGES What happened that night in 2006 at downtown Portland’s Hotel Lucia between Al Gore and masseuse Molly Hagerty? 
 
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 As the massage therapist sat under the fluorescent lights of a Portland Tribune conference room in August 2008, talking about that night with Al Gore, she unleashed her seeming bombshell: She had kept “the pants.” 
 
 The irony couldn’t have been more striking. It was, potentially, Al Gore’s own unwelcome version of “the blue dress.” 
 
 Former Vice President Gore famously had been enraged with the president he served under — Bill Clinton — for Clinton’s dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s. After Clinton’s early denials of their sexual relations, Lewinsky had given a special prosecutor her blue dress that she said was still stained with Clinton’s semen. 
 
 Clinton eventually acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky and was impeached by the House of Representatives, but completed his second term. And, while Clinton ended his presidency almost as popular as ever, Gore reportedly believed that the scandal hurt his subsequent run for the presidency in 2000. 
 
 Now, as the Portland masseuse recited what she said happened that night with Al Gore in a Portland hotel suite, a decade after Monica Lewinsky, “family man” Gore seemingly had a different issue: The licensed masseuse was alleging that Gore forced her to have a nonconsensual physical encounter with him in October 2006. She was alleging that, after she was called to Gore’s hotel suite to give him what she thought would be a traditional massage, Gore grabbed her hand and moved it toward his pubic area. She also alleged that, during the roughly three hours she stayed in the hotel suite, he repeatedly subjected her to unwanted sexual touches. 
 
 And, she said, she kept the black pants she was wearing that night — pants that she claimed contained a stain that may have occurred while Gore was standing against her in his bath robe. 
 
 But as quickly as that stain seemed like it could become damning and world-changing evidence against Gore, it faded away. After mentioning the stain, the massage therapist acknowledged she had it tested for semen, and the results came back negative. 
 
 So, what happened that night at downtown Portland’s Hotel Lucia slid back into murkiness — the maddening murkiness that had defined it for the 18 months the Tribune had been looking into the allegations. The murkiness that remains now — nearly four years after the alleged assault. 
 
 Everyone who pays attention to such things now knows the woman’s name — Molly Hagerty — and they also know all about the “crazed sex poodle” that Hagerty says Al Gore became that night. 
 
 The Tribune, as has been noted, has had its own small part in the narrative of the past few weeks — after the National Enquirer three weeks ago published a story about Hagerty’s accusations. 
 
 Soon after the Enquirer’s story broke, Portland police revealed that former Tribune reporter Nick Budnick had in early 2007 asked for and received a copy of a sketchy three-page police report on Hagerty’s allegations — filed by an unnamed lawyer representing an unnamed victim. Budnick’s request was part of what turned out to be an on-again, off-again, almost two-year Tribune investigation into that report and into Hagerty’s allegations. It was an investigation that ended with the Tribune deciding — in November 2008 — not to publish any story. 
 
 So what has been the public’s perception of the Tribune’s role in the Enquirer-inspired tale of the past few weeks? It was the newspaper that passed on a boffo story in its own backyard — because of journalism ethics, or knee-jerk liberal media protection of a Democratic icon, or just simple incompetence. 
 
 The reality of the Tribune’s involvement in the allegations of that night is, of course, more complicated. 
 
 Here’s some of that reality: 
 
 A possible sexual assault, in Portland, by a powerful man. A possible victim who was, at first, adamant about not bringing the charges to light, and then — at specific times during weeks and months — equally adamant that the story be told. 
 
 A victim who was absolutely credible, according to friends — and not that credible at all, according to others. 
 
 Every time the investigation took one step forward, it seemed to take one step back. 
 
 Now, 3 1/2 years after Hagerty had her lawyer file that first police report, after her account has been told and retold through a supermarket tabloid, through countless blogs and “news” websites, and then through the traditional media, larger questions remain. 
 
 How can you judge the credibility of a sexual assault charge when there are no witnesses and apparently no physical evidence? And should that be the media’s job in any case — to try to guess the possible truth of something before publishing, where the truth is impossible to know? But if that’s not the media’s job — trying to determine the credibility of the charges — then what accusations get published, get repeated? Are there any that don’t? 
 
 ‘Mr. Stone’s’ night in Portland 
 
 It was the sort of police report that newspaper reporters dream of having in their hands. In early 2007, Budnick had received a tip that a Portland masseuse was claiming she’d been assaulted by Al Gore. 
 
 To check whether she had filed a police report, Budnick made a records request — which initially came up empty, because the police hadn’t filed the report under Gore’s name. Some followup phone calls netted the skimpy report, dated Dec. 15, 2006. 
 
 The report indicated that a lawyer — whose name was redacted — had called police to tell them that someone — whose name was also redacted — had contacted him to tell him that Gore had made a “sexual assault” on her on Oct. 24, 2006, while he was staying at “a local upscale hotel” under the name of “Mr. Stone.” (Gore had made a global warming speech earlier that evening at the Rose Garden.) 
 
 The report said the lawyer first called the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and the Oregon State Police “in an attempt to have a larger law enforcement agency investigate the case” and each agency had “declined and referred him to the agency of jurisdiction where the alleged crime occurred.” 
 
 The Tribune later obtained notes taken by a Portland police officer in a conversation with an Oregon State Police officer, in which the OSP officer indicated that the woman’s lawyer had called the state police and said that Gore had attempted to “molest and rape her” at Portland’s Hotel Lucia and that the woman “has semen sample.” Other OSP records indicated the person making the report was Portland lawyer Randall Vogt. 
 
 The Portland police report stated that the lawyer and woman, during the course of two weeks, made three appointments to detail the allegations to police in person and canceled each appointment. The report said that after the third cancellation, a person whose name is redacted told police that “the case was going to be handled civilly and they would no longer require the services of the Portland Police Bureau.” 
 
 The officer who wrote the report cleared the case because the person involved “refused to cooperate with the investigation or even report a crime.” 
 
 Budnick contacted Vogt. Other than saying his client seemed credible, then lost touch with him, Vogt said little. He would not name his client. 
 
 Budnick spoke to people at Hotel Lucia, who confirmed Gore stayed there on Oct. 24 and used an alias. 
 
 Budnick contacted Gore’s representatives, and sent them records he obtained from the police investigation. 
 
 This was the first point, waiting for the Gore camp’s reaction, that the Tribune contemplated whether it already had a story that could be published. 
 
 Except for one thing. 
 
 By coincidence, Budnick learned that he already knew professionally someone who, in turn, knew two acquaintances of the alleged victim who strongly questioned her credibility. 
 
 The source, with no allegiance to Gore, was credible and seemed to have no agenda as to whether a story appeared. The source would not name the alleged victim, but the source’s questions compelled the Tribune to do more reporting before publishing a story. 
 
 During the next few months, Budnick obtained a list of masseuses from the state massage board. Budnick narrowed the list to about two dozen masseuses who seemed most likely to be the alleged victim, and tried to reach each of them. Hagerty was on the list. He asked her about the Al Gore police report and Randall Vogt. She said she knew nothing about either. 
 
 But her response wasn’t convincing to Budnick. And eventually, after eliminating other possibilities, Budnick began to focus on Hagerty — researching her through public records, looking for relatives and other contacts. He looked for other accusations made by her; an Internet-based public records database turned up nothing. 
 
 (Two weeks ago, the television program Inside Edition dug up Multnomah County court records that reveal Hagerty sought a 1998 restraining order against her former boyfriend. She alleged in the court filing that the man had assaulted her two years before, that he had more recently showed up at her work and that “his presence and demeanor were threatening to me.” A Multnomah County judge rejected Hagerty’s request for the restraining order — on the same day it was filed — without giving a reason. The case did not show up in the Tribune’s electronic records search.) 
 
 Budnick stopped by Hagerty’s apartment from time to time to talk to her, but never caught her at home. 
 
 In the meantime, Budnick continued his regular work as a Tribune reporter. 
 
 Then, in March 2008, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer quickly resigned after being caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet a high-priced prostitute. Commentators cited it as one more example of a powerful man believing he was above accountability for sexual improprieties. 
 
 A few days later, Molly Hagerty called Budnick at the Tribune offices. She wanted to talk about Al Gore and the night of Oct. 24. 
 
 The masseuse speaks 
 
 That phone call would be the first of dozens of conversations between Budnick and Hagerty over the next eight months —some on the phone and many in person. 
 
 (It turns out the Tribune was not the first publication Hagerty talked to, to see if it might be interested in the story — at least according to Hagerty. She said she talked to Michael Isikoff at Newsweek magazine, but he was only willing to print the accusations if they were on the record, with her name being published. When she said she was not willing, he wasn’t interested in the story. Isikoff, who now works for NBC News, did not return a message this week from the Tribune.) 
 
 In early conversations between Budnick and her, Hagerty did not reveal much of what she would eventually say happened that night. But she came off as sincere, compelling and smart to Budnick — albeit troubled and fearful.
– Portland police say they reopened the Al Gore case because they found "procedural issues" with the 2009 investigation, reports the Oregonian. In a statement, the chief says detectives who dismissed the allegations should have consulted with higher-ups before doing so. "There should have been command level review at the time on the specifics of this case and decisions on whether the investigation should go forward." The full statement (read it at Talking Points Memo) notes that the masseuse first contacted police in 2006 but then called off three subsequent scheduled meetings. The department dropped the case, deeming it futile without her cooperation. The woman, Molly Hagerty, then contacted the department again in 2009, but police (apparently below "command level") opted not to pursue the case after questioning her.