Portland Police Chief Mike Reese acknowledged that police bureau didn’t properly review a massage therapist’s allegations of sexual assault by former Vice President Al Gore, the Oregonian reports. “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,” Reese said, explaining why the case is being reinvestigated.
The decision to give the case a new look came Wednesday, the same day police learned that the therapist, Molly Hagerty, 54, went public with her name in an interview with the National Inquirer. The Multnomah County district attorney’s office made it clear that prosecutors were caught unaware that the therapist gave a full statement to police in 2009 when the National Enquirer broke the story last week. Portland police never consulted the district attorney’s office about the 2009 statement.