Jeffrey Keniston resigned from the Aumsville Police Department on Oct. 5.
In a document filed with the state, Aumsville Police Chief Damian Flowers described the reason for Keniston’s separation as, “Resigned. Not under investigation with our department. Ongoing investigation with DPSST (Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training).”
The DPSST review of his law enforcement certifications started after the Salem Police Department terminated Keniston, then a sergeant with nearly two decades on the job, in December 2022.
Aumsville police swore him in as an officer on May 15.
At the time the agency knew about the investigation underway into Keniston according to a statement from Sam Tenney, a DPSST spokesperson:
On Feb. 13, 2023, an agent conducting a background check on behalf of the Aumsville Police Department contacted DPSST for information on Keniston’s ability to be certified. On Feb. 15, 2023, DPSST responded that Keniston had an open professional standards case regarding his separation from Salem Police Department and provided the agent with a separation form filed by SPD on Dec. 9, 2022.
Statement from Sam Tenney, DPSST spokesperson
Ron Harding, Aumsville’s city administrator, told me in July, “We are simply going to follow the DPSST process in this matter.”
On Sept. 6, the DPSST sent Keniston a Notice of Proposed Revocation informing him that the agency is seeking to permanently remove his certifications, which allow him to work as an officer in Oregon.
In the notice, DPSST Director Phil Castle says Keniston “does not meet the moral fitness standards required of a public safety professional …”
The document states that while working as a domestic violence officer he “used his position for personal gain and engaged in a sexual relationship with a victim he was sworn to protect, reflecting an extreme violation of trust, adversely reflecting on the public safety profession.”
On Sept. 26, Keniston requested a hearing to fight the revocation effort.
An Oregon Department of Justice attorney, Natalie M. Fisher, has been assigned to represent the state in the case. An in-person hearing was scheduled for Feb. 27, 2024. But before that meeting, both parties requested to submit their cases to Judge Alison Greene Webster in writing with deadlines set for stipulated facts, affidavits, and briefs by May 24, responses by May 31, and rebuttals by June 7. A proposed order is expected about a month later, leading to the DPSST’s final order after a period for filing exceptions, with revocation decisions posted in the agency’s Professional Standards database within 10 days of action.
Keniston has not been charged with a crime.
The DPSST notice describes allegations that appear separate from those made by Morgan Williams, who was married to Keniston from December 2007 until January 2015.
She filed a complaint with the Salem Police Department on April 1, 2022, to report alleged wrongdoing she claimed happened during their relationship. She also gave investigators records of text messages between her and her ex-husband.
Williams told me she took action after going to therapy and talking about trauma in her life including things that happened between her and Keniston. She said that made her realize she had to “Get it out there and to say something.”
Keniston has denied Williams’s allegations or said he doesn’t recall them.
He has not responded to numerous messages I’ve sent seeking comment on the reports cited in this article and other matters.
I asked Flowers, Harding, and Aumsville Mayor Angelica Ceja why Keniston resigned and why he was hired.
“As I have previously stated, it is simply not in our policy to comment on employee matters, past or present,” Harding told me via email. Ceja and Flowers did not immediately respond.
I broke the story of Keniston’s firing, hiring by Aumsville police, his resignation from the agency, and his communications with a violent Proud Boys activist.
Salem Reporter first reported Tenney’s statement regarding the Aumsville Police Department’s knowledge of Keniston’s DPPST investigation and termination by Salem police.
