The Shady Cop Who Haunts Halloweentown
A porn-texting police chief, a mayor posting through it all and the Oregon town that can’t let go of the 2024 election.
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In the foggy city of St Helens, Oregon, a tall stone courthouse backs up to the wide Columbia River. It was the backdrop for Halloweentown, a 1998 children’s movie about a girl transported to a town of witches and ghosts. Every October since, St Helens has held the month-long Spirit of Halloweentown festival in honor of the film, where the square in front of the courthouse is filled with pumpkins and cornstalks, and there are haunted houses and psychic readings.1
Until 2023, there was a parade, too. But that ended after charter buses and thousands of people showed up in the small town. Traffic was awful, the sidewalks were crammed, people were pushing each other, and it seemed like Halloweentown had officially gotten too big for St Helens.
A week later, in a small gray-walled room just off the town square, Halloweentown organizers sat in front of the city council and said the parade would be cancelled unless they got more help from local police.
“They’re not supportive in any way,” organizer Heather Epperly said. “All we had was our private volunteers. It was really disturbing. ”
St Helens Chief of Police Brian Greenway stepped up and disputed Epperly’s characterization.
“For people to come up here and slander the St Helens Police department,” he said, growing angry. “Unacceptable.”
Greenway worked events during his 25 years at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, he said. “I know what I am doing folks. Alright? And when I am telling you this, please heed the warning. We are woefully understaffed to hold these events.”2
In Las Vegas, the family-friendly Halloweentown would have been staffed by 40 officers, Greenway said. St Helens Police employed 21.
“But we’re not Vegas,” Mayor Rick Scholl replied.
Scholl — who has a beard and long hair, and wore his typical University of Oregon Ducks hat and t-shirt — encouraged Greenway to be calm.
“We are a community as a whole — a very small community — and we try to work together,” Scholl explained. “I think there’s stuff we can do better.”
Greenway, his officers and some of their wives had frequently told the mayor and council they needed new cars, a new police station, more money and more officers. Scholl appeared to agree.
“We hear the wives of the officers,” Scholl assured Greenway. “We definitely care about our police department.”
After the meeting, Scholl took Greenway aside and asked him to apologize publicly for losing his temper at the Halloweentown organizers.
It would be months before Greenway apologized. But when he finally did, it would trigger an acrimonious, years-long feud that would spread far past council chambers, and Halloweentown, into the citizenry.
The fallout of that apology would eventually lead to Greenway’s resignation in disgrace, voters booting Scholl from office, bitter political rivalries forming, and the police officers union directly targeting city leaders in its desire for more money.
It would also lead to a contentious 2024 election cycle, when residents chose a new mayor: Jennifer Massey, a union steamfitter, private investigator and wife of a St Helens police officer.
Through an analysis of more than 2,500 pages of newly-released public records and extensive interviews over the past month, The Western Edge has revealed for the first time just how far the small police force in St. Helens was willing to go in its bid for power and money, and how quickly unchecked corruption threw a community into chaos.
