Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 We can almost hear former Police Chief Charles Moose roaring from the East Coast as we fit him with a rogue's costume this week in absentia. The reason? His oddly handled disciplining of Sgt. David Howe for his encounter with a woman of the streets--an incident that The Oregonian nailed down last week. The sordid tale began after an unnamed woman was arrested Oct. 19, 1998, for "trespassing" in a prostitution-free zone. Busted again five nights later, she told officers then that Howe had stopped her at 10th Avenue and West Burnside five nights earlier and told her to get in his cruiser. She alleged that Howe drove her to an industrial stretch of Northwest Portland and made her diddle herself in the back of his cruiser while he watched from the front seat, in exchange for not busting her. Howe didn't dispute picking the woman up. He said that the woman, suffering from drug withdrawal, was merely massaging a cramp while he was trying to elicit from her where her coke dealer's crib might be. But Howe, an East Precinct officer, couldn't explain either what he was doing on Central Precinct turf or why he never called his supervisors to let them know about his good deed, much less that the woman needed medical attention. So why go after Moose? Back in 1998, Capt. Rosie Sizer, then Howe's commander, recommended a 10-day suspension for the sergeant. After all, not only had something gone down in Howe's car, but being AWOL on the police force is like being AWOL in the military. Even the district attorney's office claimed that parts of Howe's explanations were "disturbing." But when The O's Maxine Bernstein pressed the police bureau for details, Moose reportedly tried to ban the cop reporter from the Justice Center. Moose was always wont to disregard anyone else's findings. So he ignored Sizer, the DA and the street walker, and simply issued Howe a letter of reprimand.