A jury Friday declined to award any money to a Portland protester who was 66 years old when a police officer singled her out of a crowd, shoved her face into the street and broke her nose while handcuffing her.

Jurors found 9-3 that Portland police Officer Adi Ramic and other officers didn’t intentionally harm or cause offensive contact with Margaret “Peggy” Zebroski during a downtown protest on Feb. 20, 2017, over a fatal police shooting. Zebroski had asked for $200,000 -- $1,224 for her medical bills and the rest for pain and suffering.

After the verdict, Ramic and his city defense team exchanged smiles, hugs and pats on the back. Zebroski made eye contact and smiled at jurors as they left the room.

The ACLU of Oregon had highlighted Zebroski’s case as one of unnecessary brute force -- another example, they said, of Portland police overreacting or infringing on the free speech rights of protesters.

“The routine use of force by Portland police on peaceful protesters in Portland is retaliatory, unnecessary and has had a chilling effect on free speech and assembly in our city and in our state,” said Mat dos Santos, ACLU legal director. “Portland police must ends its disproportionate response to protests. ...We demand better from our police.”

But attorneys for the city said police had probable cause to arrest Zebroski and that Ramic took his knee off Zebroski as soon as she was handcuffed. Attorneys said Ramic was sorry and felt bad that Zebroski had been hurt, but any injuries she suffered were accidental.

Margaret Zebroski was zip-tied by the wrists and escorted to a police van by police officers on Feb. 20, 2017. (Dave Killen / The Oregonian)

A juror who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive after the verdict said he voted with the majority but thought Zebroski deserved some money because she obviously suffered damages and police command staff made a poor decision to direct officers to rush into the crowd of protesters and start arresting them.

But the juror said he and others couldn’t get past the first question posed to them by the court in deciding the case: Whether the officer intentionally harmed Zebroski or made offensive contact with her.

“I think he would benefit from some more training, and I hope he received it after this incident,” said the juror, who asked not to be named. “He has a horrible job, but you still have to do what’s in the interest of the public good. That was a lousy day. Bad decisions were made.”

Juror Jamie Maggard, who was among the three jurors to vote in the minority, said she believed the officer did intentionally cause offensive contact with Zebroski by handling her as he did.

“It was a stressful time in that moment, but I don’t think you can assess that situation based on what happened yesterday or months before,” said Maggard, referring to other protests. “As a police officer, you need to look at the circumstances in that very moment and at that moment the crowd wasn’t violent.”

During the five-day trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Ramic testified that he arrested Zebroski because he thought he saw her try to pull away another protester who was being arrested by police.

“I try not to hurt anybody, obviously,” Ramic said. “Again, she would be like the last person I would want to hurt or need to hurt. My intentions were simply to take her into custody.”

Zebroski, now 68, testified that she didn’t try to help anyone avoid arrest. When Ramic decided to take her into custody, he simply could have told her she was under arrest and she would have peacefully complied, she said.

Instead, Zebroski said she was pulled from her stance on the sidewalk, dragged into the street and knocked to the ground. Ramic dug his knee into her shoulder while pressing his shin on top of her head and face, in video that was posted to a TV station’s website and shown to the jury.

One of her lawyers asked her to describe what she was thinking at that moment.

“Ouch. Ouch,” she said. “Very surprised. Pain. Because I didn’t think I’d be a hard person to arrest. I didn’t really get it.”

Zebroski, a retired physician assistant and grandmother of four, was among a group of 40 or more demonstrators protesting the shooting death of African American teenager Quanice Hayes by Portland police 11 days earlier. Zebroski helped hold a large banner that read “Don’t Shoot Portland” and was participating in a chant: “Say his name! Quanice Hayes!”

Margaret Zebroski can be seen here among the protesters holding a banner (second person from the left) near Southwest Third Avenue and Madison Street in downtown Portland on Feb. 20, 2017. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian)

The demonstrators had repeatedly been warned by police over a loudspeaker to get out of the street on Southwest Third Avenue near Madison Street because they were blocking traffic and they could be arrested if they didn’t comply. Police specifically told Zebroski and the others holding the banner to stop defying police orders. Almost all protesters had squeezed onto the sidewalk just before police wearing riot gear rushed into the crowd and begin pulling protesters back out onto the street to arrest them.

“Do you admit you could have been ticketed for being in the street?” asked Michael Willes, one of Zebroski’s lawyers.

“Certainly,” Zebroski said.

“Arrested?” Willes asked.

“As announced on the audio truck, yes,” Zebroski said.

“Had an officer come up to you and said, ‘Come with me, Ms. Zebroski.’ What would you have done?” Willes asked.

“Gone with the officer,” Zebroski said.

“Had an officer said, ‘Place your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest?’” Willes asked.

“Placed my hands behind my back,” Zebroski said.

Ramic, the police officer, said when he grabbed Zebroski to arrest her, he wasn’t angry even though protesters often try to incite officers by insulting them.

“Unfortunately, during these protests people are really mean,” he said. "And they try to hurt your feelings, and they try to piss you off.”

In June 2017, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office dropped its pursuit of criminal charges against Zebroski. She had faced second-degree disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest allegations.

Deputy District Attorney Haley Rayburn watched videos of the protest and arrest provided by Zebroski’s defense attorney. In the videos, Zebroski didn’t appear to interfere with officers who were arresting another protester, Rayburn said, noting one of the reasons the prosecutor’s office dropped the case.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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