Two protesters who splattered two police officers with buckets full of lubricant and glitter during a Patriot Prayer rally in downtown Portland last summer were sentenced Friday to five days in jail.

Robert “Jonah” Majure, 28, and Tristan Romine-Mann, 29, had attended the rally to demonstrate against what they believe are the right-wing group’s racist, chauvinist and violent views. They showed up with four 5-gallon buckets of lubricant used to artificially inseminate horses, gold glitter mixed in, super-soaker-type water guns and a plan to spray Patriot Prayer members.

Majure and Romine-Mann said they hadn’t decided whether they’d really go through with it when police walked up to them and told them to dump the buckets.

Police testified that the men purposely threw the slime on them, then tried to fist bump each other in celebration after they were handcuffed and taken into custody.

After a three-day trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court, a six-person jury on Wednesday found both men guilty of misdemeanor harassment for offending and annoying the officers with the slippery goo.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kenneth Walker sentenced them to the jail time, plus 32 hours of community service and one year of probation.

Walker said he understands the men’s anger at centuries of racism and bigotry in this country -- and the groups that still associate with it.

“I detest their message as well, as an African American man,” Walker said.

But he said while he knows younger men can make “foolish and stupid decisions," he’s never seen anything quite like what Majure and Romine-Mann did during the Aug. 4 rally and counter-protest next to Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The judge added: “I don’t think you have any out-and-out animosity for the police, but you don’t have the appropriate amount of respect either.”

The sentencing capped a closely watched case in Portland’s protest community. Majure and Romine-Mann highlighted it as another example of what they see as the Portland Police Bureau’s disproportionate focus on arresting counter-protesters while allowing supporters of right-wing groups such as Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys to operate unfettered.

Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson had encouraged members of his group to bring guns to the tense Aug. 4 rally, and police found what the mayor characterized as a “cache of guns” belonging to supporters who had positioned themselves on a rooftop overlooking the rally.

Counter-protesters criticized police for not arresting the gun owners. But police said the “cache” consisted of three rifles that weren’t loaded, although the men had ammunition with them. Police said the men also had concealed gun licenses and hadn’t broken any laws.

Majure and Romine-Mann asked why police instead would use their authority to arrest them for what the two men characterized as a “silly and disarming” response to Patriot Prayer.

During the trial, Romine-Mann acknowledged that he brought the mixture to the rally to taunt Patriot Prayer backers. “It was like mocking them, mocking the machismo,” he said. “It has a consistency that’ve very slimy and humiliating to get all over you.”

As for the glitter, Romine-Mann said he and Majure stirred it in as a sort of “glitter bomb (for) people who take themselves too seriously.”

Romine-Mann said police exaggerated the trajectory of the bucket’s slime. When asked if he intended to throw the mixture at officers, he responded that he was just following orders to empty the bucket.

Majure said he didn’t toss the slime at the officers. Rather, he said, it went everywhere when a sergeant ordered his arrest and a Patriot Prayer member suddenly grabbed him and flung him around.

Jurors found both men not guilty of second-degree disorderly conduct. And while police said Majure flailed and squirmed as they tried to handcuff him, jurors acquitted him of resisting arrest.

Detective Todd Christensen testified that after arresting the two men, four officers had to leave the rally to clean up because they were hit with the slime and glitter.

Christensen, who got the worst of it, said he had to throw away his uniform and a vest because the glitter was impossible to remove. Reminders of that day remain in his service weapon, he said.

“I still have glitter in the side of my handgun that I can’t get out,” Christensen said.

At the sentencing hearing, Christensen said he’s gotten used to being insulted and mistreated by members of the public over his two-decades-long career and he doesn’t let it bother him. But he said he was deeply offended by Majure and Romine-Mann.

“In the ultimate act of disrespect that I have ever been a part of, surrounded by hundreds of people, they decided to ... throw that then-unknown liquid all over me and my coworkers,” Christensen said.

“That moment of sheer terror -- not knowing what kind of chemical or substance it could have been, if it was harmful or harmless -- did not matter to them," he said. "They reveled in glee at what they had done in trying to humiliate us.”

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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