Sometime over the weekend, anonymous vandals stuck a garden hose through the front-door mail slot of lawyer Sean Riddell’s Northeast Portland office and left the water running.

Someone who works in the office -- a house converted into business space -- discovered the mess about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Riddell and lawyer Christine Mascal, who run separate legal practices under the same roof, wondered if someone targeted one of them because of a case or whether it was a random vandal, Riddell said.

On Monday, Riddell apparently got an answer -- in the form of an email forwarded to him from a Willamette Week reporter who said she received it earlier that day. The email, signed “some anarchists,” claims responsibility and says the authors hoped to “cause maximum economic damage” to Riddell because he provides legal representation to the National ICE Council, the union for local employees of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“For every child that is separated from their parents and locked in a cage, there are people making money off it,” reads the email, posted in a Willamette Week story.

Riddell called police Sunday after the initial discovery. If caught, the vandal or vandals could face felony charges of first-degree criminal mischief or second-degree burglary for entering the space of his office through the mail slot, which had been painted shut.

Riddell said his law office has video surveillance cameras and so do area businesses. He called police again Monday and let them know he was forwarding along the email claiming responsibility.

The email also was posted anonymously Monday morning to an anarchist website.

On Tuesday, industrial-strength fans were blowing across the warped wooden floors of the law office and some of the still-soggy carpet in the basement, where the water had poured through floor vents from the first-floor office. Workers were tearing up the carpet before it could turn moldy.

Riddell said insurance will likely pay for the damage.

He noted that the people unhappy with him weren’t willing to stand up for what they believe in by identifying themselves.

“I have the courage of my convictions,” Riddell said. “I put my name on what I do.”

Among Riddell’s work for the ICE employees’ union, he asked Oregon and federal officials last October to investigate Mayor Ted Wheeler for directing Portland police officers not to respond to some calls for service at a protest outside the Southwest Macadam ICE field office. Riddell said the Oregon Attorney General’s Office declined to investigate, and he hasn’t heard back from the U.S. Attorney’s Office or U.S. Department of Justice.

In December, Riddell sent the city of Portland a tort claim notice of the union’s intent to sue over the city’s alleged unwillingness to allow its officers to intervene in the protest.

The dayslong encampment, called Occupy ICE PDX, mirrored demonstrations in other parts of the nation and started in protest to the Trump administration’s decision to separate children from their parents after they were caught entering the U.S. from Mexico without permission. The protest led to the temporary shutdown of the Portland federal office.

Lt. Tina Jones said police are investigating the vandalism report from Riddell’s office, and are asking anyone from the public with information to contact them.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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