A second-degree trespassing charge against Portland community advocate Cameron Whitten for a Portland Streetcar incident earlier this month has been dropped.

Tom Cleary, a senior Multnomah County deputy district attorney, said there were several "legal impediments" to proceeding with the charge.

Cameron Whitten, 24.

"It seems that we did not have the additional witness statements we needed to have,'' Cleary said. "It was unclear if the person who excluded him had the proper authority to do so."

Whitten, 24, who is a member of TriMet's Transit Equity Advisory Committee and sits on an advisory board of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, was arrested May 1 after he approached a streetcar operator three times about a leaky vent.

Whitten told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the driver responded with increasing hostility after each complaint, telling Whitten to leave him alone.

When Whitten was asked to leave the streetcar, he refused. He was taken off the streetcar by Portland police and issued a misdemeanor trespassing citation.

Whitten was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday. When he arrived, his case was not on the docket at a Justice Center courtroom. Whitten said was given a number to call to find out why the case was not on the docket, but had yet to make the call early Tuesday.

"I'm really glad that the charge that was being used to deny and violate my rights was dismissed,'' Whitten said. "Discrimination exists ... and there is work that needs to be done to end it on public transit. I want to use my experience to bring visibility to that conversation."

Whitten has been arrested before, when he was active in the Occupy Portland movement. He is well-regarded in some social justice circles. Whitten ran for mayor in 2012, and staged a 55-day hunger strike outside Portland City Hall to push city officials to focus on homelessness and housing issues.

-- Stuart Tomlinson

stomlinson@oregonian.com

503-221-8313

@ORweather