Seth Jacobson had just turned onto a street in downtown Portland, Oregon, when a speeding Lexus SUV swerved in front of his bike, the driver yelling, “Get out of the road!” Jacobson yelled back and then, for a moment, he thought the encounter was over. Even in a bike-friendly city like Portland, cyclists and drivers will often have words. But he wasn’t prepared for what would happen next on that warm afternoon in July 2016.

Over the next three blocks, the situation escalated. The driver, Gabriel Smith, rolled down his window and yelled obscenities at Jacobson, punctuated by some choice hand gestures. Jacobson did the same.

At the next red light, Jacobson looked left, searching for the restaurant where he’d planned to meet his girlfriend. Suddenly, there was a blur of motion in the corner of his vision. Smith had stormed out of the Lexus and, before Jacobson could react, sucker punched him in the jaw. Smith then returned to his car, where his daughter was sitting in the back seat, and drove off.

“I didn’t see him until the moment he was throwing the punch,” Jacobson told Bicycling. “I didn’t even get a chance to get off my bike. Almost immediately after he punched me, I could tell something wasn’t right with my jaw. I was in tremendous pain, and my teeth were no longer aligning properly.”

Jacobson stumbled to the side of the road, where both he and the sidewalk became covered in his blood. A witness called 911 and handed the phone to Jacobson, who asked for an officer to come down so he could file a police report. After what seemed like an eternity, Portland Police Officer Christopher Gryphon arrived on the scene.

“I was in tremendous pain, and my teeth were no longer aligning properly.”

Jacobson gave Gryphon his side of the story, along with witnesses’ contact information and Smith’s license plate number. Gryphon went back to his cruiser. When he returned, his entire demeanor had changed.

“He just had this extreme attitude and refused to listen to anything I had to say from that point on,” Jacobson said. “He even told me, ‘Maybe that’s just how [Smith] settles arguments’ and ‘You’re lucky he didn’t have a gun.’ When I requested a police report so I could get [Smith] to pay my medical bills, he asked me if I was just trying to get money out of him. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I’d been assaulted twice.”

In the emergency room later, hospital staff confirmed Jacobson’s suspicion: His jaw was broken in two places. It would require three surgeries and multiple metal plates to fix, and he’d have to eat his meals through a straw for months.

An x-ray of Seth Jacobson’s broken jaw after the assault. Mark Ginsberg

Jacobson hired an attorney, but any chance at a criminal case quickly came to a dead end. Gryphon had transferred out of the precinct and never filed a police report about the assault before he left. Without a police report, the local prosecutor couldn’t bring charges against Smith.

“Looking back, I was more upset by [Gryphon’s] actions,” Jacobson said. “Road rage happens. It doesn’t make it right, but it happens. But this officer neglected his duty and treated me like dirt. I used to believe if I were in trouble, the police would be there to help me. I don’t believe that anymore.”

Left hanging by the criminal justice system, Jacobson instead took his case to arbitration. Last month, he got some semblance of closure when an arbitrator ordered Smith to pay him $50,000, the most possible under Oregon law. (It’s unlikely that Jacobson will ever collect the money, however; Smith told The Oregonian he would likely file for bankruptcy.)

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Gryphon didn’t know Jacobson’s jaw was broken. But given that one witness during arbitration called the assault “unprovoked” and Jacobson maintains that he didn’t throw a punch, why didn’t the officer take a police report when asked?



“Officers have discretion to determine the course of action for many of the calls they respond to, [although] there are some exceptions to this rule,” said Christopher Burley, a public information officer with the Portland Police Department. “In this incident, after interviewing both parties, the officer decided a report was not necessary.” Burley declined to answer if Gryphon took the incident seriously or if he talked to any witnesses at the scene.

“I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I’d been assaulted twice.”

Historically, cyclists have had a hard time getting police to make arrests in preventable car-bike crashes. But what about when a driver knowingly assaults a cyclist? “I’ve heard of plenty of cases where riders get knocked off their bike—sometimes intentionally—and officers just write it off,” Jacobson’s lawyer, Mark Ginsberg, said.

Megan Hottman, a cycling attorney in Colorado, was a bit shocked when she heard about the Portland case. “When I work with law-enforcement officers in Colorado, we discuss this very issue,” she said. “I emphasize that the report is the basis for everything that follows, and without a report, they leave an injured individual without recourse. Insurance companies will tell them to take a hike if they pursue civil claims without some kind of report.

“This particular responding officer chose not to document this incident in any way, and it’s purely luck for the cyclist that a witness was present and could testify for the cyclist at arbitration,” she added. “Otherwise there would be no judgment whatsoever.”

So how can cyclists get law enforcement to take their safety seriously? Hottman suggested riding with a video camera at all times. “Perhaps the responding officer chooses not to write a report, but if the cyclist has footage of the event, they can take it to the officer’s supervisor or the press, and I would bet a report gets done,” she said.

Riders can check to see if their local police department has an online system where citizens can file a report after the fact. Police then have the option of following up with the defendant and witnesses post-incident. If an officer seems biased against a cyclist, Hottman suggested asking the officer to call in a supervisor or, if the officer refuses, getting the supervisor’s name and making the call yourself.

“Cyclists need to be prepared to fight for these reports and to be treated fairly by law enforcement,” Hottman said. “An event like this one could have been elevated up through the officer’s department until someone took it seriously.”

Nearly two years after the incident, Jacobson has changed. He lost 30 pounds and, eventually, his job with a local energy-efficiency company. He said he “wasn’t the same” after the surgeries. His worldview is darker.

“This case has showed me no one is ever on your side,” he said. “The insurance companies, police, and the entire legal system threw roadblocks in front of us every step of the way... I don’t think I can ever trust the police again.”