A jury Friday awarded $50,270 to a Portland man who was waiting for a MAX train when deputies dealing with hundreds of unruly protesters shoved him, pepper-sprayed him in the face and hauled him off to jail.

The 12-person jury found that Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies, who were assisting Portland police with the protests, had committed a “battery” by using “more force than was reasonably necessary” in their arrest and detainment of Jordan Johnson.

Johnson had sought $300,270 from the county during a five-day trial. Johnson said he felt “relieved” by the verdict that he’d waited almost three years to hear since his arrest on Nov. 12, 2016.

“My hope is this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said.

Johnson said he was completely caught off guard by the deputies because he wasn’t even taking part in the protest underway over the election of President Donald Trump four days earlier. Police arrested 71 people that night, some of whom were throwing glass bottles or road flares at them and vandalizing property.

Johnson, then 27, had just gotten off work as a line cook at the restaurant 3Degrees and was on his way home. He said he was skateboarding back and forth at the MAX stop across the street from Pioneer Courthouse Square at about 11:30 p.m. A number of strangers also waited for the train nearby, along Southwest Sixth Avenue between Yamhill and Morrison streets.

Johnson said although police were broadcasting over a loudspeaker more than a block away that everyone must vacate a two-block radius of Pioneer Courthouse Square, he couldn’t discern what was being said.

“It was a cacophonous sound,” he said.

He said he only realized that he was supposed to leave the area when Sgt. David Jackson approached him, told him he had to leave and then, before he could comply, suddenly shoved him toward a line of deputies wearing riot gear. Johnson said he started to raise his hands into the air -- to show he was complying-- when Sgt. Todd Brightbill suddenly pepper-sprayed him.

In an unconventional act that one of Johnson’s attorneys likened to treating Johnson like cattle, Brightbill used a permanent ink marker to write the back on Johnson’s sweatshirt. Brightbill scrawled out the charge Johnson was arrested for -- interfering with a police officer -- and his law enforcement identification number.

Sgt. Todd Brightbill wrote on the back of Jordan Johnson's sweatshirt with a black Sharpie marker on Nov. 12, 2016. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)

Johnson was taken to jail. He was released from custody some 13 hours later.

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office decided not to pursue criminal charges.

Multnomah County, through assistant county attorney Nathan Sramek, contended that Jackson had told Johnson three times to leave the area. When Johnson didn’t comply, Jackson pushed Johnson toward the line of officers, Sramek said.

Brightbill said Johnson was lifting his hands up in an aggressive move toward Jackson -- and that’s why he pepper-sprayed him.

Deputy Aaron Sieczkowski testified that he didn’t see the events leading up to Johnson’s arrest, but he helped with the arrest. Sieczkowski said Brightbill wrote on Johnson’s sweatshirt with a Sharpie because neither of them had a notebook to write in.

Johnson’s attorneys, Neal Weingart and Drake Aehegma, argued Brightbill treated their client so roughly because he had a bias against protesters and was acting aggressively that night.

Although jurors found that deputies had committed a battery against Johnson, jurors also found that deputies didn’t unreasonably cause Johnson to fear that he was about to get offensively touched. Jurors also found that Brightbill reasonably believed that Johnson had heard the loudspeaker ordering people to vacate the area.

Jurors awarded Johnson $50,000 in noneconomic damages for his pain, inconvenience and suffering, plus $270 for the value of his skateboard that he lost because it was left at the scene and a cooking knife that went missing.

Due to a motion filed by the county, Johnson’s attorneys weren’t allowed to argue to the jury that it should try to send a message to the sheriff’s office with their verdict. But Weingart said he hopes the county learns from this case.

“I hope the message to Multnomah County is you just have to treat every individual respectfully, and the jury agreed that wasn’t done in this case,” Weingart said.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Melvin Oden-Orr presided over the trial.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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