An 18-year-old Reed College student was sentenced Monday to six months of federal probation for throwing a rock and breaking the front windshield of a marked Federal Protective Service SUV outside ICE headquarters in Southwest Portland.

The encounter occurred on Sept. 20 after a global climate demonstration in the city.

"I really didn’t understand how awful, how unhelpful that form of protest was,'' Alexander Pollvogt Soltesz told U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo. “I’m truly very, very sorry. It will not happen again.’’

Soltesz was sentenced after pleading guilty to damaging government property and paid $780 in restitution to cover the cost of the broken windshield.

Soltesz was standing about 15 feet in front of the driveway of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on Southwest Macadam Avenue when he threw the rock, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Uram said. The SUV was in the driveway, facing the street.

Federal prosecutors initially charged Soltesz with a felony, expecting the damage caused was at least $1,000. Fortunately, no officer got hurt and the cost of repairing the windshield was under that amount, Uram said. As a result, the government reduced the charge to a misdemeanor.

“Mr. Soltesz was extremely lucky,’’ Uram said. “I know if a Federal Protective Service officer had been injured, my office would respond as seriously as it possibly could. … It’s just not going to be tolerated in the future.’’

The teen, from Massachusetts, had been in the city only a couple of weeks for the start of his first year of college when he joined a Reed College group to protest climate change and ended up with others outside the immigration enforcement building, said his defense lawyer, Lisa Maxfield.

He has since realized that the rock-throwing detracted from any message intended to protest the Trump administration’s policy of separating children and parents detained after border crossings, Maxfield said.

As part of a plea agreement, Soltesz agreed not to come within 100 yards or two blocks of the ICE building through Jan. 1, 2021.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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