A demonstrator who sued after she said her arm was fractured when she fell after getting pushed by a riot-clad Portland police officer won $40,000 Tuesday — far less than the $450,000 she sought — in the first protest-related lawsuit to reach a trial.
The mixed verdict came after jurors found police officers had used excessive force against OHSU care coordinator Erin Wenzel but that they had not assaulted her intentionally. Jurors also rejected Wenzel’s argument that city’s crowd control training of officers was negligent.
During her closing argument, Deputy City Attorney Caroline Turco played a video showing Wenzel, clad in a green helmet, being pushed twice from behind as officers dispersed the crowd. Neither shove toppled her to the ground. Turco said police were dodging ball bearings being thrown by the crowd and that it “made sense” for some officers to rush ahead to prevent that.
“No one is saying plaintiff is lying, but the question is whether she has a reliable memory of this event,” Turco told the jury.
Wenzel, 35, had brought a first-aid kit and taped a red cross to her helmet before arriving at the Aug. 14, 2020, protest in North Portland. The night ended chaotically after police declared an unlawful assembly and the crowd-control unit charged into a line of shield-carrying demonstrators.
The hospital employee said she was caught up in the fray and ended up with a broken arm and other bruises after she was pushed from behind on two occasions by unidentified members of the Rapid Response Team.
“If someone is just in the street that is not the justification to slam someone into the ground,” her attorney, John Burgess, told the jury during closing arguments. “Officers were doing just that with impunity. The attacks on Ms. Wenzel were a product of that impunity.”
Wenzel, her husband and her mother-in-law filed out of the courtroom silently after the brief proceedings. They declined to comment, while City Attorney Robert Taylor thanked the jury in a statement for their “thoughtful consideration of the evidence.”
Turco characterized Wenzel’s fracture as “very minor” and said the only treatment it required was physical therapy. She added that Wenzel had described her injuries as “two broken arms” in emails to co-workers and said Wenzel had claimed she was unable to care for herself.
Wenzel’s injuries included a “grade one” fracture of one arm, the least severe classification available, as well as a skinned knee and bruising on her other elbow, according to testimony from several physicians.
Turco implored jurors not to make their verdict a broad statement on the protests that rocked Portland for more than 100 consecutive nights in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
“You may feel like you are being asked to judge all the protesters, peaceful and violent. It’s tempting to take this case and think we’ll solve all of Portland’s problems,” she said. “But your job this day is not so large. You are being asked to judge a very narrow question of what happened to Ms. Wenzel.”
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for three hours Monday, then spent only 20 minutes in the courthouse Tuesday before announcing they had reached a verdict.
They awarded damages of $14,000 for Wenzel’s medical expenses, plus $26,000 for pain and suffering. The lawsuit was filed against the city of Portland.
The closely watched verdict tees up a flood of more than 50 other pending lawsuits filed by protesters against the city.
