Trial for a defendant from Portland State University today.
They finished up pre trial motions and are about to start jury selection.
This case is from a few weeks after the library was raided in May of 2024. Two students chained themselves to the admin building on campus and were quickly forcibly removed and arrested by campus police. During these arrests Officer Jimenez ripped off a students hijab before throwing them into a police car.
In response to this, the very next day students came back to chain themselves to the building again. After police assaulted and arrested those chained to the building, students and community members went to the side of the admin building where the parking garage is. They went over there to attempt to block the police cars that had the arrestees in them. Some students sat on the ground in front of and behind the police vehicles, while others formed a line and linked arms blocking the entrance/exit to the garage.
The response from law enforcement was one of the most brutal responses from law enforcement in Portland I had seen in quite some time. This was the same day campus police broke a students ribs, tore someones ACL who then had to get surgery , and put at least 3 people in the hospital.
You might remember this as the day one of the responding officers had a heart attack moments after assaulting students. I have a thread with coverage from this day somewhere on here but I can't currently find and link to that.
Will share updates as necessary/when I can. Opening statements expected to begin after lunch.
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ran into Jimenez as I was going to the bathroom so I expect him to testify for the State. He was one of, if not THE, most violent cop that day. He is a Portland State University campus police officer and has countless complaints against him filed by students. He's one of those cops that you can tell is especially thirsty for blood.
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The judge for this case is Steffan Alexander and the defendant is charged with criminal trespass in the second degree.
During pretrial motions the DA made it sound like their argument will be that the parking garage is not open to the public.
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Lunch is over. The state is now asking the jurors questions so they can choose the jury.
I’ve stepped out for a bit to attend the arraignments for the folks arrested last night. Hoping to get back by the time they start opening statements.
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More updates soon, but defense attorney has brought up an issue with the judge. Sergeant Jackson, PSU officer who is the first witness for the State, eavesdropped on the defendant and defense attorney having a private conversation and proceeded to approach the DA to fill him in on what she heard.
Defense attorney is arguing that these actions show bias from the cops and a personal interest in prosecuting the defendant.
Judge said that because they had conversations around the prosecutor and state witness it was not a confidential conversation and there was no violation of attorney client privilege. Judge said defense attorney is only free to ask about it if they believe it has or will influence the officers testimony.
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Sergeant Jackson said that the garage was only open to patrol vehicles on this day, as all staff had been instructed to work from home. There were no signs or anything to indicate this on the day of.
The cop also lied and said that the front doors of the admin building that were chained created a severe safety hazard as there was no way for anyone to get out of the building. She later admitted to being aware that there were multiple entrances and exits in the building and acknowledged that there are no "no trespassing" signs in the garage.
Now she is claiming they had no idea they were going to make arrests that day (talking about the garage), but campus police showed up and wasted no time, they immediately began arresting those chained to the building and they came with tools to break the chains. They definitely knew and prepared for it.
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Trial Day 2:
The DA is questioning Sergeant Jackson again, he is now asking her about the property damage done to the PSU library. Defense objected but it was overruled by the judge. I don't understand what purpose this serves aside from prejudicing the jury. This day at PSU was on May 23rd, the library was raided and cleared by police on May 2nd and no one returned after that. This defendant is not on trial for the library.
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This cop just called the people sitting on the ground linking arms aggressive and violent.
It was very tame and clearly a form of passive resistance. Even the videos show that. She then proceeded to call the police response on that day that sent numerous people to the hospital "deescalation"
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"we got intimate with them" is a crazy way to say you beat the shit out of students
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Second witness for the State is now taking the stand. Portland State University officer Scott Swingle. He's describing his role as being a hero to students experiencing domestic abuse (lol).
Immediately they're showing his body cam footage which shows a massive set of bolt cutters being used to unchain students from the admin building front doors- this is kind of funny because it disproves the whole "we weren't planning arrests and a response!" thing. Last I checked massive bolt cutters aren't standard issue and that took some planning.
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They just played a video that shows Swingle asking if they should "start pushing people," he explained this as him meaning pushing the police cars out (lmao?)
minutes after he said this, PPB came in and formed a line with campus police, and within seconds they began the first brutal push of the day.
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Break before cross examination. They are going over some objections now.
Jackson mentioned that library cost the university millions of dollars in damages during her testimony as well. Defense is arguing that this prejudices the jury and is totally irrelevant.
DA is arguing that they were providing context for other arrests they made on campus. He also insinuated that everyone arrested at the library was guilty, even though two people have been acquitted and some have yet to have their trials yet.
This is so silly to me. The damage has been done so wtf is striking something from the record gonna do when it's already in the jury's heads.
Sounds like this will be addressed again later. brief break now
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Cross examination-
Earlier in Swingle's testimony he said that they needed to evacuate the building but it was unsafe to do so out front.
Defense: When you say "we had to evacuate the building" you mean?
Cop: The arrested individuals.
Defense: So there was no emergency, no one who needed medical attention or anything like that to warrant the term "evacuate?"
Cop: I guess not
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Defense: was there a "no tresspassing" sign in the garage?
Cop: I don't think so?
Defense: So why did you say there was earlier?
Cop: Well other garages on campus have those signs
all cop do is eat non spicy chip and lie
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Defense is showing a video that shows mace in a PSU cops hands
Earlier this morning Jackson testified that no mace was used by police that day and she would have 100% seen it (false, the day was chaotic and people were all over the place. no way to have eyes on everything.) She then said maybe it was used by PPB she doesn't know. Then added that campus police didn't have mace.
Defense: What is that in Officer Jimenez hands?
Cop: mace
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Defense: Earlier you testified that you didn't hear Jimenez threatening to mace people?
Cop: Yeah I didn't hear that in the elevator
Defense then plays the video again and we hear Jimenez saying
"We're just gonna start pepper spraying, we're just gonna start pepper spraying people Chief" before he shakes the canister getting it ready to deploy.
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Defense: was officer Jimenez here to testify yesterday?
Cop: Yes
Defense: And is he here now today to testify?
Cop: ...... no
(The State clearly realized getting that mf to testify was a horrible idea)
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The cop testified that he heard Jimenez later in the garage shake his can of mace and threaten the defendant. Judge is agreeing with DA that this is not relevant. Witness and jurors are out of the courtroom now.
Defense is now requesting a motion of acquittal, on the grounds that the defendant didn't have the knowledge that the garage was closed to the public as the State is claiming. They also raised the Right to Remain under the first amendment and that they had a right to be there.
DA is now making their argument against it repeating all the same BS from earlier.
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Defense is adding in rebuttal that "get up or you're going to be arrested" is not adequate enough direction to justify trespassing or a trespass warning.
Judge has denied the motion for acquittal.
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The defense has stated to the judge that they are ready to rest their case and will not be having the defendant testify.
The judge has decided to call an early lunch break and the jury will return at 1:00 to hear closing arguments before deliberations. In the meantime Defense and the State will be finalizing jury instructions.
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Jury is back from lunch. Closing arguments are starting.
State begins with the usual sucking up to the jury. Proceeds to say the defendant went into an underground garage (which is misleading because its only underground from some sides of the street but the entrance/exit and where everything happened is ground level. He proceeds to show video of the cops breaking the chains at the front doors to the admin building and explains that the police did this to protect people (building was empty) and for fear of what happened to the library (weeks before this).
On the TV screen we can see he is checking off boxes and presenting to the jury a definition for Trespass II- He has highlighted the first line which says "knowingly enters or remains on property"
He then highlights the line that says "not open to the public" and is listing off reasons why he believes the defendant knew it was not open to the public. He is citing the building being locked as proof of this even though the parking garage is whats in question here.
Now he is showing a map which highlights the route from the defendants apartment to the admin building/parking garage?? This is so odd... unclear what his point even was.
He then highlights the third and final line while defining trespassing, which says they remained "after a lawful order to vacate"
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@alissaazar who needed to evacuate if everyone was working from home?
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@Fuzzy_Doug exactly lol
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@alissaazar
I hope the defense gets the chance to have her clearly define her terms: “aggressive, violent, deescalation.”
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@alissaazar :oof:
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@alissaazar
Who is the DA? Say their name. Hold them accountable.
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@FranceskaMann my bad I though I mentioned this. District Attorney Charlie Weiss. He is typically a bias crimes prosecutor but for whatever reason was assigned to this case
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@alissaazar Not relevant? How does that even work?!?
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@alissaazar
I loathe that we live in a surveillance state, but i do love to see it backfire on them.
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@alissaazar more like scott swindle lmao
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@alissaazar
They meant "intimate" in the "40% of cops..." kind of way.
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@alissaazar so fucking creepy
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@alissaazar I had jury duty in Portland yesterday and i was really hoping I'd have the opportunity to serve on one of these trials!
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