The city of Portland plans to pay $15,000 to settle a suit brought by a Forest Grove man who said he was tackled and wrongfully detained when cops mistook him for a car vandalism suspect at an anti-Donald Trump demonstration in 2016.
Daniel Martinez, of Forest Grove, said he was walking east on the sidewalk of Southwest Yamhill Street at the tail end of an anti-Trump march on Nov. 13, 2016, when police in riot gear suddenly rushed him from behind and tackled him to the ground.
He said officers held him down, pressed their knees into his back and used zip ties to handcuff his wrists behind his back.
Martinez said police mistook him for a suspect in a car vandalism that had occurred some days earlier.
“The true perpetrator of the vandalism, who was arrested subsequent to the facts and circumstances giving rise to this complaint, was an African-American and bore no resemblance to Mr. Martinez,’’ his lawyer Richard E. Davis Jr. wrote in the suit.
The settlement is on the City Council’s consent agenda for a vote Wednesday.
City attorneys acknowledged that police had briefly taken Martinez into custody but then realized they had the wrong man.
A police officer identified Martinez as a suspect wanted for property crime damage from a prior night’s protest, and officers developed a plan to take him into custody, according to deputy city attorney Daniel Simon.
Officers quickly moved behind Martinez and “using a controlled takedown,’’ secured Martinez’s hands behind his back with zip ties, stood him up and walked him to other officers about a half block away, Simon wrote in court papers.
“Shortly afterwards, (Portland police) officers realized that plaintiff was not the suspect,’’ Simon wrote.
Police released Martinez, “apologized for the inconvenience and offered plaintiff a police business card,’’ Simon wrote in his response to the suit.
The ordinance before City Council suggests the settlement is appropriate “to avoid the risk of an adverse jury award.’’
Martinez initially had asked for $75,000 in non-economic damages and $1,482.00 in economic damages in the suit. The Forest Grove man, according to his suit, missed three days of work and suffered nerve pain in each wrist. He cited medical bills that totaled $944.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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