The key witness in an assault case against a Portland activist was nowhere near the alleged hammer attack when it occurred during a tense political protest last month in downtown, new court documents claim.
Nor have police or prosecutors spoken with the man they say was seriously injured, according to the defendant’s lawyer.
The disclosures came in a motion filed late Tuesday by the court-appointed attorney for Alexander Dial, one of at least 15 people arrested during the Aug. 17 demonstrations that drew hundreds of right-wing activists from around the country and those opposed to them.
Dial, 37, was among a handful of counterprotesters who clashed with members of the American Guard, a far-right group with white nationalist ties, as they rode a black shuttle bus near the foot of the Morrison Bridge after the rally ended. The brawl became one of the day’s most contentious moments.
During the chaotic scene, captured on video viewed millions of times, the counterprotesters wrested a hammer away from someone inside the bus who appeared to swing it at them from the open door.
The video shows Dial flinging the hammer back into the bus before its doors close and the bus eventually drives off. Dial was clad in a helmet, gas mask and body armor at the time. He also wore a black T-shirt that read “Beta Cuck 4 Lyfe,” which became his nom de guerre in the days after the protest.
Other counterprotesters can be seen striking the bus, throwing punches and blasting pepper spray inside the bus and at its occupants. Some also chased and hit a second nearby bus carrying members of the Proud Boys, a group of self-described “western chauvinists” who helped organize the right-wing rally.
Prosecutors now allege the thrown hammer struck a man inside the bus and have charged Dial with multiple criminal counts, including second-degree assault, a Measure 11 crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and 10 months in prison.
While four other counterprotesters also face felony allegations in the bus confrontations, including riot charges, Dial’s assault charge is the most severe.
No passengers on the bus have been arrested or charged at this time. A Portland police spokesman said the brawl remains under investigation.
In his motion for the prosecution to share additional evidence in the case, defense attorney William Walsh zeroed in on the basis of Dial’s assault charge. The statute requires prosecutors to show someone caused another person’s serious physical injury.
“No witness who was on the bus at the time of the incident has come forward to identify any injury to anyone caused by Mr. Dial,” wrote Walsh, who cited a review of police reports, video of the fight and grand jury testimony to substantiate the claim.
According to the defense motion, the only person to provide authorities with information about an injured man was Reggie Axtell of Portland. Axtell told a grand jury last month that he observed a bruise the size of a golf ball on one of the bus occupants later that day, the motion said.
Axtell is fixture among local right-wing groups, including Patriot Prayer, and co-founded Portland’s Liberation with conservative activist Haley Adams. He has attended numerous rallies and demonstrations in the city.
Axtell drew scrutiny and headlines earlier this year when he published a video on social media where he made comments perceived as violent threats against Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, including how the mayor’s days were “numbered.” He was never arrested or accused of a crime.
“My words were taken out of context,” Axtell told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday. “I meant that I was coming for Ted Wheeler’s job.”
In an interview, he also said he had no prior relationship or affiliation with members of the American Guard until the group’s bus pulled over and picked him up with a dozen other local activists along Southwest Naito Parkway after the clash with counterprotesters.
Once he got on the bus, Axtell said, he saw one of the American Guard members, whom he identified as Mark Quon, had a small bruise on his ribs and that another passenger was giving Quon first aid.
“Mr. Quon was in excruciating pain,” he said.
Axtel said he didn’t know what caused the man’s injury until he later watched the video of the brawl online and saw someone throw the hammer into the bus. He added that Quon was the American Guard member in the video who first appeared to swing the hammer at counterprotesters.
Axtell said he hadn’t planned on being a grand jury witness but had accompanied Adams to court after she was summoned to testify. While waiting, Axtell said, he told a Portland police detective about what he observed on the bus and was summoned to be a witness on the spot.
A Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office spokesman said he couldn’t comment on a pending case.
Valerie Moody, a spokeswoman for the American Guard, didn’t respond to calls Wednesday.
Members of the group include those with deep ties to the white nationalist movement in the United States. Some also participated in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which drew white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
In an interview last month, Moody said American Guard members had come from Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana and Utah to attend the right-wing demonstration, which had been organized to condemn anti-fascist activists, or antifa.
After they rallied with other activists at Tom McCall Waterfront Park and a marched across the Hawthorne Bridge, the group left to attend a barbecue at a public park in Vancouver, Moody said.
They later boarded the bus and returned to Portland because of reports that a number of Proud Boys and other right-wing activists remained downtown and were outnumbered by counterprotesters, she said.
Moody said the bus driver opened the vehicle’s doors near the Morrison Bridge because his fellow passengers thought they recognized someone on the street. When the group of counterprotesters charged the open bus, a passenger inside grabbed a hammer and started swinging it in self-defense, she said.
“They thought they were going to get carjacked,” Moody said.
Moody said Portland police later reached out to the bus driver but no other passengers, including the person with the hammer. She also said the bus driver, whom she declined to identify, was subpoenaed to appear before a Multnomah County grand jury Aug. 23 but received the summons on the same day and didn’t testify.
The grand jury ultimately indicted Dial and four other counterprotesters allegedly involved in the bus brawls. Dial was also indicted on separate counts of second-degree assault and other criminal charges stemming from a different confrontation later in the day.
Dial had been in jail since Aug. 30. He was released Tuesday after posting a $52,750 security, records show.
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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