PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The owner of a Northeast Portland pub filed a $1-million lawsuit against Patriot Prayer and its leader Joey Gibson for allegedly fighting with patrons outside of the business on May Day.
The Oregon Justice Resource Center said Friday that its client, Abram Goldman-Armstrong, “seeks recognition and compensation for the damage Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer are doing to a law abiding Portland business.”
Goldman-Armstrong owns Cider Riot — a pub located at 807 Northeast Couch Street in Portland.
On Wednesday — aka “May Day” — Cider Riot was the location of a large disturbance that warranted a police response.
The Portland Police Bureau said dispatchers received reports around 7:30 p.m. that about 30 people were preparing to march near Northeast 8th Avenue and Northeast Couch Street. Officers said some of those in the group were wearing helmets and someone had a baton.
Less than 10 minutes later, police received reports that a fight had broken out.
The PPB’s aerial team monitored the scene from above while officers on the ground waited for support.
During this time, the police bureau said more reports came in of people throwing sticks, rocks, glass and using pepper spray. Some people were said to be in riot gear while others were holding bats.
Portland police said: “When the appropriate resources arrived, officers went in as a team and the groups had separated. Officers contacted both groups and asked if there were victims or witnesses who wanted to report crimes and both groups declined.”
Goldman-Armstrong is suing Patriot Prayer and Joey Gibson, as well as Ian Kramer and 25 others who he claims were involved in the incident. The lawsuit accuses them of negligence, trespass and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
According to the lawsuit, Kramer hit a Cider Riot patron and knocked her unconscious. The lawsuit also accuses Gibson of harassing and menacing patrons at the pub and facilitating a street fight between 2 people, which he live streamed.
Goldman-Armstrong is seeking $1 million in damages.
Read the full lawsuit filed by Goldman-Armstrong
Gibson released the following statement in response to the lawsuit:
even alone and never responded with hateful words or violent actions. In the video you can clearly see that I was spit on, assaulted, phone knocked out of my hand, had beer bottles thrown at me, and pepper sprayed numerous times for over 20 minutes. As usual
I didn’t even say one hateful word. Cider Riot Co-hosted an event with Rose City antifa and allowed over 80 antifa members masked up with weapons in their establishment all while serving them alcohol. They committed crimes against me standing on a public sidewalk
while antifa was standing both on the sidewalk and on Cider Riot property. I never stepped foot on their property. They also assaulted two different reporters. They clearly over served their customers as they were acting belligerent carrying weapons. Does the owners of Cider Riot believe they did anything wrong, or is this acceptable behavior inside their establishment that serves alcohol?”
The PPB is currently investigating the May Day incident outside of Cider Riot and asks anyone who thinks they were victims of crimes to contact 503.823.3333.