20CV19618

Andy Ngo vs. Rose City Antifa et al

This case is a long winding and at times confusing case featuring a broad variety of allegations against a number of individuals and organizations, with events starting in 2019 or earlier. Due to current media order rules, much accurate information from the actual trial is hard to find and this may go through significant revisions as a result.

Initial Complaint

Andy Ngo, former writer for Vanguard and Quillette, currently works as an Editor at Large for Post Millennial, a Canadian media organization. He filed a case alleging assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as claims against Oregon's RICO statutes, requesting $900,000 in damages. The original complaint named Rose City Antifa, Benjamin Bolen, John Hacker, Katherine Belyea, Joseph Evans, Madison Allen and 50 Doe defendants. In the introduction, he claimed that these parties were coordinating to harass, stalk and intimidate him, and that Antifa was declared a 'domestic terrorist group' by the US government (Politico's reporting on this claim suggests that while the federal government did make this determination in 2016, it appears that is was a direct response to increasing threats of right wing extremism, as well as, at worst, it's seen as a disorganized group of cells that sometimes coordinate with each other.) The first factual allegation made in this complaint references two op-eds that written to The Hill and Washington Examiner in his claims that Antifa calls for insurrectionary anarchy to overthrow the government. (While The Hill is generally leased biased and mostly factual in it's reporting, Media Bias does not list the op-ed author, James Casey, as one of it's normal opinion writers. Mr. Casey's bio indicates he was a career law enforcement officer, with a specialty in militia, neo-Nazi and anarchist groups. Washington Examiner, however, is rated as as significant right leaning in their content and editorials, with only mixed factual reporting. Their op-ed is attributed to the outlet itself, with no individual writer taking credit.

May 1, 2019

The first individual claim that is made is that John Bolen punched Mr. Ngo in the abdomen at an ICE protest on May Day 2019. Later that day, Mr. Ngo went to Cider Riot!, a since closed bar to document a protest by Patriot Prayer of a gathering of leftists individuals after their planned protests were done for the day. Mr. Ngo noted that the bar was since closed after the hit-and-run killing of anti fascist Sean Kealiher, a case that was still open at the time of the complaint (since then, Portland Police arrested the primary suspect in August of 2022, after OPB reported that records showed PPB purposefully slow walked the investigation, possibly for ideological reasons.) Mr. Ngo was allegedly maced by a Doe defendant and fled the scene due to not feeling safe. Many of these details were covered in the subsequent riot charges against a variety of members of Patriot Prayer. Some members took plea deals, some were found guilty, and some cases were dismissed by the judge.

May 7, 2019

The second incident, a week later, were allegations against John Hacker for throwing an 'unknown liquid' onto Mr. Ngo's head and stealing his phone when Mr. Ngo attempted to record him. Several years later, Mr. Hacker was charged with felony theft in the case, and in the case, the 'unknown liquid' turned out to be water, and the 'theft' of the phone was an unplanned action due to Mr. Hacker not feeling safe being filmed by Mr. Ngo, doubly so in a place that had a 'no camera' policy in place. Shortly after Mr. Hacker took the phone, he handed it to gym staff who returned it to Mr. Ngo with no further incident. In the criminal trial, Mr. Ngo admitted that the only damage that day was a crack to his phone case (that he couldn't identify based on police photos of the case). The judge found Mr. Hacker innocent of the charge in the criminal case (it is worth noting the burden of proof is lower in civil cases than criminal cases), but had strong words for both parties about the incident and their actions.

June 29, 2019

On this day Mr. Ngo arguably became world famous for the 'milkshake incident'. At a protest where another organization, PopMob, was handing out vegan milkshakes, a number of people threw their milkshakes at Mr. Ngo. He alleged Katherine Belyea was one such individual. Portland Police had issued a warning on their Twitter account that the milkshakes may have contained quick-drying concrete. Prior investigative reporting showed that the evidence basically came from how one police officers thought the drinks smelled like wet concrete, even though no one drinking them suffered ill effects. Mr. Ngo later claims he was 'mobbed and bloodied' by a group of Rose City Antifa members, listed as Does 21-43 and specifically naming Joseph Evans and Madison Allen as assailants.

After reporting the attack to police at the Central Precinct, he went to OHSU, where he alleged he was diagnosed with a 'subarachnoid brain hemorrhage and hospitalized overnight' (in the subsequent criminal trial against Mr. Hacker, Mr. Ngo suggested, and agreed with the defense's question, that he suffered brain damage in the incident). Several days later a video was posted to the Fox News YouTube channel of an interview he gave them after the attack.

October 31, 2019

As part of a protest/prank on Halloween, six people wearing masks of Mr. Ngo's face stood outside his home, banging on windows and trying to open the door handle. This told Mr. Ngo that his personal information had been found out and distributed among other people, and that such doxxing caused him to fear for the safety of him and his family.

After laying out the claims for damage, he asked for a judgement 'exceeding $300,000, trebled to $900,000' (as part of the Oregon RICO statutes) as well as attorney fees and costs, pre-interest judgement, and injunctive relief preventing the Defendants from 'harassing, threatening, harming' Mr. Ngo.

Service difficulties

Almost immediately the case began running into problems, as by the end of August only two parties were actually served, with people not named in the case getting served (presumably in an attempt to serve Rose City Antifa) and difficulties finding other defendants to provide service. From August 2020 to March of 2021 Mr. Ngo worked with the courts to attempt to serve defendants who he alleged had fled the state and/or were ducking process servers to avoid service. In September 3, 2020 filings, the process server stated that both were attempting to also evade unrelated court actions and bench warrants, and at least one was attempting service in Boise, Idaho.

Benjamin Bolen attempts to cancel case against him

On September 21st, 2020, Benjamin Bolen, who Mr. Ngo claimed 'rabbit punched' him in the stomach on May 1st, 2019, files a motion asking to be stricken from the case, claiming that he never punched Mr. Ngo, and that the photo that Mr. Ngo used to identify him in the complaint is a completely different person. He also raised objections that the complaint was overly broad, not showing a good connection between any of the parties or dates involved, and that the real motivation for the lawsuit was to punish others for their political ideology.

In November 2020, Judge Kathleen Daily denied the motion, stating that since this was essentially an anti-SLAPP motion, violence alleged against another person is not protected speech under the First Amendment, and a case of mistaken identity is not sufficient reason by itself to strike the allegations from the complaint. It was a defense that could be made at trial. Mr. Bolen appealed the case to the appellate court, who upheld the judge's decision.

During the flurry of motions and cross-motions dealing with the strike, Mr. Ngo claimed that he was attacked at 2:45pm on May 1st, had no injuries at the time and had been experiencing pain immediately after being punched and sought medical treatment. However, the brawl at Cider Riot! was early in the evening and it's uncertain if he would have sought treatment before or after the alleged pepper there.

Parties

Name	Party	Status
Andy Ngo	Plantiff	Active
Rose City Antifa	Defendant	Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)
Madison Lee Allen	Defendant	Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)
Benjamin Bolen	Defendant	Dismissed (Case Settled)
Katharine Belyea	Defendant	Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)
Joseph Evans	Defendant	Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)
John Hacker	Defendant	Active
Elizabeth Richter	Defendant	Active

Court Records

Q2 2020

Date	Filing	Information/Documents
6/4/2020	Complaint	[PDF]
6/23/2020	Motion	Out of State Attorney
6/23/2020	Declaration	Harmeet Dhillion in support of pro hoc vice
6/23/2020	Declaration	Gregory Michael in support of pro hoc vice

Q3 2020

Date	Filing	Information/Documents
7/8/2020	Order	Granting Motion for Admission of Attorney pro hoc vice Harmeet Dhillon
7/8/2020	Order	Granting Motion for Admission of Attorney pro hoc vice Gregory Michael
8/18/2020	Notice
8/21/2020	Proof - Service - Substitute	upon Julie Jackson non-party
8/21/2020	Proof - Service	Katherine Belyea
8/21/2020	Proof - Service	John Hacker
8/21/2020	Affidavit/Declaration - Mailing	Mailed to Ben Bolen
8/26/2020	Proof - Service	upon Luis Marquez non-party
8/28/2020	Notice - Intent Take Default	John Hacker
8/28/2020	Notice - Intent Take Default	John Bolen
8/28/2020	Notice - Intent Take	Katherine Belyea
9/1/2020	Notice - Withdrawal of Attorney	Gregory Michael for Andy Ngo
9/3/2020	Motion - Continuance	Unable to serve Joseph Evans
9/3/2020	Motion - Continuance	Unable to serve Madison Allen
9/3/2020	Order - Proposed	Continuance due to service
9/11/2020	Notice - Representation	For John Hacker
9/16/2020	Order	Rule 7 Service Postponement Granted (for Joseph Evans)
9/16/2020	Order	Rule 7 Service Postponement Granted (for Madison Allen)
9/21/2020	Motion - Strike	Bolen, requesting being struck from the case.
9/21/2020	Declaration	of Benjamin in Support of Special Motion to Strike
9/21/2020	Declaration	of Shane Burley in Support of Defendant Ben Bolen's Motion to Strike

Q4 2020

Date	Filing	Information/Documents
10/5/2020	Motion - Strike	Cross motion from Ngo to strike 9/21 Declarations
10/5/2020	Declaration	Andy Ngo opposition to Bolen's Motion