20CV19618

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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[1].) The first factual allegation made in this complaint references two op-eds that written to The Hill[2] and Washington Examiner[3] 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[4]. 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[5]. 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[6].) 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[7]. 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[8]. 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[9] 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[10].

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.

Parties

Name Party Status
Andy Ngo Plantiff Active
Rose City Antifa Defendant Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)
Madison Lee Allen Defendant Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)[11]
Benjamin Bolen Defendant Dismissed (Case Settled)
Katharine Belyea Defendant Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)[11]
Joseph Evans Defendant Dismissed (Rule 7 dismissal)[11]
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[12][13]
8/21/2020 Proof - Service Katherine Belyea[12]
8/21/2020 Proof - Service John Hacker[12]
8/21/2020 Affidavit/Declaration - Mailing Mailed to Ben Bolen[12]
8/26/2020 Proof - Service upon Luis Marquez non-party[12][13]
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[12]
9/3/2020 Motion - Continuance Unable to serve Madison Allen[12]
9/3/2020 Order - Proposed Continuance due to service
9/11/2020 Notice - Representation For John Hacker
  1. ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/01/antifa-charlottesville-violence-fbi-242235
  2. ↑ https://thehill-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/500764-why-its-likely-to-be-antifa-not-neo-nazis-behind-the-anarchy-in-america/amp/
  3. ↑ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trump-is-right-antifa-are-terrorists-they-always-were
  4. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-hill/
  5. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/washington-examiner/
  6. ↑ https://www-opb-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.opb.org/article/2022/09/15/portland-police-records-sean-kealiher-homicide-investigation/?outputType=amp
  7. ↑ https://twitter.com/PortlandPolice/status/1145106839618502656?s=20
  8. ↑ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/milkshakes-thrown-in-portland/
  9. ↑ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/subarachnoid-hemorrhage/symptoms-causes/syc-20361009
  10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M4mrUoJy0c
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Orders written by Judge Ghandour and dated July 19, 2023 state that the Order of Default against this party was granted, however, there is no judgement listed in the docket after the Feb 10, 2023 dismissal on these parties. This will be corrected if/when new filings are made available
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 In an attempt to mitigate the use of our platform for illegal doxxing, some records may not be made directly available on our site. For more information on HB 3047 and 3273 that are guiding this, please see our ORS 30.835 page.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 In this instance, the party served is not named in the case, and no indication is made who the service was for.
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