Cider Riot Attackers Must Pay $760,007 in Damages to Tasting Room’s Owner

A Multnomah County jury determined that four men who pepper-sprayed and clubbed anti-fascist patrons at Cider Riot in May 2019 must pay the cider maker’s owner $760,007 in damages for trespass, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with economic relations.

Cider Riot owner Abram Goldman-Armstrong sued Ian Kramer, Mackenzie Lewis, Christopher Ponte, and David Willis for damages after they arrived with members of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer to harass Cider Riot customers.

Kramer, Lewis and Ponte were convicted of rioting and served jail time, court records show. None of them could be reached for comment.

Willis was not criminally charged. “It’s the best possible outcome we could get in a trial in the city of Portland,” Willis, 48, said in an interview.

During the attack, Kramer, 51, hit a patron over the head with a baton, knocking her unconscious, according to Goldman-Armstrong’s complaint. Lewis, 35, battered a patron while trying to unmask her. Ponte, 44, pepper-sprayed the crowd. Willis directed people to go to Cider Riot to “take the fight to Antifa” and later threatened patrons with a “large club,” the civil complaint said.

Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson was originally included as a defendant in Goldman-Armstrong’s lawsuit. He was dismissed after resolving matters out of court.

The attack was among the highest-profile skirmishes between a right-wing group and anti-fascists in Portland, where the groups often clashed. Two years later, the Proud Boys and anti-fascists brawled for a full day in the parking lot of an abandoned Kmart in the Parkrose neighborhood.

“It’s a victory not just for me but for Portland, basically showing these goons that they can’t come into our community, do violence, and get away with it,” Goldman-Armstrong said in an interview. ”A jury can say no and stand up against them."

Goldman-Armstrong opened Cider Riot in the Kerns neighborhood of Northeast Portland in 2016 and became a pioneer in the U.S. cider revival. That same year, Cider Riot won “best cider in Oregon” at the Portland International Cider Cup.

Goldman-Armstrong came to loathe neofascists after encountering racist skinheads in the punk scene, where they made appearances at Portland music venues like La Luna. He learned more about anti-fascism while studying in Ireland during his junior year in college, where he also fell in love with soccer. He combined those passions, waving a flag bearing three arrows—an antifascist symbol—during Portland Timbers matches.

Cider Riot became popular among labor groups, including the Industrial Workers of the World and Burgerville workers, who gathered in the tasting room’s meeting rooms. Right-wing groups began taunting left-wing patrons soon after.

Goldman-Armstrong was hosting a May Day/International Workers’ Day event on May 1, the day of the Patriot Prayer attack, according to the complaint. The defendants in the case arrived at about 7:30 pm and began “menacing” patrons. A group of some 20 people wearing armor and carrying weapons joined the four defendants soon after.

Three of the four defendants—Kramer, Ponte and Willis—were found to have inflicted emotional distress on Goldman-Armstrong and ordered to pay $200,000 each, plus $50,000 in punitive damages. Lewis was ordered to pay $10,000.

The remaining $7 is for trespassing and interference with economic relations, charges that draw fines of $1 for each count.

Cider Riot closed in November 2019, six months after the attack. But it was hard seltzer, not right-wing warriors, that put it out of business, Goldman-Armstrong says.

“As the hard seltzers came in, we were pretty much flat at about a thousand barrels,” he says. The attack “didn’t intimidate enough people to make an impact on our business.”

Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have been less visible during President Donald Trump’s second term. Goldman-Armstrong says they’ve been obscured by agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department.

"I was just down at the labor march to ICE and got tear-gassed by them," Goldman-Armstrong said. “These guys are the Brownshirts, and that’s pretty scary.”