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A jury awarded $40,272 in damages this week to a woman who was beaten by Portland police during a 2020 protest. Officers struck Erin Wenzel, a 35-year-old care coordinator at Oregon Health & Science University, with a nightstick and threw her to the ground during the Aug. 14, 2020, demonstration, breaking both of her arms and leaving her with ongoing PTSD, according to the complaint and subsequent legal filings.
She was there as a medic, she said. Wenzel was not arrested, but her husband, Phillip, was booked in jail for allegedly assaulting a police officer. The charge was dropped.
There was no video of the incident, which occurred after officers instructed Wenzel and other marchers to disperse as they approached the previously burned and vandalized police union headquarters. City attorneys argued that the force was necessary.
The jury disagreed. It found one or more of the unnamed officers had committed battery, but stopped short of finding the city negligent.
It’s one of many similar civil cases that have been filed against the city, but the first to go to trial. Juan Chavez, a lawyer who has represented protesters in other cases against the city, says this jury verdict will allow him to pursue damages in his cases more aggressively.
“Getting this F on their record is a big deal,” he says.
