Reed Student Jeremiah True Arrested on Allegations of Sex Abuse, Disorderly Conduct

By BETH SLOVIC

Portland police last night arrested Jeremiah True, the Reed College student who drew national attention to campus last month for his increasingly bizarre free speech protests.


Multnomah County Sheriff's Office records show True has been accused of sex abuse III, harassment and disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors. BuzzFeed reports True disrupted a girls' high-school rugby practice at Normandale Park in Northeast Portland. It's not yet clear what happened at the park. (Update: KPTV adds details from a probable cause affidavit. It says True caressed a 17-year-old girl's hair and arm and made an inappropriate comment that's not spelled out.)

True, 20, grabbed headlines in March when he claimed he'd been bounced from his Humanities class for saying statistics on campus sexual assaults are overblown—an unpopular opinion. Reed College officials and students said his story wasn't accurate; True was excluded because of his disruptive behavior. 

True's initial claims were soon overshadowed by his own increasingly erratic actions, including slur-laced online diatribes.

Reed's student newspaper, The Quest, reported earlier this month that True had been excluded from campus, pending the results of an honor case.

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