Scooters And One Wheels

Man sentenced for smashing electrical scooter in opposition to window of federal courthouse in downtown Portland

A 23-year-old man on Wednesday was sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to attempting to damage the downtown federal courthouse in Portland a year ago, shortly after his release from the downtown jail across the street.

Darby Marshall Howard grabbed an electric Lime scooter that was nearby and swung it twice at a large front glass pane window of the Mark O. Hatfield US District Courthouse but was not successful in shattering the thick glass, Assistant US Attorney Greg Nyhus said.

Howard was easily identified by the bright orange jail-issued shoes he wore and his jail-issued clothes, including khaki pants and a gray shirt, that he wore, having just been released from the county jail across the street.

He had been arrested earlier that afternoon, accused of participating in a disturbance at the Wells Fargo Center at 1300 SW Fifth Ave., where about 50 protesters had pressed their way inside the building and refused to leave, according to state prosecutors.

He had been booked into the downtown jail at 8:30 pm on March 11, 2021, on criminal mischief and other allegations and released on his own recognition at 8:30 pm and told to report to Multnomah County Circuit Court on March 15, jail records show.

But he was quickly returned to custody, rearrested at 10:45 pm by federal agents outside the federal courthouse.

Howard’s defense lawyer C. Renee Manes said Howard had been released from custody in jail clothes and no jacket and it was too late for him to get into a youth shelter.

The jail-issued shoes that Darby M. Howard was seen wearing when arrested outside the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse in Portland on March 11, 2021.

Upon his release, a protest was ongoing outside the federal courthouse. He joined about 50 demonstrators who converged on the federal courthouse after crews had removed a long-standing perimeter fence and concrete dividers outside it following months of unrest and social justice protests that started shortly after the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a Black man killed after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.

The barriers had been up since the summer of 2020 as mass social protests seized the city and the downtown courthouse became a regular focus of demonstrations. After the vandalism to the courthouse last March, the fence was put back up outside the courthouse.

“He was very angry and got caught up in the mob,” Manes said of Howard. “I think the videos very clearly show that he was encouraged to throw scooters at the window by this large mob of primarily black-clad people who clearly had dressed for the purpose of coming to protest at the courthouse.”

Howard served 24 days in custody. He has since moved back to his father’s home in Kentucky and has been doing well during his pretrial release, the court found.

Howard said hopes to gain his high school graduate equivalency degree and obtain training in a specific trade.

“I’m not involved in protests any more. I am sorry for putting my parents through this,” he told US District Judge Marco A. Hernandez. “I hope to get my life on track and live a happy, healthy life.”

The judge ordered Howard to be placed on three years of federal supervised release and undergo a mental health evaluation.

— Maxine Bernstein

Email at [email protected]; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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