PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man who reported last summer that two members of local far-right groups had attacked him on a busy street in broad daylight told KGW a grand jury has indicted the pair on assault charges.
On Tuesday, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office released a statement confirming the indictments against Tusitala “Tiny” Toese and Donovon Flippo, first reported by Willamette Week.
The three-count indictment was filed on Feb. 28 and was made public Tuesday after Flippo was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center.
Toese and Flippo, who identify on social media as members of The Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, are both charged with assault in the third degree and assault in the fourth degree.
The victim, Tim Ledwith said the attack happened on a busy stretch of North Broadway on June 8, where Toese and Flippo were riding in a truck with other far-right activists, yelling things like “Build the Wall.”
Ledwith said he physically waved them off, and they zeroed in on him, yelling homophobic slurs. He said he yelled back, calling Toese “Tiny”.
That’s when Ledwith said the two men jumped out of the truck, ran over to him and punched him multiple times.
Ledwith said, as far as he could tell, the case stalled for several months. Willamette Week reported prosecutors had asked police for more evidence, to no avail.
Prior to Tuesday's indictment confirmation, the DA’s spokesman told KGW the case has remained open since Ledwith’s initial report, but couldn’t comment further.
Ledwith said the progress shines a needed spotlight.
“These people are dangerous, and I think that like… any sort of stop to that, I'm fully in support of,” he said. “You know, I wasn't the only one. When I’m just the victim that's not really that big a deal for me, but when it turns out they're doing this to other people, that was really my motivation.”
Watch: Interview with Tim Ledwith
The development, nine months in the making, came the same week as The Guardian published a video that appears to show a Portland police officer declining to arrest Toese and another member of Patriot Prayer, despite having reason to.
In the footage, reportedly excerpted from a livestream shot by Gibson during a protest, an officer is heard saying “I just talked to Jeff Niiya, and he asked me to tell you that he has probable cause to arrest a couple of the guys here.”
Lieutenant Niiya is currently the subject of an internal investigation by the Bureau for exchanging questionable text messages with Gibson.
RELATED: Wheeler orders independent investigation over police texts with Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson
In the video, the officer tells Gibson police have already arrested counter-protesters.
Then he adds, “…but it's time to go. You can go home now. There won't be any arrests.”
A spokesperson for Portland Police told The Guardian, “There is an open investigation, so I am unable to comment on pending personnel matters. I have forwarded the video to our investigators for review.”
KGW previously reached out to Toese, Flippo and Gibson for comment. None has responded.
Despite Toese being named in the indictment, he has not been arrested. Flippo is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday at the Multnomah County Justice Center.