The Multnomah County Sheriff鈥檚 Office has issued criminal citations to three men accused of setting up illegal roadblocks in the rural community of Corbett, Oregon.
Deputies responded Tuesday to calls from a driver who said they had been followed and blocked at the intersection where East Larch Mountain Road splits from East Historic Columbia River Highway.
The sheriff鈥檚 office reported Thursday that it has issued second-degree disorderly conduct citations to 36-year-old Michael G. Meier of Sandy, as well as Joshua D. Smith, 36, and Travis Lucky, 18, both of Corbett.
鈥淭he Multnomah County Sheriff鈥檚 Office will not tolerate this type of illegal activity,鈥� Sheriff Mike Reese said in a statement. 鈥淚f you see this activity or are stopped by a civilian, call 911, and a deputy will respond and investigate.鈥�
Sheriff Mike Reese issues a statement regarding illegal roadblocks and fire concerns in East Multnomah County.
— Multnomah Co Sheriff (@MultCoSO)
The incident occurred as hysteria over looters and false rumors of
spread on social media following the widespread and devastating wildfires that began sweeping through Oregon on Labor Day.
Similar reports of vigilantes carrying weapons and stopping people they perceived as suspicious occurred in rural Clackamas County and other parts of the state.
Tuesday鈥檚 vigilante activity was not the first time Multnomah County sheriff鈥檚 deputies had responded to illegal stops in Corbett. Reese put out a statement Sept. 12, saying deputies had responded Sept. 11 to armed people demanding identification from drivers trying to enter the community.
鈥淲e told people engaging in this behavior that roadways are open to all users, and that their actions are illegal,鈥� Reese said at the time, adding that community members had become alarmed by a small fire that started from an illegal firework.
More details of the traffic stops surfaced this week as Latoya Robinson, an African American woman, was among those stopped. Robinson is a resident of Sandy and had evacuated to a friend鈥檚 home due to the Riverside Fire.
Robinson told the newspaper that heavily armed men stopped her with her children and questioned: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not from around here, are you?鈥�
The Guardian also first reported on a community meeting about the vigilante patrols where a sheriff鈥檚 deputy advised people to take pictures of license plates and to not have their firearms visible.
Multnomah County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Deborah Kafoury condemned the vigilante patrols Thursday.
鈥淚 will absolutely not tolerate vigilantism of any kind in Multnomah County, especially when it further traumatizes people escaping a disaster,鈥� Kafoury said in a statement.
She recalled that vigilantism had not been an issue in 2017 when the Eagle Creek Fire burned through the Columbia River Gorge and threatened the town of Corbett.
Kafoury asked Reese to review allegations that the deputy鈥檚 actions at the community meeting may have encouraged further vigilantism.
鈥淚f that turns out to be true, it is categorically unacceptable,鈥� she said.
Multnomah County is not alone in experiencing threatening actions by armed community members. Clackamas County deputies also as fires quickly spread, claiming 鈥渁ntifa鈥� and other political extremists might be to blame for some of the catastrophic wildfires.
Those claims fueled vigilante activity in rural parts of the county, where people 鈥� including journalists 鈥� were stopped and questioned by armed men. Fire officials say there鈥檚 no link between the blazes and political activity, pointing instead to as significant factors in fires along the western Cascades.
Some
have occurred since the fires, but those have not been linked to any political causes.
Copyright 2020 Oregon Public Broadcasting
