Micah Fletcher testified today that he engaged in conduct consistent with the elements of coercion under Oregon law against Jeremy Christian. Oregon Revised Statute 163.275 states:
(1)A person commits the crime of coercion when the person compels or induces another person to engage in conduct from which the other person has a legal right to abstain, or to abstain from engaging in conduct in which the other person has a legal right to engage, by means of instilling in the other person a fear that, if the other person refrains from the conduct compelled or induced or engages in conduct contrary to the compulsion or inducement, the actor or another will:
(a)Unlawfully cause physical injury to some person;
(b)Unlawfully cause physical injury to some animal;
(c)Unlawfully cause damage to property;
(d)Engage in conduct constituting a crime;
(e)Falsely accuse some person of a crime or cause criminal charges to be instituted against the person;
(f)Cause or continue a strike, boycott or other collective action injurious to some person's business, except that such a threat is not deemed coercive when the act or omission compelled is for the benefit of the group in whose interest the actor purports to act;
(g)Testify falsely or provide false information or withhold testimony or information with respect to another's legal claim or defense; or
(h)Unlawfully use or abuse the person's position as a public servant by performing some act within or related to official duties, or by failing or refusing to perform an official duty, in such manner as to affect some person adversely.
(2)Coercion is a Class C felony.
Micah Fletcher attempted to compel Jeremy Christian to leave the Max under threat of injury by shoving him to the ground and into seats while telling him to "get off the Max." Jeremy Christian had every right to stay on the Max. In this embedded video at 7:30 you can see attorney Dean Smith get Micah Fletcher to admit to the elements of coercion. At first Micah dodges the question by saying that he did not plan to physically drag Jeremy off the train. That is easy to say when you plan on shoving someone off the train. Smith counters by bringing up prior statements of Micah's in which he expressed a desire to make it clear to Jeremy that his best option was to leave the Max. Micah confirms that was his intent while he was shoving him to the ground and into seats. Micah concludes the video by saying that his intent was, "to encourage him to realize that that's the most constructive option for him at that moment again not to physically remove him myself, to put him in a position where once he does the math in his head he says 'you know this is pointless fuck it I'm going home'."
Using force to compel someone to get off the Max when they have a legal right to stay on the Max is clearly coercion. It does not matter if he intended to "drag" him off the Max or not. What matters under the law is that he used the threat of force "to encourage him to realize that that's the most constructive option for him at that moment again not to physically remove him myself, to put him in a position where once he does the math in his head he says 'you know this is pointless fuck it I'm going home'."