Former University student Ian Van Ornum, 19, was sentenced Friday to 18 months probation, 80 hours of community service and $500 in attorney fees following his conviction of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The trial that drew statewide attention for a Eugene Police Department officer’s use of a Taser in Van Ornum’s arrest at an anti-pesticides rally ended about a week before Van Ornum’s sentencing.
In that time, the jury’s elected spokesperson contacted The Register-Guard to voice concerns about EPD’s use of force in the arrest.
The jury foreman asked the paper withhold his name, but said he spoke for himself and several others of the six-person jury.
The Register-Guard requested that the court release the jurors’ names for media contact. Judge Jack Billings denied the request, saying that concealing the jurors’ identities in this controversial case was the court’s duty.
Billings said in court Friday that just minutes before the hearing, one juror’s husband called him, “irate” at the potential for Billings to grant The Guard’s request.
Eugene broadcast station KVAL obtained permission to film the trial, but under Billings’ orders positioned the cameras so that jurors remained off-screen. Anticipating the controversy surrounding the verdict, Billings said he took this step to protect jurors from retaliation.
The juror’s husband said his wife had already endured criticism from her co-workers, who suspected her as a juror because of her absence from work during the three-day trial.
After seeing reader and viewer reaction to the trial’s coverage, Billings said he “concluded that jurors would be at some degree of risk” if their names were disclosed.
Billings also said that the suggestion in some comments on media Web sites were “troubling” when they indicated that defense attorney Laura Fine had launched a weak case on Van Ornum’s behalf.
“I want to say publicly that the defense mounted by Ms. Fine was well thought out and thorough,” he said.
However, he continued, the defense’s reliance upon Van Ornum’s friends as witnesses was not enough against the state’s civilian witnesses who said they were scared by protesters’ behavior at the May 30 rally.
“The jurors had to find you were lying,” Billings told Van Ornum. “The only way you can look at this jury is that they had to convict you. If they had believed you, they would have acquitted you.”
EPD captain Steve Swenson issued a statement Friday, saying Van Ornum’s conviction and sentencing affirms that officers acted appropriately in arresting and charging the student.
“Mr. Van Ornum was obstructing traffic through his behavior,” he said. “The police officers were working to protect the rights of all community members to travel on public thoroughfares without unlawful disruption. Mr. Van Ornum also resisted the lawful arrest by the officers taking him into custody.”
Three officers attended Van Ornum’s sentencing hearing and Billings expressed surprise that EPD’s internal affairs investigator was not present too.
Van Ornum testified during his trial that he did not resist arrest, but reacted to excessive force that led to officer Judd Warden tasing him twice in a 17-second span, while Van Ornum lay facedown on the cement.
Swenson addressed this piece of testimony in his statement, saying, “Issues have been raised about the use of the Taser and force used by the officers. An internal investigation is underway to review those aspects of the event.”
Swenson added that a civilian review board will be incorporated in the investigation.
Van Ornum has 30 days from Friday, April 24 to appeal the conviction. Fine said her client will appeal, but had no further comment.
Fine said Van Ornum, who was involved in OSPIRG, founded the student group Crazy People for Wild Places and co-directed the UO Survival Center last fall term, left school after the fall because he has struggled with concentration and memory since the tasing.
Van Ornum’s doctor testified during the trial that Van Ornum had suffered a concussion in conjunction with his arrest.
Swenson concluded his statement, supporting the jury’s and Billings’ decisions.
“Neither the Eugene Police Department, its employees, or Tasers were on trial, only Mr. Van Ornum,” he said.
[email protected]