Oregon state representative accused of opening state Capitol faces misdemeanor charges
Oregon state Republican Rep. Mike Nearman was charged on Friday with first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespassing according to court records after he allegedly opened a door to allow anti-lockdown protesters into the Capitol building as lawmakers were debating COVID-19 measures.
In the charing document obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting, Nearman is accused of “unlawfully and knowingly performing an act which constituted an unauthorized exercise of his official duties, with intent to obtain a benefit or to harm another.”
On Dec. 21, Nearman could be seen on surveillance video leaving the Capitol building through a locked door. The door remained open long enough for protesters to pour into the building.
None of the protesters entered the chamber but there was still physical pushback with Oregon State Police saying that a protester “sprayed some kind of chemical irritant.”
Oregon House Speaker Democrat Tina Kotek called for Nearman to resign shortly after the charges were filed.
“Rep. Nearman put every person in the Capitol in serious danger and created fear among Capitol staff and legislators,” Kotek said on Twitter. I called on him to resign in January and renew my call in light of today’s charges.”
Shortly after the initial events in December occurred, Nearman said in his own statement that he doesn’t “condone the violence nor participate it. I do think that when ... the Oregon Constitution says that the legislative proceedings shall be ‘open,’ it means open, and as anyone who has spent the last nine months staring at a screen doing virtual meetings will tell you, it’s not the same thing as being open.”
