Willamette Week | By Lucas Manfield | July 21, 2022
A car chase on Southeast 162nd Avenue in Gresham two summers ago has led to a recent misdemeanor charge—no thanks to the cops.
Prosecutors filed charges in May against Rex Cuniff Jr. for throwing a cup of tobacco juice into another car during a confrontation at a stop light. It was after Cuniff had already been found liable by a jury, and nearly two years after Gresham police officers refused to arrest him at the scene.
On Aug. 9, 2020, Cuniff pulled up alongside a black Honda CRV stopped at the intersection of Southeast 162nd Avenue and Stark Street. The Honda, driven by Shaylan Lanter, stood out. Lanter had written “FUCK TRUMP He can eat balls!” in white marker on the back. Anti-police slogans were printed on the windows.
Cuniff pulled up next to Lanter, and called out to her. According to the officer who interviewed him later, Cuniff “asked her what she thought about veterans and how they fit into her feelings written all over her car.”
According to Cuniff’s account of events given later to police, Lanter responded, “Fuck you!” Lanter denies this, and tells WW that she didn’t say anything at all.
Cuniff chewed tobacco, and he kept a plastic foam cup in his truck where he spit out the remnants. At that moment, he told police, he “lost control” and threw the cup through Lanter’s half-open window.
It hit Lanter, according to documents filed in court, and the cup sprayed its contents across the inside of the car. Cuniff turned right and sped off. Lanter gave chase.
Someone called 911 after seeing the pair of vehicles driving erratically up 162nd, and three patrol cars converged on a gas station a few dozen blocks away. There, Cuniff, 57 years old at the time, and Lanter, then 21, had pulled over.
Gresham Police Officer David Hickey interviewed them both. He walked over to Lanter first, and made note of the fact that “ACAB,” an abbreviation for “All Cops Are Bastards,” was written on “multiple windows” of the CRV.
Hickey then walked over to Cuniff, who told him that he hadn’t meant to hit Lanter with the spit cup. In fact, “he couldn’t believe that it actually went inside the car,” according to the police report.
In that report, Hickey lists Cuniff’s offense as a “simple assault.” But Hickey did not press charges, and, according to his report, told Lanter that Cuniff “claimed no intent to hit her or throw the cup into the car.” The report was approved by Officer Jonathan Beal, who was also at the scene.
So Lanter hired attorney Michael Fuller and took the case to civil trial. Jurors in Multnomah County Circuit Court awarded her $7,500 in damages in November last year.
“A jury found clear and convincing evidence of reckless intentional malicious conduct. And that was the whole reason the police said they weren’t going to bring charges in the first place,” Fuller said.
“It seemed politically motivated to us,” he added.
The Gresham Police Department did not respond to a call requesting comment. Neither did Cuniff.
Fuller forwarded the case to Multnomah County prosecutors, who charged Cuniff with harassment for “offensive physical contact” in May, almost two years after that alleged contact took place.
“Our goal all along was accountability,” Fuller explained.
Lanter said she was still picking tobacco out of the seats of the CRV for a year.
