KGW 8 News | By Jamie Parfitt | January 30, 2026
The former owner of a Portland cidery won a civil lawsuit against four members of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer for a May 2019 attack on the establishment, the Oregon Justice Resource Center announced Friday evening.
A three-day civil jury trial in the case began Tuesday, and ended with Cider Riot owner Abram Goldman-Armstrong being awarded over $760,000 in damages.
The establishment on Northeast Couch Street in Portland’s Central Eastside was hosting a May Day celebration on May 1, 2019, when members of Patriot Prayer showed up outside, looking to confront antifascists known to frequent the bar.
According to the complaint filed by Goldman-Armstrong, the Patriot Prayer group began “harassing and menacing patrons,” threw objects at them, battered one patron in an attempt to “demask” them, and used pepper spray on patrons before the encounter became an all-out brawl.
“Defendant Ian Kramer, a frequenter of Patriot Prayer rallies, used a baton to crack a Cider Riot patron on the head, knocking her unconscious. Upon information and belief, she suffered a serious vertebrae fracture,” the complaint states.
Goldman-Armstrong’s lawsuit originally included Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, but court records show he was dropped from the case in November. OJRC said that the matter was resolved with him “out of court.”
When it went to trial this week, the suit named the aforementioned Ian Kramer, as well as Mackenzie Lewis, Christopher Ponte and David Willis.
According to OJRC, the jury awarded Goldman-Armstrong $600,000 in non-economic damages from Kramer, Ponte and Willis; $7 in nominal damages; $50,000 in punitive damages for each defendant except Lewis; and $10,000 in punitive damages for Lewis.
“It feels great to be vindicated by the jury,” said Goldman-Armstrong in a statement. “It took a long time, but the community rallied around us and showed these far-right extremists that they cannot attack Portland and get away with it. This jury stood up for our values as a community.”
Goldman-Armstrong was represented by attorneys Adam Wolfe of Adam Wolfe PC, Juan Chavez of OJRC, and Nate Haberman of Underdog Law Office.
“Even though the justice system moves slowly, we will always stay the course,” Goldman-Armstrong’s attorneys said in a joint statement. “The defendants’ actions and tactics of terror mirror so much of what we see now from our federal government. Our community represented by these jurors can and will protect us.”
Cider Riot closed in November 2019 after six years in operation. At the time, Goldman-Armstrong said economic headwinds forced him to close.
