The Oregonian | By Zane Sparling | March 08, 2024
The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative and a private security firm it hired face a pair of lawsuits over the allegedly chaotic conduct of a guard charged with stabbing a man outside a bottle and can redemption center in September.
It’s the latest action against BottleDrop, which has faced heightened scrutiny over safety and livability concerns for years, including a lawsuit in 2021 over safety issues at its Delta Park site.
Arturo Troncoso Jr., now 20, told police he confronted people smoking fentanyl in a McDonald’s parking lot while patrolling the adjacent BottleDrop near Northeast Glisan Street and 122nd Avenue on Sept. 13, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The dispute drew the attention of Angelina Cook and her boyfriend, Nathan Milton, according to lawsuits they later filed, and quickly turned physical, with Troncoso allegedly clubbing Cook and stabbing Milton in the liver with a pocket knife during a brawl caught on video.
Troncoso’s security guard certification allowed him to work only unarmed, state records show, and his employer told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Troncoso wasn’t authorized to carry a knife.
Cook and Milton now seek a combined $1.5 million from the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative and the guard’s employer, Fortified International, in lawsuits filed separately by attorneys Michael Fuller and Josh Lamborn in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
In an interview, Cook said she and Milton live in Camas and were in Northeast Portland to help a friend repair his van, not visit BottleDrop. Cook said Troncoso sharply confronted two other people, one in a wheelchair, about smoking off tin foil.
“We were just bystanders, and my boyfriend saw something that was not OK,” Cook said.
Nevertheless, the link between fentanyl and the state’s 10-cent deposit law has been in focus since Gov. Tina Kotek last week suspended Bottle Bill provisions to redeem cans and bottles over the counter at two downtown Portland merchants last week.
The not-for-profit beverage recycling cooperative, which runs the redemption centers for the state, was embroiled in a legal battle with the landlord at its Delta Park location for years and faces another potential fight from residents near a proposed BottleDrop in St. Johns.
Jillian Schoene, chief of staff to Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio, met Wednesday with leaders from the cooperative about its new proposed North Portland BottleDrop site, which would occupy a vacant Dollar Tree at 7740 N. Lombard.
“We wish they had told us about their purchase of the Dollar Tree store prior to last week, but that didn’t happen,” Schoene said.
Schoene said Rubio, who oversees the Planning and Sustainability Bureau, directed city planning officials to identify other potential sites in the area for a redemption center. Staffers have already identified four other possible alternatives, Schoene said.
At Delta Park, local landlord TMT Development settled its case against the recycling cooperative Sept. 19, ending a $300,000 lawsuit that accused BottleDrop of failing to quash trash and crime at the site. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
BottleDrop spokesperson Eric Chambers said the cooperative cut ties with Fortified International after the Northeast Portland stabbing and cooperated with law enforcement investigators. The cooperative deploys unarmed security guards at all Portland locations, Chambers said.
“The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative serves the community and places the safety of its employees, its customers and the public at the forefront of everything OBRC does,” he said.
Grant Moss, who grew up in Bend and co-founded Fortified International after serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, said the lawsuits have been a major headache for his small security firm.
“We train our officers to do the exact opposite,” he said.
An attorney for Troncoso, who faces charges including first-degree assault, didn’t respond to a request for comment, but has argued in court papers that the guard acted in self-defense.
