Portland bicyclist Justin Knapp is taking the city and two of its police officers to federal court after a judge tossed out a stack of criminal charges against him. In a new civil rights lawsuit, Knapp says officers cooked up an unlawful excuse to stop him and trampled his due process rights. He is seeking unspecified economic, non-economic and punitive damages, pointing to roughly six months he spent behind bars while the criminal case moved through court.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Leslie G. Bottomly dismissed the criminal case in September 2024 and ordered all evidence from the stop thrown out, finding the arresting officers’ testimony unreliable. Prosecutors had accused Knapp of recklessly endangering another person, escape from police, interfering with an officer, possession of a loaded firearm and assault of an officer. That timeline and the judge’s pointed criticism of officer testimony were detailed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Knapp’s new complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, names the city and two officers and accuses them of manufacturing a pretext to stop him. According to the suit, that stop spiraled into an unlawful arrest, wrongful detention and the seizure of evidence that should never have come into play. His attorney, Juan C. Chavez, argues the case highlights a breakdown in basic accountability on Portland’s streets.
As laid out in the complaint and in court reporting, Knapp spent about six months in jail before the charges were dismissed. Police say they found a loaded handgun in a shoulder pouch during the encounter in a Southeast 82nd Avenue parking lot. The lawsuit also recounts that Officer Corey Budworth collided with Knapp and broke his ankle in three places during the incident. Those details appear in the court record and were included in coverage by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
What the lawsuit says
The filing accuses officers of both inventing an unlawful basis for the stop and ignoring that there was no actual crime to pursue. In the lawsuit’s language, the officers “deliberately fabricated evidence or were deliberately indifferent to the absence of a crime,” a line that captures the core factual fight to come. Knapp is asking for money damages and a federal ruling that his constitutional rights were violated.
Legal implications
Legally, the case is set to revolve around credibility. Judge Bottomly’s earlier suppression order and findings about unreliable testimony could loom large over discovery and pretrial motions in federal court. The city is expected to push to dismiss or narrow the claims, while Knapp’s side is likely to seek body-cam footage, documents and internal records. The outcome could also shape how prosecutors treat future cases when a judge has already flagged serious problems with officer testimony at the suppression stage.
Portland policing in context
The lawsuit lands at a time when the Portland Police Bureau is already under a microscope, facing repeated civil claims about officer conduct and truthfulness. Critics point to a steady run of lawsuits and state oversight reviews that have kept questions about training and accountability in the spotlight, and some local coverage has revisited officers tied to other high-profile incidents. For example, Hoodline recently examined an unrelated review of Officer Corey Budworth’s conduct in a 2020 protest case, highlighting how earlier controversies can follow officers into new litigation: review of Budworth’s protest baton strike.
For Knapp, the federal suit marks the next phase in what could be a long legal fight. The city has not yet filed a public response, and no trial date is on the calendar. For Portland residents tracking police accountability and what happens when a judge rejects officer testimony, this case is poised to be one to watch.
