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In an updated police report, the Portland Police Bureau identified the man who Mayor Ted Wheeler pepper-sprayed outside a McMenamins on Sunday night as 48-year-old attorney Cary Cadonau.
Cadonau is a lawyer at Brownstein Rask LLP, according to the Oregon State Bar website. He is also a member of a prominent Southwest Portland family that has been embroiled in a major legal dispute over their property, the Alpenrose Dairy.
According to the updated police report, Cadonau gave an interview to the bureau on Jan. 25 around 3:20 pm. He told the police officer he believed Wheeler should be held "accountable" and that he captured the entire incident on video.
Police told Cadonau they knew he had returned to McMenamins Brewery and Public House to ask to see Wheeler's tab.
"I informed [Cadonau] that I was aware he attempted to acquire the video surveillance footage and Mayor Wheeler's food and drink receipt from the pub and asked him why," the police officer wrote in the report. "Mr. Cadonau said he wanted the receipt because it would show how much alcohol the mayor consumed that evening."
The officer wrote that he asked Cadonau "multiple times" if he wanted to discuss the incident, share the video footage or explain his side of the story.
"[He] respectfully declined to say any more," the officer wrote.
Mara Woloshin, a representative for Cadonau, told WW the two intend to establish a timeline of what occurred at the McMenamins on Sunday night "so that the public gets a good idea of, not what one person saw or is saying they experienced, but what really went on."
Woloshin said she and Cadonau are meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the incident and review the video Cadonau captured.
"It will be his point of view but, what I have stressed is, we have to deal with the actual facts and incidents," Woloshin said. "So if the two individuals involved did get into some kind of conflict, we have to disclose that. It's just what's behind the conflict. Mr. Wheeler is our community leader. So what is our community leader doing? How is he leading?"
The Exchange
"You are 1 foot away from me. You are not 6 feet away."
—Mayor Ted Wheeler, moments after pepper-spraying a man who confronted him outside the McMenamins Brewery and Public House in Hillsdale on Jan. 24.
"You just pepper-sprayed me, for no reason, at all."
—The man Wheeler pepper-sprayed in the eyes. The man, identified by police as Portland law partner and Alpenrose Dairy heir Cary Cadonau, followed Wheeler from the pub to his car, saying he had photos of the mayor dining without a mask and sitting too close to others during a pandemic.
"Actually, I was here and you were like a foot from him. He asked you to back away and you didn't."
—Former Mayor Sam Adams, who joined Wheeler at the pub and was the sole eyewitness to the altercation.
It's the second time this month Wheeler was physically confronted while patronizing the outdoor dining tent at a Portland bar. On the previous occasion, an activist struck him. This time, Wheeler deployed pepper spray, then tossed a bottle of water to Cadonau.
Adams, who is joining Wheeler's staff in City Hall, recorded audio of the exchange on his phone. WW has obtained the tape. Listen to it here.