Skip to main contentPortlander Lindsey Richter may have gained an international following since appearing on the television show Survivor in late 2001, but the 28-year-old former account exec's survival skills failed the test at Aura, a trendy downtown nightclub, where she was arrested early Saturday morning for allegedly assaulting a bouncer.
On Survivor: Africa, Richter vanquished a tick lodged in her hip (causing Bryant Gumbel to quip that he was rooting for the tick) with the help of a male teammates who pulled it out, then slapped her butt on national TV. Then, to add insult to injury, her fellow contestants voted her off the show.
Richter's latest episode took place outside the bathrooms at Aura, located at 1022 W Burnside St. The bathrooms feature one-way mirrors, allowing men and women using the stalls to look out onto the restaurant floor--without others seeing in.
According to a Portland police report, Richter was standing outside the women's bathroom trying to peek through the glass when Aura bouncer Robert Meath approached her and asked her to desist.
"Fuck off, my friend is in there," Richter responded, according to Meath's account.
Meath told police he insisted that Richter quit peeking or leave the premises but that she refused, replying, "You can't make me."
The bouncer says he placed his hand on Richter's arm to escort her out, at which point she slapped him across the face and exclaimed, "Don't touch me, you fat fuck!"
Meath then grabbed Richter, who promptly bit him on the upper arm, he says. The police officer at the scene observed a red welt on Meath's face and a bite mark on his upper arm.
Richter, described by Officer Franz Schoening as "visibly impaired," told police a different version of what happened. (The police report is available at wweek.com.) She blamed Meath, saying he had grabbed her without warning and pulled her top down. "Everyone saw my jelly boobs," she said. (A lingerie clerk at Nordstrom says "jelly boobs" probably refers to a gel-filled bra that enhances breast size.)
Two witnesses, however, told police that Meath had politely asked her to stop looking in the bathroom and that Richter responded by screaming at Meath and calling him a "fat-fuck bouncer." They said that when Meath tried to escort her out she slapped him and yelled, "I'm gonna sue you, you fat fuck...don't you fucking touch me."
When Schoening told her she was going to be arrested, Richter started crying and calling the officer "insensitive," saying he "didn't understand what it was like to have my breasts exposed."
Richter did not return WW's call for comment. But a family spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told WW the whole thing was a misunderstanding compounded by "overreactions" on all sides.
"She was not intoxicated," said the spokesperson, who claimed Meath had pulled down Richter's top, tearing it in the process, before putting her in an armlock. "Not knowing what else to do, she bit him."
Richter was taken to the downtown Justice Center jail at 1:39 am, booked, issued a citation for fourth-degree assault and released almost three hours later. She was assigned a court date of Aug. 12.
Richter's only other reported brush with the law came in October 2000, when she was issued a ticket for running a traffic light at Northeast 33rd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard in a Ford Explorer. On that occasion, she apologized to police, saying she had been distracted by reaching into her bag to answer her cell phone.
WWeek 2015