Leopold Hauser and Adebisi Okueye both pleaded not guilty to assaulting Luke Lenzner, allegedly because he was wearing a Trump hat.
The couple plan on retaining their own private attorney to handle the case.
Lenzner and his wife were about to enter Growler’s Taproom sometime after midnight when Lenzner was accosted and beaten about the face.
Hauser tells a different story.
He claims that Lenzner was the aggressor and that he had made smart remarks to him and that Okueye had tried to come between the two to break it up. Yet, Lenzner was the only one with injuries. How about that?
According to a probably cause statement from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, the man police are identifying as the victim and his wife went to the Growler’s Taproom sometime after midnight Saturday. The wife told police she was “curious of how people in Portland would treat her husband” while he was wearing the hat. The alleged victim said that he was walking on the sidewalk next to the bar when two people confronted him. According to court documents, he said the defendant Adebisi Okuneye “got in his face and he pushed her back to create distance.”
That’s when the alleged victim said “Leopold Hauser,” the second suspect, punched him in the face. The victim’s wife told police that Okuneye also punched her husband. The victim said both defendants got into a gold van and drove away, but they took a photo of the license plate and called police.
Police found both suspects. According to court documents, Hauser gave a different account of events, saying he and Okuneye were sitting outside the bar with friends when the man walked by. Hauser allegedly told police he “disagreed with the political statement of the hat and that they were ‘mean mugging’” the victim. Hauser said the man asked if they liked the hat, and a verbal fight started, according to court documents. Hauser said the other man and Okuneye were getting into each other’s faces and that he got in between them “to stop the fighting, that victim took a fighting stance, and that arms were flying everywhere.”
Portland police said that around 12:50 a.m. Saturday, officers responded to a disturbance Growler’s Taproom in the 3300 block of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. Officers found an injured victim. After gathering suspect information, they stopped a nearby van and arrested Hauser and Okuneye.
According to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, the victim told police officers he was assaulted while wearing a “Make America Great Again Hat,” the slogan for President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The alleged victim, Luke Lenzner, told KPTV that he and his wife arrived at the bar and were immediately confronted by people who were upset about the hat. He said people surrounded him, and things escalated. Lenzner said, as he tried to make his way through the group, people tried to take his hat, and then Okuneye and Hauser assaulted him.
Court documents state the couple walked to multiple bars in Portland, and when they arrived at Growler’s Taproom, they were confronted by Okuneye and Hauser. Lenzner told police that Okuneye “got in his face,” he pushed back to create distance, and then Hauser punched him in the face.