FBI investigators used facial recognition software to identify and charge a 24-year-old Reed College graduate accused of striking an ICE officer in the head with a rock and damaging the ICE building in South Portland with a stop sign used as a battering ram last month.
Robert Jacob Hoopes, 24, was arrested at gunpoint at his home Friday morning when federal officers showed up with a warrant stemming from a federal complaint charging him with aggravated assault of a federal officer and damaging government property.
Hoopes, through his defense attorney Matthew McHenry, pleaded not guilty Monday.
An affidavit in the case revealed that investigators used surveillance video that caught grainy images of a man picking up and throwing rocks outside the front door of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on June 14. The man was dressed in dark clothing, his face obscured by a gas mask with a barely visible tattoo on his left forearm, the video showed.
Investigators then found a photo of what appeared to be the same man that ran with an Oregonian/OregonLive story online that showed the man’s face and a tattoo of a vine of leaves on his left arm, according to the affidavit.
The FBI entered that photo into “commercially available facial recognition software” used by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the affidavit said.
The software provided 30 possible comparison photos culled from various public databases, including one from a Reed College photo-sharing page of “Canyon Day” from April 2023 that showed a man of similar build and appearance with the identical tattoo, the affidavit said.
The software also turned up an Instagram account with a profile that revealed the man’s name, “Jacob Hoopes,” according to the affidavit. The FBI contacted Reed College’s community safety director and obtained alumni information on Hoopes, the affidavit said.
Federal agents set up surveillance on Hoopes’ Northeast Portland address before moving in to arrest him.
Hoopes’ father, Thomas Hoopes, flew in from Philadelphia to attend his son’s court appearance after he said he learned that his son had been arrested.
Others among about two dozen supporters in the courtroom included Hoopes’ girlfriend, family friends, a roommate, Hoopes’ adviser for his undergraduate thesis on computer-generated art at Reed and members of the local Quaker community.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman played two video surveillance clips for the judge that he said captured Hoopes hurling large rocks at the building, including one thrown inside the front door that left a 2-inch gash above an officer’s right eye that required medical care, and Hoopes then using the metal pole of an upended stop sign to repeatedly hit the front door.
“As officers opened the door attempting to clear obstructions from the doorway,” Hoopes approached the door and threw a rock into the opening, striking an ICE officer in the face, the affidavit said.
Moments later, Hoopes tried to block the front door with a scooter to prevent officers from exiting and then, wearing a gas mask, struck the building’s front door with the metal pole of the stop sign at least four times, the affidavit said.
The pole damaged the door, which needed to be replaced for $7,747.72, according to the affidavit.
“He was front and center. He was leading the charge. He hurt a federal officer,” who had done nothing to deserve his injury, Sussman said.
Sussman called Hoopes’ alleged actions unprovoked. He argued for Hoopes’ continued detention as a danger to the community, contending the evidence indicated Hoopes isn’t the “simple Quaker pacifist” that he would “like you to believe he is.”
McHenry countered that his client has strong ties to the Portland community, has no criminal history, graduated from Reed in 2023 and works as a waiter at a local McMenamins restaurant. He was raised in a Quaker community and is immersed in his faith and nonviolent political action, McHenry said.
Sussman noted that Hoopes’ girlfriend, Fable Sorenson, posted on Instagram encouraging others to stand with Hoopes and in support of abolishing ICE.
Sorenson had posted that she was at home with Hoopes when she said officers armed with assault rifles surrounded their house about 9 a.m. Friday, ran up their driveway and pounded on their front door. She said Hoopes opened the door with his hands up. The officers handcuffed Hoopes, a roommate and Sorenson, she wrote.
“We were screamed at, handcuffed and put on our street in our underwear” before the federal agents arrested Hoopes and placed him in the back of a car, she wrote.
She said Hoopes was “treated as dangerous by dozens of armed federal officials.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You asked who was in the public gallery to support the 24-year-old and Hoopes began to cry as they identified themselves and their connections to him.
You agreed to release Hoopes pending trial with location monitoring. She ordered that he have no intentional contact with any ICE officer, stay away from a specified area around the ICE building, undergo a mental health evaluation and take all the medications that are prescribed to him. He also was ordered not to have any guns, other weapons or throw rocks at anyone.
He’s one of 23 people who have been arrested since June in connection with protests at the ICE building, which has become the focus for protests of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment on how often it has used facial recognition software as part of its investigations.
After the court hearing, Hoopes’ father thanked other supporters who showed up for his son.
Thomas Hoopes told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he teaches nonviolent direct action at a Quaker high-school level international boarding school in Philadelphia. He declined to comment on the videos and allegations against his son.
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