A man who drew a pistol and fired a paintball gun into a restive crowd of protesters in downtown Portland will remain in state prison, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled, rejecting most of his appeal.
Alan J. Swinney is serving a 10-year sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary after he was convicted of second-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon for his actions during several “flag wave” protests held on the steps of the Multnomah County Justice Center in August 2020.
Swinney, 55, had traveled from Texas to the protest as a self-proclaimed member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that frequently clashed with black-clad counterprotesters in prior years.
On appeal, Swinney argued that prosecutors had wrongfully applied the concept of “transferred intent” — essentially, that Swinney had intended to hit one person with a paint round, but instead struck another man standing nearby.
Deputy Public Defender Kyle Krohn wrote that transferred intent had only previously been applied to murder cases, not second-degree assault, and wasn’t mentioned in the statutes.
Krohn also argued that former senior prosecutor Nathan Vasquez had crossed a line in his closing argument by hinting that he wanted the jury to “send a message” rather than just apply the law to the facts in the case. Vasquez is now Multnomah County’s elected district attorney.
Swinney had testified during the October 2021 trial that he fired the paintball gun at a man who was yelling too loudly, but the round struck another man beside him
In a rhetorical flourish, Vasquez imagined the yelling man was in the courtroom as he summed up the case to a jury.
“You scream until they hear you in the mountaintops. You let it ring to the valleys,” Vasquez said, according to a transcript. “You let it ring to every town in this state and you tell him, ‘Mr. Alan Swinney, you are not welcome and your violence is not welcome in this community.’”
The appeals court knocked down Krohn’s contentions in an Aug. 27 order, finding that transferred intent was applicable in assault cases and ruling that Swinney’s attorney hadn’t properly objected to Vasquez statements in court, noting that there was no obvious legal error.
Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Darleen Ortega found two minor faults in the trial presided over by Circuit Judge Heidi Moawad, but they did not affect the term of imprisonment. Instead, Swinney will return for resentencing only on his term of post prison supervision.
Krohn, his public defender, declined to comment.
Swinney’s earliest release date is November 2029.
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
