Cider Riot

On May Day 2019, a brawl between far-right protesters Patriot Prayer and anti-fascist cider house patrons took place outside Cider Riot in the early evening.[10][11][12] The Oregonian reported that the situation erupted after some 20 right-wing protesters arrived at Cider Riot and confronted antifa members sitting on the patio.[13] A police detective described video of the group's leader, Joey Gibson, "taunting" and threatening members of antifa and later “physically pushing” a woman before she was hit with a baton and knocked unconscious by someone else.[13]

The company filed a US$1 million lawsuit against Patriot Prayer and Gibson.[14][15] Six participants of the brawl were accused of inciting a riot[13] and were indicted by the Multnomah County District Attorney on charges of felony riot in August of 2019.[16][13] Five of the men were connected to Patriot Prayer, including Gibson.[17] Two of the men pleaded guilty in January 2020.[13]

In response to a lawsuit-related interview question by New School Beer (a beer and cider news source), Goldman-Armstrong said that if Cider Riot was awarded the asking damages, they planned to use the money to "stay open, invest in a bigger glycol chiller, more sales and marketing folks, etc."[18]

A 2019 investigation by Oregon regulators alleged that Goldman-Armstrong was aware patrons were using illegal weapons against right-wing agitators and that he refused to remove problem customers from his property. Goldman-Armstrong and a licensed security guard working the day of the brawl were "accused of providing misleading statements to state authorities during the investigation". The allegations are in a report made by a safety inspector for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC).[19][20] The OLCC report recommended charging Cider Riot's owner and staff with three state alcohol license violations: providing false statements, failure to evict, and permitting unlawful and disorderly activity.[19] OLCC investigators reported that the complaints were not from cider house patrons but were instead from “concerned citizens throughout the state" who viewed video of the brawl on the news and YouTube."[19] Lawyers for Goldman-Armstrong relayed that Gibson and Patriot Prayer had used social media to encourage supporters to report Cider Riot to state regulators.[19] The following year, Facebook took down the pages for Patriot Prayer and Gibson as part of their efforts to remove “violent social militias” from its social networks.[21]

In October 2019, the driver of an SUV struck and killed an anti-fascist activist near Cider Riot,[22][23][24] shortly after the man left the cider house.[12] The owner of Cider Riot told KPTV that the deceased, Sean Kealiher, an outspoken activist involved in Portland protests, had been at the cidery on the night of the incident.[25] The SUV involved, which had been shot at by Hyatt Eshelman, a friend of the deceased, was found abandoned with bullet holes at the Democratic Party of Oregon two blocks away from Cider Riot.[26][12] According to police, Kealiher’s death was under investigation as a homicide [26] and by late October 2019, neither a motive nor a suspect had been identified.[27] In December 2019, The Oregonian's Andrew Theen commented that the incident was "perhaps the city’s most prominent traffic-related death".[28] As of October 2020, the incident remained under investigation with no arrests made.[29]

Cider Riot was put up for sale for $875,000 in September 2019. Goldman-Armstrong said he hoped the buyer would "share [his] view on human rights".[30] In an interview with The Oregonian in September 2019, Goldman-Armstrong said his decision to sell the business was not related to the "clash outside Cider Riot, and the months of headlines it's generated".[31] Cider Riot closed on November 10, 2019.[4] After closing, the Cider Riot taproom was recognized as a runner-up in the "Best Cider House" category in the Willamette Week's "Best of Portland Readers' Poll 2020".[32]