January 13, 2020
Camar Livingstone pleads guilty to intimidation in the second degree
Today, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill announced that 20-year-old Camar Livingstone changed his plea and was convicted of a single count of intimidation in the second degree following a bias crime that occurred at Lloyd Center in Northeast Portland.
This investigation started on May 6, 2019 when the victim, a loss prevention officer, saw Livingstone place a large amount of clothing into his backpack. Livingstone removed the clothing after being called out by the security guard. However, with no warning, Livingstone charged the victim and started to berate the victim inside the store.
While doing so, Livingstone directed sexually explicit and homophobic hate speech toward the victim as he followed Livingstone through the store. At one point, Livingstone took the unpaid clothing that he had gathered and threw it toward the victim.
A second loss prevention officer arrived and attempted to get Livingstone away from the victim. During the altercation, Livingstone pulled out a machete and started waiving it around. He approached both loss prevention officers and taunted them.
By changing his plea, Livingstone admits that because of his perception of the victim’s sexual orientation he subjected him to offensive physical contact.
“This change of plea is designed to specifically give Mr. Livingstone an opportunity to engage in community service and to seek and receive treatment so that he never finds himself in a similar situation,” said Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney BJ Park, who prosecuted this case. “The victim fully supports this pretrial resolution, and we’re fortunate that he wasn’t physically hurt during this very alarming incident.”
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Court imposed sentence in State v. Livingstone |
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The court could impose an additional sanction of up to 179 days in jail if Livingstone violates any part of his probation.
This case was investigated by the Portland Police Bureau. The District Attorney’s Office recognizes their dedicated efforts investigating this matter.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office was an active participant of the Oregon Attorney General’s Hate Crimes Task Force and helped draft the language that was in Senate Bill 577. The law, which went into effect on July 15, 2019, renamed the crime of “intimidation” to “bias crime,” added gender identity to the list of protected categories and removed the requirement that two or more people commit the crime in order to make it a felony in certain circumstances.
This case was issued before Oregon’s new bias crime law went into effect. As a result, the crime Livingstone was convicted of should be referred to as “intimidation in the second degree.”
All potential bias crime cases, whether they are a felony or misdemeanor, are reviewed by the Violent Crimes Unit within the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. If a misdemeanor crime is issued, the felony-level attorney will retain the case.
If you are the victim of a bias crime assault or you are witnessing one, immediately call 9-1-1. If you are the victim of a bias crime and the suspect is no longer present or if you have information about a bias crime committed in the past, call the non-emergency line at 503-823-3333.
#MCDA#
Contact: Brent Weisberg, Communications Director
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office
Phone: 503.988.6567 | Email: Brent.Weisberg@mcda.us