Portland protest leader Micah Rhodes gave up his legal fight Tuesday by pleading guilty to a second round of sexual abuse charges against him, this time for having sexual contact multiple times with a 17-year-old boy.
The victim couldn’t consent to the contact because he was a minor. Rhodes -- then 20 or 21 -- was more than three years older than the teenager at the time of the 2014 or 2015 encounters. He met the boy on a gay dating app.
Oregon law says it’s a crime for an adult to have sexual contact with a minor if there’s three or more years in age difference between the two.
Age of consent laws vary from state to state, with most states allowing 16- or 17- year-olds to have sexual contact with adults. Oregon is one of about a dozen states that sets the age of consent at 18. Washington state sets the age at 16.
Rhodes, now 24, was a leader of the protest group Portland’s Resistance, which rose to prominence after Donald Trump won the presidential election in November 2016 and the group helped organize day after day of marches and rallies.
But Rhodes had long been a part of Portland’s activist scene before that and a familiar face at Portland City Council meetings. Among his notable achievements was helping stage a camp-out in front of then-Mayor Charlie Hales’ home in 2016.
Rhodes pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual abuse in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
He declined to comment after the sentencing on the advice of his attorney. He said he plans to comment after his sentencing in the case.
That’s scheduled for June, about two weeks after he's sentenced in Washington County for one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl in 2014.
A Washington County jury found Rhodes guilty 10-2 on Friday. Rhodes said he was about three years older than the girl in that case.
State sentencing guidelines recommend a prison sentence of about two to two-and-a-half years in prison.
It’s unclear how much time Rhodes faces in the Multnomah County case.
The Oregon Youth Authority began supervising Rhodes when he was 14, for sexual abuse and sodomy, authorities said. According to court records, Rhodes was 13 or 14 years old in 2007 when he sexually abused a boy who was 9 or 10 years old.
Washington County Deputy District Attorney Andy Pulver argued in court papers that Rhodes has a "sexual predisposition toward minor children."
Rhodes had been required to register as a sex offender at the time he was charged in the Multnomah and Washington county cases.
-- Aimee Green