A six-person jury deliberated for more than two hours Tuesday before deciding that a woman accused of grabbing another protester and refusing to let go as Portland police tried to arrest him in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building was guilty of misdemeanor interfering with a police officer.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Celia Howes sentenced Catherine Elizabeth Esperanza to 18 months of probation and 40 hours of community service and said she must stay away from the immediate vicinity of the ICE building in South Portland. Howes declined a prosecutor’s request for 10 days in jail, saying that the two days that Esperanza had already spent in jail after her May 1 arrest was enough.
Esperanza, who is 30 and a post-doctorate fellow in psychology, had no previous criminal history…