Rep. James Hieb, R-Canby, spent the night in the Clackamas County jail after an arrest Wednesday on suspicion of disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer, and now he’s pondering whether he can continue to campaign for House District 51, he said Thursday.
“I don’t know how this is going to impact my future,” Hieb, 36, said. “I don’t know what to do yet. I’m still absorbing everything.”
Hieb, who replaced former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan when she left the legislature to run for governor this year, said the incident happened after the rodeo at the Clackamas County Fair when he had four beers and lit up a cigarette. A woman asked him to put it out; the fair doesn’t permit smoking.
“I was kind of caught off guard,” he said, but she summoned officers.
That’s when Hieb alerted law enforcement to the fact he was carrying a permitted concealed weapon. Officers, he said, put him in handcuffs and disarmed him, at which point he said he did not consent to a search. Hieb, who was wearing a campaign shirt with his name on it at the time, was then arrested by deputies from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and issued an exclusion from the fair, he said.
“I’m really just trying to understand how a cigarette turned into such a big deal,” he said. “I don’t think I ever even raised my voice.”
He said he told law enforcement he was a state representative, too. “They didn’t seem to care,” he said. “It didn’t really mean anything at that point.”
Hieb, the director of Building Blocks Early Learning Center in Wilsonville, spent the night in the Clackamas County jail, he said, and then had to walk home to Canby on Thursday morning. The jail still had his wallet, keys and cellphone then, he said. “It’s been a rough day,” he said.
On Thursday, Hieb said texts and calls were flying to his phone as word of his arrest spread. “I was told by someone I tried to steal a golf cart, and that is 100% false,” he said. “The rumor mill has definitely started.”
Last year, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law House Bill 3164, which narrowed the definition of interfering with a peace officer to limit when officers can use it to arrest people, including protesters. Drazan joined then-House Speaker Tina Kotek, now the Democratic candidate for governor, to vote for H.B. 3164. Betsy Johnson, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate for governor, opposed the measure as a state senator.
In February, when Marion and Clackamas county officials appointed him to replace Drazan, Hieb acknowledged to KOIN 6 he had a criminal record but that he had “tried to grow up over the years.” That record includes various charges, including one from 2004 that was dismissed for fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer. He was found not guilty of a 2012 charge of disorderly conduct.
House Republican leaders on Thursday issued a statement: “Leadership team is disappointed by the events that led to his arrest and do not condone them. Leadership encourages him to focus on his family and to get the assistance he needs.”
— Beth Slovic; bslovic@oregonian.com
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