A Portland lawyer apologized for the confrontation that led to Mayor Ted Wheeler pepper-spraying him over the weekend.
“I am remorseful for my decision to confront Mayor Wheeler on Sunday, Jan. 24, and I am sorry he felt the need to use pepper spray,” 48-year-old Cary Cadonau, a local attorney and the heir to a dairy products company, said in a statement on Wednesday. “I cherish Portland and our local community. I recognize that Mayor Wheeler has a very difficult job. I have contacted Mayor Wheeler’s office to request an opportunity to amicably resolve this matter. I would also like to apologize to my law partners for my conduct.”
Cadonau approached Wheeler at a local pub on Sunday evening and accused the Democrat of not wearing a mask and being unaware of “the rules” while dining, law enforcement wrote in a police report. The lawyer, who was not wearing a mask either, then followed the mayor to his car, refused to back away, and was blasted with pepper spray by Wheeler, the mayor told police.
“You just pepper-sprayed me for no reason at all,” Cadonau said in an audio recording of the encounter. Former Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who was with Wheeler at the time, responded, “Actually, I was here, and you were like a foot from him. He asked you to back away, and you didn’t.”
Initial statements from the lawyer following the incident suggested he sought to hold the mayor “accountable” and was intent on releasing the footage he took from his cellphone. A representative for Cadonau said she doesn’t “think he’ll ever release the video now.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner at the time of publishing.
Wheeler has been the subject of other reports about confrontations in recent months. In one early January incident, there were reports of left-wing activists accosting and apparently punching the mayor while he was dining at a restaurant.
