QuickTake:

A judge ordered the release of user logs that might show why a body-worn camera failed to record during protest activity in January. An attorney for a man charged with assaulting a Border Patrol officer also is seeking footage from surveillance cameras at the Eugene Federal Building.

Attorneys for a man accused of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol officer during Eugene protest activity must be given user logs from a body-worn camera after the device failed to record, a judge ordered Friday, Oct. 23.

Federal prosecutors allege Ryan Bruce Gaither Jr. bit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Response Team officer on the arm Jan. 27 and spit on another officer during protests at the Eugene Federal Building.

The user action log and device audit trail log should “show whether the camera was turned on or off, whether it was operational or not,” said Irina Hughes, a defense attorney for Gaither, at Friday’s hearing. 

The logs “would help us understand why there’s not footage,” Hughes said. 

Prosecutors said in a court filing that body-worn camera video from seven officers, including the officer whom Gaither allegedly spit at, has been provided to defense attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, in addition to ordering the logs handed over, also ordered that additional footage from Eugene Federal Building cameras, should it exist, be provided to Gaither’s defense attorneys. 

In footage provided already, three cameras at the federal building site appear visible but so far no footage from them has been provided, Hughes said.

Court documents previously filed by prosecutors stated that all the relevant federal building footage had been provided.

At Friday’s hearing, however, Joseph Huynh, an assistant U.S. attorney, said a search would be done to determine if the footage has been provided to defense attorneys or if it exists.

U.S. Border Patrol special officers are not normally stationed at the Eugene Federal Building. But they were on hand as part of a response to protesters in the days following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti and Rene Good, who were killed during immigration enforcement activity.

Federal Protective Service officers, who are stationed at the Eugene Federal Building, do not wear body-worn cameras, according to a court document filed by prosecutors. 

Gaither was not required to attend Friday’s hearing. He has a trial date set for Feb. 22.

A grand jury indicted Gaither on a charge of assault on a federal employee involving physical contact and a second charge of aggravated assault on a federal employee causing bodily injury.

Huynh said Gaither could face an additional charge of attempted assault.