PORTLAND, Ore. — Newly obtained dashcam footage shows a Portland man plowing past blockades and nearly hitting several people including small children along the Rose Festival’s Grand Floral parade route in June.
Sidney Mecham, 42, of Portland pleaded not guilty to 38 counts, including felony unlawful use of a weapon and attempting to elude an officer.
Prosecutors submitted the dramatic video, taken from inside Mecham’s Chevy Avalanche, as evidence during an August preventative detention hearing. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Judith Matarazzo granted the state’s motion to keep Mecham behind bars while awaiting trial. KGW obtained the video through a public records request.
The 30-minute recording shows three different angles, including front-facing, rear-view and inside the truck’s cab. In the video, Mecham can be seen leaving a home in Southeast Portland. He commits various traffic infractions including speeding and running several red lights while driving through Southeast Portland toward downtown. Mecham becomes increasingly frustrated by heavy traffic, while headed westbound on Interstate 84.
At one point, Mecham receives a phone call.
“I’m on my way to the f***ing Rose Garden!” Mecham said. During the same call, Mecham suggested he planned to meet his mother and the caller. It is not clear where Mecham was headed or why. The only major event at or near the Moda Center, formerly known as the Rose Quarter in North Portland, on the morning of June 10 was the Grand Floral parade.
Mecham became enraged while on the I-84 ramp toward northbound I-5. ODOT crews had blocked off numerous exits with dump trucks, signs and barricades to help keep traffic away from the parade route.
In the video, Mecham can be heard on a second phone call.
“They got it all blocked off. The Lloyd Center exit. The Convention Center exit. Every mother f***ing exit!” Mecham yelled while on the phone. He honked his horn repeatedly, flipping off ODOT workers.
The video then showed Mecham swerving around a car and drive through a row of cones blocking off the exit at Broadway-Weidler Street in North Portland. He raced past a reader board flashing "Event in Progress” and drove up onto the ivy covered shoulder to avoid ODOT dump trucks blocking the exit ramp.
Mecham drove around another ODOT crew and their vehicles before turning onto Weidler Street. He came within a few feet of several people waiting for the parade, including several small children playing in the closed roadway.
Portland police motorcycle officer David Baer chased after Mecham’s truck, before pulling up beside him. Baer shouted for Mecham to pull over, but he refused.
The truck suddenly turned at Northeast Wasco and exited the parade route, driving through wooden barricades, nearly hitting several people.
An unmarked police SUV attempted to stop Mecham at a red light in Portland’s Lloyd District, but he drove off. The video showed Mecham continuing to drive for several blocks, until he eventually stopped near other officers at Northeast 24th Avenue and Clackamas Street. Mecham was arrested and taken to jail. He was driving on a suspended license and didn’t have insurance, police report.
Mecham is a registered sex offender. He has prior convictions from 1999 for attempted first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy in Multnomah County. In 2016, Mecham was convicted of third-degree sodomy and third-degree sexual abuse in Clatsop County, according to court records.
Mecham is currently being held in the Multnomah County Inverness Jail. No trial date has been set for charges related to the alleged road rage incident in June.