Baker City man files $433,000 lawsuit over Miners Jubilee assault

Richard James Cochran is asking a Baker County judge for up to $433,430 after a Miners Jubilee assault that already sent Jesse LeScott Gregory through the criminal courts and back out on probation.

Cochran filed the civil lawsuit on April 14 in Baker County Circuit Court through Bend attorney Chloe Thompson of High Desert Law. The complaint names Gregory and Golden Crown II LLC, doing business as GC Asian Fusion, and says Cochran was hit in the head with a beer bottle during the July 2025 altercation near Geiser-Pollman Park, across Campbell Street from the restaurant.

The lawsuit seeks up to $400,000 in noneconomic damages and $33,430 in economic damages, including medical expenses. It also alleges the restaurant should have done more to stop the violence, saying its owners allowed Gregory to drink while on duty, served him when he was visibly intoxicated and let him leave with an open container.

Owner Yao Chen Long declined to comment. The complaint puts the restaurant itself at the center of a separate legal question from Gregory’s personal liability: whether the business had a duty to recognize the danger and intervene before the assault happened.

The criminal case ended with a plea that avoided Oregon’s mandatory minimum for the original charge. Gregory pleaded guilty on Nov. 5, 2025, to attempted second-degree assault. Baker County Circuit Court Judge Matt Shirtcliff sentenced him to 75 days in jail and three years of probation, along with a drug and alcohol evaluation. He also ordered restitution, including $1,000 for Cochran’s broken cell phone and any medical bills tied to the attack.

Gregory had first been indicted in July 2025 on three charges, with second-degree assault the most serious. In Oregon, second-degree assault is a Class B felony and a Measure 11 offense, carrying a mandatory minimum of 70 months, or five years and 10 months. Measure 11, approved by Oregon voters in 1994 and effective April 1, 1995, generally does not allow parole or sentence reduction for good behavior on those offenses.

Baker City police booked Gregory at 9:20 p.m. on July 19, 2025, after the fight at Geiser-Pollman Park, where Miners Jubilee events were scheduled July 18-20 and vendors lined the sidewalks. The civil suit now adds a second front to a case that has already carried criminal penalties and could determine whether the restaurant, not just Gregory, pays for what happened that night.