A man trying to retrieve his daughter’s accidentally towed car from a Salem lot was repeatedly hit in the face by an out-of-control manager, and now his tow truck company has suffered a loss of nearly $1.2 million.

While the initial pull was nerve-wracking enough, Curtis Bunch testified in Multnomah County Circuit Court last week that his visit to the shipyard went from zero to hostile in just seconds. Buyer Pull the manager assumed he was not allowed to use a parking space marked for disabled people.

“I can understand why your vehicle was towed. “You can’t pay attention to the rules,” former manager Richard Pinkerton said in body camera footage shown to the jury.

(READ MORE: Hundreds of vehicles are towed from private parking lots in Portland every month; see hot spots)

Bunch, 62, had license plates and a standard blue banner on his truck identifying him as a permanently disabled veteran, but instead of checking, Pinkerton punched the other man in the face four times during the July 6, 2020, confrontation.

at one end six day trial This week, a Multnomah County jury awarded Bunch $1,185,000, including damages for physical and mental trauma. Nearly a quarter million of the award consists of punitive damages, 70% of which goes to the state under Oregon law. While the incident occurred in Marion County, Retriever Towing is headquartered in Portland.

“The severity of this attack frightened jurors as they watched the video,” said Paul Krueger, the plaintiff’s attorney. He was aware of a larger decision regarding his tow suit.

(WATCH: Bad towing case escalates as Retriever Towing manager shoots man. Now they will pay $1.2 million)

The saga began on June 3, 2020, when Bunch testified that her daughter’s 2009 Mercedes went missing in front of her Salem townhouse, despite having the proper parking permits. Krueger said it should never have been withdrawn in the first place.

Bunch arrived at the tow truck three days later and approached Pinkerton from the other side of the chain-link gate, according to the principal’s body camera footage and the overhead security camera.

Bunch and Pinkerton talk calmly for only a few seconds before the warden challenges the parking job, to which Bunch coolly responds: “You think you can move it?”

Pinkerton certainly did. The 56-year-old man walked towards his tow truck and opened the door.

“You think you’re big enough to stop me, big guy?” he shouted, according to camera footage.

That’s when Bunch opened the side door of his pickup truck, grabbed a handgun and tucked it into his rear waistband. Bunch was allowed to do so as a concealed carry holder and did not violate any laws, his attorney said, citing Salem police testimony at the hearing.

Video footage shows Bunch not pointing the gun and keeping his hands at his sides after inserting the gun.

Pinkerton saw the action and issued his own challenge: “Mine is bigger.”

The two men approached the truck again; Pinkerton shouted the trespass order and then counted to five.

According to trial testimony, Pinkerton punched Bunch in the face with what he later called a “jaw popper,” breaking several of his bones. The manager grabbed the gun from his opponent’s waist and threw it across the field.

“Twenty-three years in the army – I killed 21 men, you are not a man!” Pinkerton shouted, adding expletives.

Bunch left the scene while Pinkerton called 911, but the subsequent investigation ended with the tow yard manager being charged with fourth-degree assault. He was sentenced to 1.5 years of probation and seven days of home confinement in 2021, according to Marion County court records.

According to Bunch’s lawyer, the attack led to a series of bad luck for Bunch. According to Krueger, the mental strain tore apart his marriage and triggered post-traumatic stress disorder, making it impossible for him to continue working in construction. The veteran became homeless when his Monmouth home was badly damaged in an ice storm. He was living in a trailer in Newport before the jury verdict.

Pinkerton did not testify at the hearing, but claimed in previous statements that he was ready to attack after someone called that day and threatened to blow up the facility. In his statement, Pinkerton said that the records could not be found later and blamed an office manager with whom he had a feud.

Retriever Towing’s attorneys argued at the hearing that this was an isolated incident and that any problems the company had were resolved when Pinkerton resigned following his misdemeanor conviction.

Pinkerton struck a less-than-conciliatory tone when reached for comment, blaming the verdict on jurors from a liberal city and saying the real story “must be told from the graveside of victims who were now too afraid to defend themselves.”

This isn’t the only legal development for Retriever Towing and its owner, Michael Coe, who did not respond to a request for comment.

Oregon Department of Justice He sued the company last year, blaming its drivers was in constant violation of Oregon law, which requires the property manager’s on-site signature before every towing, even late at night.

In his deposition, Pinkerton said Retriever Towing did not charge property owners but instead made its money from people paying impound fees, saying the company largely ignored an earlier agreement to comply with that law.

Department of Justice case against Retriever continues in Multnomah County; a judge recently signed a limited ruling confirming the meaning of the towing law; this is a legal finding that allows Retriever to appeal this matter to a higher court.

—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and the courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, [email protected] or @pdxzane.

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