Eric Navickas is escorted out of the meeting following altercation with Chief Tighe O’Meara
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
Police arrested former Ashland City Council candidate Eric Navickas on allegations of harassment and disorderly conduct after a scuffle with Ashland Chief of Police Tighe O’Meara during the Ashland City Council business meeting Tuesday night. The incident directly followed O’Meara’s accusing Navickas of making a racist comment.
Navickas spoke to the council to offer public comment on proposed changes to the city’s Enhanced Law Enforcement Area, which allows police to expel individuals from the area if they have three qualifying violations, which include consuming alcohol in public, littering, and making “unnecessary noise.”
O’Meara gave a presentation requesting the council to direct staff if there was “appetite and interest” to discuss an altered legal procedure for expulsion from the city’s two ELEAs.
If approved, the city code would “allow a law enforcement officer to petition the municipal court judge directly for an expulsion order when the officer is aware of at least three qualifying violations committed within an ELEA, or at least one qualifying crime. The officer would present evidence of the substantiated offenses and affirm that the individual had been advised of the potential consequences of continued negative behavior,” according to the meeting agenda item.
O’Meara said the potential change is “a collaboration in process,” with the council to solve for procedural delays in the current process.
“This is establishing a very dangerous precedent,” Navickas told the council.
He went on to ask councilors to imagine if such an expulsion process were applied to a different community, “a large minority of, say, Black people, impoverished Black people who are possibly more engaged in criminal activity,” he said.
“How does this apply to that community? We’re an all white community, how would this apply to a Black community?” Navickas said.
Public comment was closed, the council deliberated and gave direction to include a discussion of a change to the expulsion process in a future study session for further deliberation.
At the close of the discussion of the agenda item, Navickas walked to exit council chambers with O’Meara behind him. O’Meara could be heard asking Navickas if he could have been more racist as both exited the main room and entered the vestibule. A scuffle was audible on the other side of the door.
An Ashland.news reporter entered the vestibule immediately. O’Meara could be seen holding Navickas’ arms as Navickas struggled and shouted, “You called me racist.”
The chief told Navickas he was under arrest for assault. Navickas continued to struggle and contest the accusation that his remarks were racist as three other Ashland police officers entered and assisted in removing Navickas from council chambers.
Mayor Tonya Graham called a five minute recess. When the meeting resumed, she offered a statement.
“We have had two acts of violence that have disrupted the work of this council, that have disrupted the trust in this space. One of them was verbal, one of them was physical,” she said. “We are in very difficult times right now, and the way we manage through them is by protecting public spaces, protecting the ability to speak and understanding that that ability to speak comes with a responsibility to speak respectfully and to hold space for all people.”
Graham said she hoped all entering that space would make a “commitment to appropriate public discourse” and that nothing like this would ever happen again.
Previously a candidate for Council Position 3 during the 2024 election, Navickas has been arrested on a variety of charges since 1993, including trespassing, criminal mischief, interfering with a peace officer and interference with agricultural operations, according to Oregon court records.
Court records for the Tuesday night altercation were not yet available Wednesday morning. The Jackson County Jail roster did not list Navickas as an inmate Wednesday morning. This story may be updated as more information becomes available.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].
Correction (3:51 p.m. May 21): This story originally said that Eric Navickas was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Police Chief Tighe O’Meara. Although O’Meara told Navickas he was being arrested for assault, he was booked only on allegations of harassment and disorderly conduct.
Followup story: Police chief, Navickas give conflicting accounts of incident that led to arrest (May 21, 2025)
