Robert “Jacob” Hoopes was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of probation, and ordered to pay $8,097 in restitution after pleading guilty to aggravated assault against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, according to court transcripts. Federal judge Adrienne Nelson sentenced the 25-year-old man, who grew up in a Quaker family and has ties to Newtown (Pa.) Meeting, on June 11, 2026, at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in Portland, Ore.
During a protest on June 14, 2025, Hoopes threw a rock from outside a federal building in Portland at an ICE agent inside the building, hitting the officer above the eye and causing a cut that required treatment, according to previous court transcripts.
Hoopes is scheduled to self-surrender in six weeks and will serve his sentence in a minimum-security section of the Federal Correctional Institution, Sheridan, in Sheridan, Ore., court transcripts state. The minimum-security level will allow for regular family visits.
Leah Bolstad, assistant U.S. attorney, showed a security video of Hoopes throwing the rock into the federal building and noted that it was one of four rocks or bricks Hoopes had thrown at the building over the course of approximately half an hour, according to court transcripts.
Charges related to Hoopes allegedly using a stop sign as a battering ram to do approximately $7,000 worth of damage to the ICE building in South Portland were dismissed under a plea deal, previous court transcripts stated.
In the plea petition, signed February 18, Hoopes stated that he understood he would not be eligible for parole.
Bolstad argued for a 46-month prison term with three years probation and monetary restitution. She noted that sentencing should not necessarily favor a defendant with an outpouring of support, such as Hoopes had, over defendants who faced their sentence with no one to accompany them at their hearings. She also stated that sentencing should serve as a deterrent to others who might emulate Hoopes’s actions.
According to court transcripts, Hoopes addressed the court—which included approximately 60 of his supporters—at the sentencing hearing, saying, in part:
First, I want to make clear that I accept full responsibility for what I did. As the video showed, I was violent. It’s not right. It’s more than not a moral way to solve problems, it’s not an effective way either. I acknowledge that, and I understand that I made a mistake, and more than any felony conviction that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, I will carry the knowledge that I did this for the rest of my life.
In a pre-sentencing public letter, Hoopes expressed regret and reflected on his Quaker values, saying, in part:
To ward the armored people back, with adrenaline narrowing my focus and pepperballs and tear gas burning my eyes and skin, I threw a rock at the guards through one of the partially opened doors of the facility. I knew there were heavily armored agents on the other side of the door, but at that moment I did not think that my act would or could injure any of them. At that point in time, I was under the impression that these agents were invulnerable. That impression was wrong. . . .
I know that I betrayed my Quaker values by violently disregarding the safety of another human being. My actions were not justified, nor were they effective, and I did something that cannot be forgotten or undone. In all my lifelong, vocal affirmation of the power of nonviolence, I tried to solve a problem in a way that contradicted that belief. In this, I have been a hypocrite. I will do better.
Judge Nelson explained that she weighed a variety of factors to determine the sentence, including the severity of the crime, the need for deterrence, and Hoopes’s lack of criminal record. She also considered his family and community—60 of whom wrote letters of support—and his current enrollment in a master’s degree program in urban and regional planning at Portland State University.
In a sentencing memorandum filed on June 3, Hoopes’s attorney Matthew McHenry argued for the minimum sentence allowed by the plea agreement.
“A 24-month sentence is a profound deprivation of liberty, and for a young man with absolutely no prior criminal history, it is more than sufficient to accomplish the goals of sentencing, including general and specific deterrence,” the defense memo states.
The government’s sentencing memo, filed on June 3 by U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford, referred to a group chat investigators found on Hoopes’s phone in which the writer of a text message stated that they were laughing at Hoopes’s actions, which the writer had seen reported in the media.
Bradford called for a sentence that would discourage potential crimes by people such as the writer of the text message.
“A 46-month sentence for this conduct sends a powerful deterrence message to those contemplating engaging in similar violence at the ICE Building. It sends a strong message to those agitators who, seeing these events unfold, sit back and ‘LMFAO’ [an internet term meaning “laughing my f—ing a— off”] as a federal property is destroyed and federal officers are assaulted. The government urges this court to impose a 46-month sentence. It will promote, and it may even help restore, respect for the law,” the government’s sentencing memo states.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Very grateful for Sharlee Dimenichi’s excellent article re Jacob Hoopes. These are truly challenging times to maintain adherence to our testimonies and values as Quakers. I thank Jacob for his admirable statement of accountability. I hold him in the Light with hope that his faith is strengthened as he serves his time.