OREGON COERCION LAWS

   ORS 163.275 Coercion. [What is a coercion charge.]

   (1) A person commits the crime of coercion when the person compels or induces another person to engage in conduct from which the other person has a legal right to abstain, or to abstain from engaging in conduct in which the other person has a legal right to engage, by means of instilling in the other person a fear that, if the other person refrains from the conduct compelled or induced or engages in conduct contrary to the compulsion or inducement, the actor or another will:

      (a) Unlawfully cause physical injury to some person;

      (b) Unlawfully cause physical injury to some animal;

      (c) Unlawfully cause damage to property;

      (d) Engage in conduct constituting a crime;

      (e) Falsely accuse some person of a crime or cause criminal charges to be instituted against the person;

      (f) Cause or continue a strike, boycott or other collective action injurious to some person’s business, except that such a threat is not deemed coercive when the act or omission compelled is for the benefit of the group in whose interest the actor purports to act;

      (g) Testify falsely or provide false information or withhold testimony or information with respect to another’s legal claim or defense; or

      (h) Unlawfully use or abuse the person’s position as a public servant by performing some act within or related to official duties, or by failing or refusing to perform an official duty, in such manner as to affect some person adversely.

   (2) Coercion is a Class C felony. [1971 c.743 §102; 1983 c.546 §4; 1985 c.338 §1; 2007 c.71 §45; 2015 c.751 §1]

   ORS 163.285 Defense to coercion.

    In any prosecution for coercion committed by instilling in the victim a fear that the victim or another person would be charged with a crime, it is a defense that the defendant reasonably believed the threatened charge to be true and that the sole purpose of the defendant was to compel or induce the victim to take reasonable action to make good the wrong which was the subject of the threatened charge. [1971 c.743 §103

What is the penalty for coercion?

Coercion is a Class C felony in Oregon.  Often the sentence would be probation with some jail time; however, it is possible to be sent to prison for a coercion conviction.