2 plead guilty to roles in 2020 protests in Pittsburgh

A Pittsburgh man who has spent years advocating for LGBTQ rights pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in a day’s worth of protests in September 2020 in Downtown.

Kenneth McDowell, 35, of the city’s Spring Garden neighborhood, will serve two years of probation after pleading guilty to harassment, disorderly conduct and simple assault stemming from two incidents on Sept. 5, 2020.

In the first incident, police said McDowell was participating in a protest Downtown with several hundred people marching peacefully. A group of protesters, including McDowell, then entered a McDonald’s restaurant on Liberty Avenue and started chanting, screaming and using a bullhorn.

When the manager attempted to get back behind the counter, McDowell physically blocked him, police said. In the ensuing pushing and shoving, the manager’s glasses were knocked off, according to a criminal complaint.

In the other incident, police said McDowell and others approached customers dining at Pino’s Restaurant on Reynolds Street around 8:45 p.m. and shouted and screamed obscenities at them with megaphones.

Corey Day, who represents McDowell, told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski that his client got caught up in the emotion of events that day.

Day described his client as an activist, mentor and “integral leader in the community.”

McDowell is active in the ballroom scene and works to help Black and Latinx LGBTQ youth to find housing.

“I just want to apologize,” McDowell said. “This does not reflect the person that I am. I was just trying to advocate and speak for Black voices and minorities.”

Also pleading guilty Wednesday was Cameron Guetta, who was charged for his role in the May 30, 2020, protests over George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minnesota.

Guetta, 21, of the city’s Morningside neighborhood, was among those who kicked and punched a Pittsburgh police car prior to it being set on fire.

Guetta pleaded to disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

His attorney, Lisle Weaver, told the court that Guetta has performed 254 hours of community service since his arrest and started his own junk removal business a year ago.

“I’ve grown a lot as a person since then, and I appreciate any consideration,” Guetta told the court.

Because of his extensive amount of community service, the prosecution suggested no further penalty was necessary, and Borkowski agreed.

Assistant District Attorney Grant Olson told the court that he has tried to be consistent in recommending similar sanctions in the dozens of protest cases stemming from incidents in the spring and summer of 2020.

He suggested a more lengthy probation for McDowell because he was involved in two incidents over the course of one day.

“This case had victims for both,” Olson said.