Group charges Metro harassment

A Las Vegas pastor and four other men arrested last week for pedestrian interference while handing out free religious literature on Fremont Street have filed a complaint with Metro Police claiming officers denied their right to free speech and harassed them because of their beliefs.

The accusations received little public notice until Tuesday when Gary Peck, executive director of Nevada's American Civil Liberties Union, held a news conference outside Metro's internal affairs bureau before he escorted the pastor and his associates into the office where the complaint was filed about 1:30 p.m.

Peck's statements accused the officers involved in the Aug. 2 incident of being "overzealous" and "fabricating a story" to justify arresting Pastor Michael Robinson, Jeremy Hendrick, Anthony Rogers, Raymond Dumbres and John O'Donnell on "bogus violations."

The arrest report says that Sgt. Richard Collins, part of a bike team patrolling the downtown area that night, stopped the group near Fremont and 8th Street about 9:50 p.m. after seeing them "aggressively panhandling religious handbills" by stopping and surrounding people, then preaching to them.

According to the report, Collins told the group they needed a city permit to hand out literature on the sidewalk, advising them to keep walking and not interfere with pedestrian travel.

Pedestrian interference is a city ordinance created to prevent obstructing a pedestrian's or vehicle's passage through a public area, be it a sidewalk, street, parking lot, driveway, park, mall or building.

At least four pedestrians that night had to step into the street to get around the evangelical group, police said.

Collins was attempting to leave the area when Robinson told him "he was infringing on their constitutional rights and that they were there to abide by God's laws and not the laws that police officers enforce," the report said.

Police also said the group repeatedly refused to move and at one point "started yelling in a loud voice to Sgt. Collins, 'God will get him,' and 'God will hold him accountable.' "

Robinson was said to have apologized six times for challenging Collins' authority when the group was put in handcuffs and arrested.

Three of the five men are convicted felons, Robinson said, and, as Peck added, all the more reason for police to be "embracing and celebrating that these men were trying to do something good (religiously) for the community."

"(The officers) called us hypocrites, fakes, phonies," the pastor of the Abundant Life Church said, offering a vastly different account of the events.

He said Collins was "very aggressive and in my face," at least once hitting Robinson with his bike helmet as the sergeant yelled at the group.

Although he could not remember specifically what Collins said, Rogers insisted that the sergeant "attacked our character and slandered our beliefs ... it was a sinful and unjust abuse of authority."

The group was taken to city jail where they were strip-searched -- a procedure Robinson said was embarrassing and humiliating because two female officers were nearby.

Karen Coyne with the city of Las Vegas, however, explained that strip searches are standard procedure especially in cases of arrestees awaiting transport to Clark County Detention Center where the group went to await their arraignment.

Strip searches are performed by corrections officers for individuals' safety and to prevent drugs and weapons from being smuggled into a controlled environment. Coyne added that all arrestees sign an authorization permitting any subsequent strip search.

Police said Robinson was denied the chance to file a complaint with internal affairs last week when he told a sergeant at the Fourth Street office that his group disagreed with the pedestrian interference charge -- a matter typically handled by the court system.

Peck denies allegations that the Aug. 2 incident was set up by the ACLU as groundwork for a lawsuit, insisting he first met the group when a Review-Journal reporter put them in touch with one another.

Lt. Rick Alba, Metro spokesman, said the department would willingly look into any complaints of religious or constitutional violations.

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