Pastor, others arrested for pedestrian interference

Monday, Aug. 10, 1998 | 1:47 a.m.

Las Vegas police Sgt. Richard Collins accused the group of blocking the sidewalk.

But the Rev. Michael Robinson, 38, claims they were not blocking anything but heading toward another part of a downtown neighborhood when Collins stopped them on Aug. 2. The incident occurred three blocks east of the canopied Fremont Street Experience.

Robinson said Collins stopped the men and started arguing with them about religion. Robinson claims Collins called them hypocrites, refused several times to give his badge number or name, and taunted Robinson: "You're the pastor? You've got to be kidding."

Robinson, pastor of Abundant Life Community Church, said when he tried to comply and walk away, Collins and another officer stopped him with the wheels of their bikes.

Then he and the others were handcuffed, hauled away in a van, strip-searched and incarcerated in the city jail for 17 hours to more than 28 hours. They were charged with pedestrian interference, a misdemeanor, and held on $615 bail.

As they were being booked, they claim, officers in the jail taunted them.

John O'Donnell, 36, heard one cop ask, "Where's your God now?"

The incident has drawn the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which may legally represent the men, said Gary Peck, ACLU executive director.

"We have four witnesses who are prepared to say the same thing, and we believe their story is a credible one," Peck said.

Officer Geary Madison wrote in his report that the five men were walking, not standing, on the sidewalk.

The men were told "not to interfere with pedestrian travel and to continue walking," Madison wrote.

One of the men stopped, the officer continued, to tell Collins "that he was infringing on their constitutional rights. The (men) then began to get loud."

The report goes on to say that the men "refused to move."

The five men arrested - Robinson, O'Donnell, Raymond Dumbrys, Jeremy Hendrick and Tony Rogers - went Thursday to the Metropolitan Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau to file a complaint, Robinson said. He claims they were stymied by a sergeant who said they could not file a complaint until their cases were concluded.

Internal Affairs Sgt. Bob Dante said it is not office policy to refuse a complaint.

Peck said he would escort Robinson and the others to the Internal Affairs office this week.