ACLU steps up criticism of Reno police at riot

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1998 | 9:18 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Civil rights lawyers are stepping up their criticism of police tactics at a downtown riot that led to the arrests of more than 150 people at a car rally, including two news photographers.

But Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin defended the 100 police officers who used pepper spray and dogs to make more than 150 arrests when a crowd of 1,000 rioted late Saturday night Aug. 8 at Hot August Nights.

"I don't want to be saying I am blindly going to support the cops no matter what, but I've got to tell you my first interest is having the peace restored," Griffin said on Tuesday.

Two photographers for the Reno Gazette-Journal entered innocent pleas to criminal charges on Tuesday. They say they were roughed up, their camera equipment damaged and exposed film ruined because they were taking pictures of police officers beating suspects at the rally.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called for an independent investigation into the police conduct and is closely monitoring the case of the photographers, said Richard Siegel an ACLU lawyer and political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"Even if there was provocation, there's really no excuse for what happened to these people," Siegel said Tuesday.

Mark Studyvin, a staff photographer at the newspaper, pleaded innocent to a charge of obstructing and resisting arrest. Steve Keegan, an intern, pleaded innocent to a rioting charge.

Jim Hardesty, a lawyer for the newspaper, entered written pleas on their behalf so they were not among the more than 100 people that jammed into Municipal Court on a variety of charges, mostly obstructing and resisting arrest, disturbing the peace and minors in possession of alcohol.

A review by the Gazette-Journal last week found that of the 208 people booked in relation to Hot August Nights, only 15 faced felony charges.

"Bear with us. It is our largest crowd in two years," a bailiff told the crowd of accused on Tuesday. "Hot August Nights. We call it job security."

Bill Gardner, deputy city attorney serving as chief criminal prosecutor, said he couldn't estimate how many people were entering pleas Tuesday tied to the Hot August Nights event

"It's high. There's a lot. We'll probably dealing with the Hot August Nights cases through the end of October," Gardner said.

"Our intent is to prosecute every case coming out of the event. We have six prosecutors working on it," he said.

Police have blamed a big influx of gangs over the weekend for the downtown riots.

Gardner said he didn't know about the status of Keegan's case but Studyvin "will definitely be prosecuted.

"His conduct was definitely criminal. His conduct was pretty bad. He put the police in a bad position," he said, declining to elaborate.

ACLU lawyers are among community leaders who plan to meet with city and police officials on Thursday to protest plans for an existing city task force to review the police conduct. They want an independent citizens' board to examine the case.

The task force includes city attorneys, police officers and business leaders.

"We do not believe the police themselves nor the operators of the large casinos nor other of the city's prominent power brokers are the best ones to make an objective review of why and how this situation became as incendiary as it did," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU's Nevada branch based in Las Vegas.

"The ACLU is not prejudging anyone, but we have received enough complaints and read enough newspaper accounts and seen enough filmed versions of the events to be deeply concerned about what transpired," he said.

Mayor Griffin said its a question of balance and the ACLU may be taking the case of the photographers' civil rights too far.

"I don't mean to be belligerent toward the ACLU. I happen to be one of the few conservative Republicans who think there is a role for the ACLU. A limited role, but a role," Griffin said.

"And don't get me wrong. If police officers did something wrong, they will be punished.

"But what about the rest of us? What about my civil rights? This is a good family and these people (gang members) are trying to take it away from us," Griffin said.

"I want to know how we can have roving bands of criminals going into communities and raising hell and diminishing my quality of life. I want somebody to talk about that too. I don't want to be afraid to go downtown at 10:30 on a Saturday night."