ACLU fuming over review of church members’ arrest

Jace Radke

Monday, Dec. 14, 1998 | 12:17 p.m.

Sgt. Richard Collins acted properly when he arrested five members of the Abundant Life Community Church, as far as Metro Police Internal Affairs is concerned.

The arrests came on a downtown sidewalk on Aug. 2.

But Gary Peck, executive director of Nevada's American Civil Liberties Union, disagrees, and says that he feels a jury will find for his clients' First Amendment rights.

"This has taught us at the ACLU an important lesson," Peck said. "In cases like this, we will no longer go to the Internal Affairs Bureau. Instead we'll simply file lawsuits to investigate these situations publicly, so that those bringing complaints can be aggressively represented when investigations from Metro fail to be objective."

Peck's clients include the Rev. Michael Robinson and the members of his church, who say they were handing out religious information in the area of 8th and Fremont streets on Aug. 2, Peck said. Robinson and four of the church members were arrested for obstructing a sidewalk, police said.

Peck contends that the group were simply exercising their rights of free speech when they were approached by Collins and had their rights infringed upon by being arrested.

After lengthy interviews and investigation Internal Affairs exonerated Collins of accusations from Robinson of unprofessional behavior, including making slanderous religious comments to the group.

Police say that in interviews, one of those in Robinson's group came forward with a story of what happened on Aug. 2 that mirrored the version given by Collins and two witnessing officers. The individual said that the group entrapped citizens within their circle, with the only avenue of escape being walking into the street.

Peck said Internal Affairs was taking snippets of the interviews and presenting them out of context.

"I was at each interview and no one ever said that people were entrapped," Peck said. "Obviously what the department has done is to tear snippets of witness statements out of context, ignoring the tone and the nuance of the snippet."

The same member of the church also told investigators that Collins repeatedly cautioned them about blocking the sidewalks and returned at least two times after watching the group continue to encircle people, police said. Through the interviews and review of the case, the department concluded that Collins acted appropriately during the event.

Peck said that while he does not question the department's motives or integrity, he does question Metro's ability to to be objective when dealing with its officers.

"This clearly demonstrates yet again the expense to which Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau bends over backward, twists and distorts in an effort to exonerate its officers whenever they possibly can," Peck said.

"We will subpoena every recording of witness statements and report that was filled. We expect Metro and the officer involved not to fight the subpoenas, because like the rest of us they want the public to know the truth about what happened."