ACLU threatens suit over police probe of pamphleteer arrests

Monday, Dec. 14, 1998 | 11:52 a.m.

An angry Gary Peck, state ACLU director, charged that a police investigation backing the arrests was a cover-up.

"What this shows unambiguously is that investigators will do everything imaginable, including twisting statements, contorting logic and ignoring inconsistencies in police statements and reports, all in order to exonerate officers whenever they can," Peck said.

Undersheriff Richard Winget monitored the Internal Affairs Bureau investigation, reviewed the bureau's 3-inch thick case file and wrote a two-page news release supporting the Aug. 2 actions of Sgt. Richard Collins.

Winget said if the matter made its way to court, then he was sure the Police Department would win.

"I'm confident that not only do they have no basis for making accusations that IAB covers up," Winget said, "but the court will show that the investigation was valid, and Sergeant Collins was in the right in what he did."

Four months have passed since the incident inside a section of Fremont away from the canopied tourist attraction known as the Fremont Street Experience.

On that August night, the Rev. Mike Robinson, whose Abundant Life Community Church sits in a mall front, was walking along Fremont Street with at least four others and handing out religious pamphlets, as they had many Sundays before.

The men allege Sgt. Collins harassed them and then arrested them for "pedestrian interference," a misdemeanor.

They were taken to the Las Vegas jail, where they were strip-searched and held for several hours.

Charges against the five were dropped by the Las Vegas city attorney.

Robinson and the other four, with the ACLU's assistance, filed complaints with IAB against Collins.

In a press release that Winget crafted, he said the Internal Affairs Bureau investigation cast doubt on the stories told by the arrested men. The release emphasized the statements of one of the men, who referred to the way the group worked the street as a "rat pack."

"He described how they entrapped citizens within their circle, with the citizen's only avenue of escape being walking into the street," the release said. The same person, the release said, "admitted that Sgt. Collins repeatedly cautioned them about blocking the sidewalks."

Previously, Robinson and the others reported Collins derided them and mocked their religion. The press release said that just the opposite occurred and that Robinson was the one who offered the derisive comments.