Group charges police harassment in pamphlet stop

Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 11:12 a.m.

A little more than a month after arresting member of the group, police are being accused once again of stopping them and threatening them with arrest.

Tony Rogers, a member of Spring Meadows Presbyterian Church, said the latest incident occurred Sunday night as he and another man crossed a street to talk to a passerby. He said two officers in a patrol car halted them, told him to spread his hands on the car's hood, then emptied his pockets and frisked him.

No police report was filed on Sunday's incident because no arrest was made.

Rogers said he recognized one officer as among those who arrested him and four others Aug. 2, about a block from where Sunday's incident occurred.

At that time Rogers and four others, including the Rev. Mike Robinson of Abundant Life Community Church, were strip-searched and jailed and charged with "pedestrian interference," a misdemeanor.

On Thursday, the Las Vegas city attorney's office dropped those charges. Three weeks earlier, Las Vegas Undersheriff Richard Winget had apologized to the group in his office.

Yet Rogers claims the officer he recognized from the previous run-in told him Sunday night that "it's illegal to hand out that literature here." He said he didn't have the presence of mind to get the officer's name.

Rogers filed a complaint Thursday with the Internal Affairs Bureau, the second time he has visited that office in a month. In August, he and Robinson and three others filed complaints with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union Nevada chapter. Winget said the investigation into those complaints has not been completed.

Gary Peck of the ACLU said he intends to follow the most recent complaint, calling the matter outrageous.

"How absurd is it that the same people in the same location are being harassed in the same way by at least one of the same officers?" he asked.

Winget said he understands the feelings of Rogers and the others because Winget was a missionary in Brazil from 1969 to 1971. There he handed out literature and spoke to people on the street on behalf of the Mormon Church.

At the same time, Winget is moving carefully before issuing an edict to rank-and-file officers about what is and isn't appropriate on city streets. He said the city's Office of Budget Analysis has been charged with making a comprehensive review of laws pertaining to city streets.