Lawsuit against UNLV cops may be class action

Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

A lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday by a Las Vegas couple may turn into a class action case for 75 people who allege they were abused by UNLV campus police at a concert two years ago.

The suit is one of several already filed and more that are expected to be filed stemming from confrontations between police and civilians.

A community college student who claims she was victimized by police hired an attorney Wednesday who already represents another person who claims he was assaulted at a basketball game three years ago.

Named in the suit filed Wednesday are the University and Community College System of Nevada and the Board of Regents, as individuals and in their official capacity.

Attorney Pat Chapin represents promoter Sir Frank Cooper and his wife, Anita Cooper, in a case that stems from a Conscious Comedy Concert held Nov. 2, 1997, at Artemus Ham Concert Hall at UNLV.

He also expects to represent most of the people who attended the event and were patted down and searched by campus police without justification.

The concert, whose purpose was to promote harmony between the races, was attended by about 150 people, most of them black but also including about 15 white people and several Hispanics.

Chapin said campus police more than doubled their security surrounding the concert and arbitrarily frisked almost all of the black men and women and went through the women's purses as they came to the front door of the concert hall.

"White people weren't touched," Chapin said.

At the same time that police were focusing on blacks who attended the comedy event, a mostly white crowd attended a production of Dracula in the Judy Bayley Theatre 75 feet from the Ham Concert Hall.

"There was primarily a Caucasian crowd there and not the heightened security that was taking place at the African-American event," Chapin said.

No one who attended the Dracula performance was stopped and searched, he said.

Chapin said campus police had a paddy wagon at the concert organized by Cooper as head of African-American Humor Awards Society.

"These were well dressed, orderly people attending a classy event," Chapin said. "This was not a rock concert or a rap concert or a youth group. This was an upscale affair."

The Coopers are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Chapin says he is prepared to go forward with a class action suit on behalf of all those who were patted down by police at the concert.

The Coopers claim their Constitutional right to substantive due process and equal protection were violated.

The lawsuit says there was "excessive security, abusive and demeaning treatment and unwarranted patting down and frisking of minority attendees" of the concert.

Kwasi Nyamekye, attorney for the university and community college system, said he has not yet seen the suit and can't comment on it.

A second, unrelated case stemming from an incident between campus police and a private citizen that took place at a basketball game at the Thomas & Mack Center in November 1996 is in arbitration.

Attorney Eric Dobberstein represents Stephen Jarzabkowski in that case.

Dobberstein said his client was asleep in his vehicle at about 11 p.m. after a basketball game on Nov. 12 when several university police officers woke him, pulled him out of the car and beat him up.

Denise Jaramillo, a community college student, Wednesday hired Dobberstein to represent her in a false imprisonment suit against the police. The suit has not yet been filed.

Attorney Cal Potter says he represents two other individuals in separate cases involving campus police at concerts. He has not yet filed suits in those cases, but he anticipates doing so in the near future.

"In one case there were serious injuries," Potter said. "One fellow had a fractured neck."

Several other claims of abuse of authority by campus police have surfaced recently, including a high school principal who said he was handcuffed and treated roughly by police following a concert and a former UNLV student who said he was arrested on drummed up charges while jogging on campus.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says he expects the former UNLV student, Leroy Hudson, to sue.

He said the ACLU "will do everything it can to ensure that those with legitimate grievances get justice."

"It is unfortunate that these sorts of incidents have occurred all-together too frequently, and the university has to this point done nothing about them," Peck said. "Hopefully, this lawsuit (by the Coopers) and the actions of students and members of the community will encourage those in a position of authority to finally do the right thing."

Cooper was among those who complained at a Legislative Education Committee meeting Monday.

He told committee members that after the 1997 incident he complained to the UNLV administration and was promised the problem would be taken care of and that there would be no more similar incidents.

"I thought the meeting (with the administrators) went well -- but nothing was done," Cooper said.

He said he filed a formal complaint with the campus police department, and again nothing was done.

Chapin said Cooper didn't want to file a suit, but when the university failed to follow through on its promises he was left with no choice.

He said problems involving university police that have surfaced recently prompted the filing of the suit by Cooper because it shows the university has done nothing to improve matters.

"There has been in increase in the same type of abuse that caused the suit," Chapin said.