Family sues police over traffic stop

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

A family is accusing officers from two Las Vegas Valley police departments of stopping them, pointing guns at them and holding them for about 90 minutes solely because they are black, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

None of the family members was charged or cited.

Terry Anderson was driving with his sister, nephew and 5-year-old daughter in a rented moving truck on Russell Road near Boulder Highway on July 18 when he was stopped by Henderson Police, according to the lawsuit. Anderson and his family remained in the truck for 15 minutes before an officer yelled at him to show his hands and step out of the truck.

"They made me lift my shirt up and turn around, then walk backwards to them," Anderson said Tuesday.

Several officers -- from the Henderson and Metro departments -- were standing around him with guns, including shotguns, drawn, he said. A police helicopter was circling above. Officers handcuffed Anderson and put him in the back seat of a police car, he said.

Officers then repeated the procedure with Anderson's nephew and sister, who was holding his daughter. But when Anderson's sister refused to put the girl down, officers cocked their shotguns, he said.

"They pulled us over for one reason: We're black and we were in what they called a well-known drug area," Anderson said.

Family members sat handcuffed in police cars for about 90 minutes before police removed the cuffs and let them go, Anderson said. He said police, who say they pulled him over because of an illegal lane change, didn't even give him a ticket.

Anderson, who was a corrections officer in Arizona, said he remained calm throughout the ordeal.

"If you're black and you're not calm, you put yourself in danger of being shot by the police," Anderson said.

Metro and Henderson police spokesmen declined to comment, saying the departments have policies not to talk about pending lawsuits.

Anderson's is the second federal lawsuit filed in the past six weeks accusing local officers of racial profiling.

In July Julian Reinhardt filed a suit claiming Metro Police arrested him and accused him of being a suspect in the robbery of a bank where he was a customer.

Reinhardt was arrested for obstruction after he told officers he wanted to go home. An officer wrote in a report that he suspected Reinhardt may have been involved or may have known the robbers.

Local attorneys Robert L. Langford and John Costo along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada are representing Anderson and his family.

Costo said he gets calls every day from people who allege they have been targeted by police solely because of their race.

"I can't imagine the excuse the police are going to come up with for stopping them," Costo said, referring to the Anderson suit. "There is something wrong here when there are so many complaints from blacks, and Latinos continue to make the same complaints."

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said police continue to deny any allegations of racial profiling, making it impossible to solve the complaints his organization continues to receive.

"They will look for justification for it no matter how preposterous," Peck said. "It's time for our local elected officials to step up and say something about this."

Peck said the problem could be rooted in officers' training.

Anderson's suit states Sheriff Jerry Keller and Henderson Police Chief Michael Mayberry have "tolerated and encouraged, through a failure to train and discipline their officers," the profiling.

The suit alleges the "customs and practices of their officers include" detaining and questioning people without probable cause and arresting and searching people based solely on race or ethnicity.