Tuesday, July 1, 2003 | 11:33 a.m.
Metro Police reached an undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit with a man who alleged he was arrested solely because he was black. It is believed to be the first time a settlement has been reached in such a case in Southern Nevada.
Julian Reinhardt, who was represented jointly by Robert Langford and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, reached the agreement with Metro officers last week, Langford said.
"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the case, and I believe there is going to be a change in Metro's attitude toward racial profiling as a result of cases like Julian's," he said.
Langford declined to comment on the amount of the settlement.
Peter Angulo, the attorney who represented Metro in the case, also declined to comment on details of the settlement this morning.
"Other than that it's over, I really don't have a comment," he said. "I know (Reinhardt) wants to go on with his life."
Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the settlement marked a milestone in the fight against racial profiling.
"We believe that our client has gotten some measure of justice, and we think the fact that the case is the first of its kind to be settled speaks for itself," he said.
Reinhardt claimed he was arrested in November 2001 and questioned in connection with a bank robbery and spent hours handcuffed in a police van simply because he was black.
Peck said three other alleged racial profiling cases are currently pending in Federal Court.
"We plan to continue to press forward with the other racial profiling cases we are pursuing in the hopes that they will send a message to help reduce or put an end to the practice," he said.
Reinhardt's claims sparked a public outcry from black community leaders and officials, who said racial profiling happens too often in the Las Vegas Valley.
One case pending in federal court is the case of Terry Anderson, who had made similar accusations earlier that year.
Anderson said he was driving with his sister, nephew and 5-year-old daughter in a rented moving truck when Henderson Police officers forced them out of the vehicle and held them at gunpoint.
"It's not just about the stops," Peck said. "It's about what happens to people after the stops."
Peck applauded Clark County Sheriff Bill Young's effort to help address the issue by committing to further investigate the results of a recent study released by the attorney general's office.
The study showed blacks made up about 11 percent of people pulled over in 386,000 monitored traffic stops, but only about six percent of drivers.
"(Reinhardt's) case predated Sheriff Young's arrival to the position," he said. "He is to be commended for his public comments acknowledging that post- stop data results show people's rights are being egregiously violated."
But specific measures to put an end to racial profiling in Nevada have been unsuccessful. A bill making racial profiling by police officers a misdemeanor was killed in the Senate Government Affairs committee in February.
Panel members voted unanimously to kill the bill, saying state laws already addressed the concerns of the bill's proponents.
Reinhardt, 30, was a customer in the US Bank branch at 4320 E. Tropicana Ave. on Nov. 27, 2001, when the bank was held up by two black men. When police arrived, Reinhardt said he was shaken as a result of the robbery and wanted to leave.
The lawsuit alleged that Reinhardt told officers he wanted to go home, but the officers searched, handcuffed and arrested him on the charge of obstruction of a police officer.
Reinhardt was placed in a police van to be taken to the Clark County jail, but said he remained in the back of the moving vehicle for five hours before he was taken to the jail.
In the arrest report, the officer wrote that Reinhardt was not cooperative and "after his demeanor ... it is possible that this BMA (black male adult, referring to Reinhardt) may be involved somehow or the bank robbers knew him."
In Anderson's case, Anderson said on July 18, 2001, several officers surrounded him with guns, including shotguns, drawn on Russell Road near Boulder Highway and then repeated the procedure with his nephew and sister, who was holding his daughter.
When his sister refused to put the girl down, Anderson said, officers cocked their shotguns. The family members sat handcuffed for about 90 minutes before police removed the cuffs and let them go, he said.
Anderson said police told him he'd been pulled over for an illegal lane change and neither he nor his family members were cited.
Sun reporter
Jace Radke contributed to this story.
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