Board OKs $125,000 settlement for woman injured by officer in traffic stop

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, Sept. 26, 2011 | 10:19 a.m.

The Metropolitan Police Department will pay $125,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a woman who suffered a torn rotator cuff and neck ligaments, and three injured ribs during a 2008 traffic stop.

Before unanimously approving the settlement, members of Metro’s Fiscal Affairs Committee expressed disappointment at the limited information they had on the case. Fiscal Affairs is made up of a citizen-chairman, two county commissioners and two Las Vegas City Council members.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak began the questioning, saying he didn’t want to approve the settlement if he and other Fiscal Affairs members did not have the right to question Metro’s internal policies. He said after the meeting he wanted to know if the officer had been disciplined or what previous complaints might have been filed against him.

“(If) we are going to be approving settlements, then we should have some say in the process,” he said.

City Councilmen Ricki Barlow agreed with Sisolak’s concern, saying it seemed like all the other Fiscal Affairs members were being asked to do is “rubber stamp” the settlement.

“To me, it doesn’t seem like that’s what Fiscal Affairs is set up to do,” he added.

Metro’s attorney said the Fiscal Affairs board, however, only deals with financial issues, not policy. Indeed, state Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill in 2009 to increase county and city representation on the board while giving board members more oversight into Metro processes. Metro fought it and the bill failed.

In response to their concerns, Metro’s administrators said they would be willing to address questions at a future meeting.

The Sun learned more about the traffic incident by talking to Kristina Wildeveld-Coneh, a former public defender now in private practice, about her lawsuit.

Wildeveld-Coneh filed the suit alleging various civil rights violations after being stopped and ticketed by Officer Richard D. Goslar in downtown Las Vegas during the time of the O.J. Simpson robbery/kidnapping trial in October 2008.

A judge later dismissed the ticket.

In an interview with the Sun, Wildeveld-Coneh said barricades set up to deal with hordes of media following the Simpson trial made driving around the courthouse difficult. Looking for a parking spot, she admits considering making U-turn in front of the courthouse, 309 S. 3rd St., because she saw an open parking spot.

At the same time, she also saw motorcycle cop Goslar eyeing her. Instead, however, she found a parking spot and didn’t have to make the U-turn.

Even so, Goslar pulled up to her vehicle on his motorcycle.

“He told me, ‘You were going to make a U-turn back there,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘I was going to speed, too, but you can’t give me a ticket for it.’”

She said Goslar asked for her license and registration. She said she stepped out of her car with her documentation “he took my right arm and threw me up against the car.”

She said Goslar wrenched her right arm so high behind her back that she could see her fingers over her left shoulder. “I screamed ‘get the (expletive) off me. Where’s your probable cause?’”

He let her go then, she said, and told her she had failed to hand over her paperwork fast enough.

Goslar issued her a citation but a judge dismissed it.

Wildeveld-Coneh also claims that as recently as May, Goslar stopped her at Valley View Boulevard and Desert Inn Road. Her husband and four kids were in the back of her vehicle as she drove.

“I was scared to death,” she said once she recognized Goslar. She said he told her she was stopped for doing 48 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Wildeveld-Coneh said Goslar called someone on a cell phone then handed back her paperwork and told her to “slow down.” Even so, she added, he followed her all the way to her west side home, turned onto her street then into her cul de sac before leaving.