Year after protests in Las Vegas, some still facing charges, trauma

Christopher Peterson and his pregnant wife attended dozens of protests in Las Vegas last year to document the actions of police and demonstrators following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25.

Their designation as legal observers made them authority figures whose testimony could be used later in court as neutral parties. But on May 30, the second night of Las Vegas protests, Peterson and several other legal observers were tear-gassed, detained and given citations on charges of blocking a road.

“I was detained being someplace where I had been directed to be, not doing anything wrong, not bothering anyone, simply taking a record of what’s going on there,” he said. “If I was detained, I suspect that other people under similar circumstances were being detained when they were not doing anything wrong and were not a danger to anybody.”

Of the 240 people booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges related to protests between May 29 and Oct. 2, four still face a charge of either failure to disperse or provoking a breach of peace in Las Vegas Justice Court, according to booking logs and court documents. Of those four, none had prior cases in Justice Court.

Peterson, a former Clark County public defender, joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada as an attorney in April. He said that although the ACLU is not involved in any of the remaining cases, having an outstanding case for a year must weigh on those defendants.

“It’s incredibly frustrating because under the constitution you’re entitled to speedy trial once the charges get filed,” he said. “In more than a year, if they haven’t brought to trial, it should be dismissed. There’s a moral component to it. Leaving a prosecution open weighs on people. They leave them in a limbo, and there’s fear associated with that.”

‘Police conduct was embarrassing’

The ACLU continues to host a hotline that demonstrators who are arrested can call and be connected with an attorney who will take their cases pro bono. Among them is defense attorney Jonathan MacArthur, who said all the cases he took pro bono have been dismissed, except his own charges of pedestrian in a roadway and interference with a vehicle, which will be heard again June 7 in North Las Vegas Municipal Court.

“No one gets to trial,” MacArthur said of the clients he represented in Justice Court. “They’re all dismissed. The (district attorney) drops them because the police conduct was embarrassing.”

The Clark County district attorney’s office declined multiple requests for comment regarding the charges and dismissals.

In a recent interview with the Review-Journal, Sheriff Joe Lombardo looked back on police conduct during last summer’s protests, which he called unprecedented in the valley.

“We were catching up along the way,” he said. “We made some mistakes, and we learned from those mistakes. The word ‘kettling’ was brought forth, legal observers and what their role is in a demonstration. We learned that we had to adapt just like the community had to adapt to be successful, if you can describe it as success, in dealing with those situations and providing a safe space for the people that want to peacefully protest.”

Lombardo said one of the biggest changes since last May is that officers now approach demonstration organizers beforehand and ask what they’re protesting and what direction they will be marching in, and provide suggestions to keep the group safe and within their legal rights.

“The other thing we learned was we have to put ourselves in the position of the protester when we’re advising them of dispersal orders,” he said. “Can they actually hear what we’re trying to say? Are we giving them direction on where to go? Are we advising them that if you do not go this is what’s going to happen? None of that should be in secrecy. It’s better off if we make it public and transparent so people know what to expect if they don’t comply with what directions are given.”

Protesters recount injuries

Jameelah Lewis said she hasn’t driven down Flamingo Road since May 29, when the 24-year-old was headed back to her car at Flamingo and Koval Lane after the first night of protesting. Lewis was standing with three other women when, she said, a group of officers came up and arrested all four.

“They slammed me to the ground,” she said. “My glasses fell off the face. The officer told me to stop resisting and I’m like, ‘My glasses are going to break, please.’ I even realized later that some of the enamel on my teeth got scraped off.”

Lewis was booked into the county jail on a charge of failure to disperse. Her case was dismissed Thursday after nearly a year.

“There’s a reason some of these cases are still open,” she said before her case was dismissed. “They could have closed all the cases because they should all have been dismissed. I think the reason they’re still trying to pursue charges with me is because they wanted to deter me from protesting.”

Two officers were injured that night, and police said at the time that between 30 and 40 people were arrested, but booking logs showed that 80 people were booked into the county jail that night on a charge of failure to disperse, resisting an officer or false statement to a police officer.

Kenny Fawkes, 29, recalled his experience May 29, when he was about 30 feet from the police line before a group officers rushed at him. Fawkes said his elbow was broken when officers were attempting to detain him.

“A lot of them looked like they wanted to hurt people,” Fawkes said of the officers at protests last summer. “I definitely saw a lot of unprovoked aggression in the arrests, being so aggressive that they were dropping their guns and dropping their badges. It was really unorganized.”

Fawkes was detained a second time, in October, while at a vigil protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was charged with resisting arrest with a deadly weapon after officers found a Taser in a zipped pocket. Fawkes was adjudicated and told to stay out of trouble for 90 days.

“Jail isn’t something I’m particularly fond of,” Fawkes said. “I don’t think anyone is, but CCDC is especially bad … I would love to say it didn’t prevent me from doing some of my activism, but it definitely slowed me down.”

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.