Lawsuit: Burning Man nurse unlawfully detained while trying to help patient

A nurse volunteering her time at the 2022 Burning Man festival in northern Nevada is alleging in a lawsuit that she was unlawfully detained while trying to help a festival attendee.

When Hannah Hoekstra, a registered nurse, was paged to help a woman who was requesting help after what the lawsuit described as “a discomforting encounter” with a male festival-goer in his private tent, Hoekstra ultimately found herself placed in handcuffs by deputies from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 31.

“There’s just no excuse for something like this to happen, and while it would be fortunate to believe that this is a rarity, it is in fact all too common,” said Nathan Lawrence, Hoekstra’s attorney.

Hoekstra, a forensic nurse who had previously collaborated with the sheriff’s office, was a seasoned volunteer at the festival, according to the lawsuit. As a volunteer nurse, she wore a yellow shirt with the words “EMERGENCY SERVICES” on it.

Deputy told to handcuff her, lawsuit says

On Aug. 31, 2022, Hoekstra was speaking privately with a woman who had asked for help when a plainclothes deputy from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office named Donna Robinson requested to come into the tent where the pair were speaking, the lawsuit said.

When the woman indicated to Hoekstra that she didn’t wish to speak with Deputy Robinson, Hoekstra left the tent to explain the situation to Robinson.

The lawsuit said that Robinson told Hoekstra that if the patient did not want to speak with law enforcement, she would have to “tell me that herself on my [bodyworn] camera.”

Robinson then told Hoekstra that if she and the patient didn’t tell her what was “going on right now,” Hoekstra would be “arrested for obstruction of my investigation,” according to the lawsuit.

When Hoekstra requested to speak with her own supervisor, Robinson instructed another deputy, only named as Deputy Boyer in the lawsuit, to detain and handcuff her.

As Hoekstra was being “dragged away,” the patient she had been helping reportedly called out “What are you doing? That woman was helping me!”

A Bureau of Land Management officer identified in the lawsuit only as Ranger P. Zoltovetz reportedly assisted in detaining Hoekstra. Bystanders filming the event were allegedly told by officers, according to the lawsuit, that the sheriff’s office would need the video for Hoekstra’s “prosecution.”

After nearly 40 minutes, Hoekstra was eventually released without any criminal charges or citations, the lawsuit said.

Constitutional rights ‘disregarded’

“Violation of a constitutional right is not a small thing,” Lawrence said, “particularly when, as a society, we are compelled to put our trust into law enforcement for our protection and for protection of our civil rights.”

According to Lawrence and the lawsuit, since the incident, Hoekstra has been diagnosed with and treated for PTSD.

While still working as a nurse, Hoekstra no longer works in forensic nursing because of the “mental anguish and emotional distress” from the alleged unlawful detention.

Changing the scope of her work to exclude forensic nursing “detrimentally affected her career trajectory,” the lawsuit said.

Lawrence said that rather than supporting a fellow first responder, officers from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Land Management “completely disregarded” Hoekstra’s constitutional rights in an “entirely unnecessary event.”

There was no probable cause or reasonable suspicion existing that would have allowed officers to detain Hoekstra, Lawrence said.

Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said in an email that as of Saturday, he did “not have notice of any lawsuit against any of my staff, therefore I do not have anything I can comment on.”

The BLM did not respond to a request for comment.

“At least anecdotally, there is evidence of this type of behavior increasing somewhat, particularly in the state of Nevada, across a variety of law enforcement agencies,” Lawrence said.

In Southern Nevada, Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Kevin Menon was arrested Aug. 30 on suspicion of a “pattern of unlawful detentions,” according to an arrest report.

Lawrence said that unlawful detention not only harms the individual victim, but “it’s a harm to society, and that’s a big part of what we’re trying to resolve.”

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.