Thursday, October 24, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
ACLU protests eight anti-nuclear arrests
Nye officials, group's attorney to meet on issue
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
An American Civil Liberties Union attorney will meet Friday with Nye County law enforcement officials about the arrests of eight anti-nuclear demonstrators who failed to give their names to police after they were cited for trespassing at the Nevada Test Site.
Nye County sheriff's deputies should not have held the eight protesters overnight in the Beatty jail last week because the state law that they were arrested under has been deemed invalid and in violation of the U.S. Constitution by a federal appeals court, ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein said.
Lichtenstein referred to a Feb. 20 memorandum that was sent to all Nevada peace officers by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa. The memo says the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco determined that it is "unconstitutional for an officer to arrest a suspect for failure to identify himself" during what's called a "Terry stop," so-named after the 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case, Terry v. Ohio.
The Nevada law was challenged in the federal appeals court in the case, James Carey v. Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett confirmed he will discuss the matter regarding the arrested protesters in a meeting in Pahrump with Lichtenstein and representatives of the Sheriff's Department.
"I'm going to approach this and get to the bottom of it. If they were improperly arrested ... then we'll take appropriate steps," Beckett said.
"We plan to address all the concerns and find out exactly what happened or didn't happen out there, and do what's fair and what's right," he said.
The Feb. 20 memo from Del Papa states: "This office strongly disagrees with the court's decision both as a matter of policy, as well as the standard of review employed by the Ninth Circuit panel. Therefore, all avenues of appeal are presently being pursued. However, until further notice, NRS 171.123(3) is deemed to be uncon- stitutional."
