County, city want judge to throw out police union lawsuit against oversight board

Lawyers for a Las Vegas police union said in court this week that officers have a right to privacy when it comes to public complaints and internal reviews.

But attorneys for the city, Clark County and a Metropolitan Police Department citizen review board argued for transparency in police scrutiny.

On Thursday, District Judge Jacqueline Bluth heard arguments on whether to throw out a lawsuit filed by the police union over publicizing the names and badge numbers of officers in complaints analyzed by the review board.

Deputy District Attorney Timothy Allen, representing the county and the review board, said that by excluding an officer’s name the public would not be able to know whether the officer continued to violate policy, limiting the transparency of the process.

“If the citizens aren’t allowed to see the individual officer’s name or know their identity at all, then they would never be able to know whether or not the department’s disciplinary procedures are actually having an effect,” Allen said.

The Las Vegas Police Protective Association’s attorney, Anthony Sgro, said the review board is a “non-regulatory agency that’s just an advisory board,” and therefore limited in its jurisdiction. Sgro said an officer whose name was released after a police shooting quit the department after protesters went to the officer’s home.

“You don’t give up your privacy rights, you don’t surrender them, by swearing an oath to be a police officer,” Sgro said.

Last month, lawyers for Clark County, the review board and the city of Las Vegas filed court papers, asking the judge to dismiss the union’s lawsuit against the citizen oversight board.

The union filed suit in early November, alleging that officers’ privacy was being violated by the Clark County Citizen Review Board by including officers’ names and badge numbers on publicly released documents.

In the suit filed on behalf of Metropolitan Police Department officers Jeremy Jacobitz, William Catricula, Matthew Glover, Justin Turney, Raymond Kwan, Aristotle Legaspi and Edwardo Garcia, the union argued that including an officer’s initials would maintain transparency without violating privacy.

Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, the Citizen Review Board and the Metropolitan Police Department were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Citizen Review Board and Clark County filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit pursuant to Nevada’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), statute. Las Vegas joined the county in its motion and filed a separate motion to dismiss.

Bluth said she expected to make a ruling on the motions next month.

“To be honest, I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth on this one,” the judge said.

Attorneys on both sides declined to comment after the hearing.

The Citizen Review Board is made up of 25 citizen volunteers who review complaints made against Metropolitan Police Department officers. It also reviews internal department investigations and resulting officer discipline.

The board posts meeting agendas online for panel hearings that summarize the complaints being reviewed. Each agenda item includes the officer’s last name and first initial along with his or her badge number.

The findings of those panels are available to the public. All the evidence reviewed by the board, including the original complaint, is not released. Board meetings are closed to the public, per state law.

A lawsuit filed by the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers union in September against the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a judge to force the newspaper to remove or modify a video of Henderson corrections officers to protect their identities.

District Judge Mark Denton denied the request, allowing the video to remain online unchanged. The city of Henderson agreed to pay the Las Vegas Review-Journal $20,000 in legal fees after the decision.

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com.