April 18, 2003
Protest-Related Lawsuit Announced
Yesterday afternoon, local attorney Alan Graf held a news conference to announce a lawsuit (you can also read the original press release) against the City of Portland, Mayor Vera Katz, police chief Mark Kroeker, officers Mark Kruger and Joe Hanousek, and "several yet-to-be-named police officers."
In addition to the above Portland Indymedia coverage, local papers picked up the story, although in substantially minor form.
Today's Portland Tribune had only this to say:
A KATU (2) news engineer and two antiwar protesters have notified the city that they intend to file federal civil-rights lawsuits alleging they were mistreated by police during last month's peace protests.
All three are represented by local activist attorney Alan Graf, chairman of the Portland chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. He formally notified the city of the pending suits Wednesday as required by law. Graf hopes to introduce videotapes of the incidents as evidence during the trials.
According to the tort claims notices that Graf filed, KATU engineer Randy Lyon says he was assaulted by an officer while covering a demonstration March 20. Miranda May says she was pepper-sprayed while exercising her First Amendment rights during a March 25 protest. And William Ellis claims he was slammed to the ground, pepper-sprayed and hit with a pepper-spray bottle for holding a sign at the same protest.
And today's Oregonian had the following on page D5:
The Portland chapter of the National Lawyers Guild has filed notices of intent to sue the city of Portland on behalf of several protesters and a KATU (2) engineer stemming from police actions during March antiwar demonstrations.
The notices contend that police unnecessarily pepper-sprayed one peaceful protester, Miranda May, at close range and slammed another, William Ellis, to the ground when he refused to identify himself to an officer.
A third claim contends that police struck a KATU engineer, Randy Lyon, in the head with a baton, although Lyon was prominently wearing his press badge by the station's news truck at Northwest Second Avenue, between Burnside Avenue and Couch Street.
The guild also has written a letter to U.S. Attorney Michael Mosman, asking him to initiate a civil rights investigation into the police response to the protests, said Alan Graf, chairman of the Portland chapter of the guild.
Police Chief Mark Kroeker and Mayor Vera Katz have defended police actions. Kroeker called them "disciplined."
Given how much attention is paid to some violent protesters, one would think that perhaps the local press would not bury the story of a lawsuit alleging police abuses against other protesters. We are left to hope that once the trial is actually underway, they will pay all of this a little more heed.
For it's part, KATU itself did file its own story on this lawsuit, a version of which aired on its newscast this week, making sure to indicate that the station is not involved. They include some of the video footage in question.