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Attorney, arrested while jogging, has lawsuit pending against police
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CRAIG L. MORAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Attorney David Lee Phillips stands on Vegas Drive, were he was arrested while jogging in 2008. Charges of resisting arrest were quickly dropped, and he has a lawsuit pending against the Metropolitan Police Department. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
David Lee Phillips said he finds it hard to believe the Metropolitan Police Department is unaware that some officers might harass residents who reside in the valley's historically black neighborhoods.
And the longtime defense attorney and son of prominent Las Vegas civil rights activist Ruby Duncan has the arrest report, and subsequent lawsuit filed last year, that he hopes will prove his case.
"This was the most embarrassing moment of my life," Phillips said of the Feb. 4, 2008, incident in which, he said, six officers insulted and threatened him, then knocked him to the ground and manhandled him before taking him to jail for allegedly resisting arrest, a case a deputy district attorney tossed out before it ever reached court.
"I had cases the next day, and everybody who works in the court system heard I had been arrested," said Phillips, 58, adding people told him they heard he was swinging a golf club and acting irrationally.
"None of that happened," Phillips said.
On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the creation of the League of Action, a group of West Las Vegas and North Las Vegas residents who claim police routinely engage in "blatant abuse and police brutality." In the same article, spokesmen for the North Las Vegas and Las Vegas police departments said they were unaware police allegedly violate the civil rights of African-American residents who live in the formerly segregated areas of the city.
Phillips is black. Five of the officers he accuses of misconduct are white; one is Hispanic.
"I read that story, and I thought of David's case," said Cal Potter, an attorney who often takes cases against police, and who now represents Phillips.
"Them trying to claim no knowledge isn't right. It just isn't right," said Potter, who has filed civil lawsuits against government entities for 30 years. Many of them were against the police department.
Potter filed the lawsuit over the Phillips arrest in May 2009. A trial date has not been set. The lawsuit alleges that Metropolitan Police Department officers can do whatever they please based on a de facto policy "to summarily punish persons of color in an unlawful manner without corroborating information and without rightful authority of law and by the use of excessive force commonly known as 'street justice.' "
Potter also said officers lack training and oversight; generally believe they can mistreat citizens without threat of sanctions; and the department tolerates such behavior.
Phillips said he was emotionally distressed and sought help after his arrest. He also said his law practice suffered.
"I lost clients,'' Phillips said. "They said they didn't want an attorney who might be in jail with them."
Phillips seeks at least $75,000 in general damages and an equal amount in punitive damages.
Police Public Information Officer Marcus Martin, who in Tuesday's article was quoted as saying the department was unaware of any incidents of inappropriate police behavior, said Thursday that department policy prohibits him from talking about an ongoing lawsuit. Martin did say he was unaware of the Phillips incident and subsequent lawsuit when he spoke to a reporter earlier this week.
Martin also said nobody in the neighborhood has stopped at the department's Bolden Area Command to complain. That has disappointed Capt. Kevin McMahill, who leads the police substation located on Stella Lake Street, off Martin Luther King Boulevard just north of Vegas Drive.
"I hope I'm not saying too much here, but maybe people should differentiate between police departments,'' Martin said. "Have these people honestly gone through the proper channels?"
Ironically, Phillips and Larry C. Bolden, the first African-American to ascend to deputy chief of the department, are first cousins. The substation was named in Bolden's honor in 2002. It is close to where Phillips, wearing jogging clothes with reflecting material on his running shoes and sweatpants, and dressed for the 38-degree weather, stopped to stretch while waiting for the light to change. He was carrying a golf club he uses to fend off stray dogs as he runs through the Bonanza Village subdivision.
"It was 11 or 11:15 that night," said Phillips, who said he has jogged or power walked in West Las Vegas since he left the U.S. Marine Corps in 1980. He said he was out late that night because his terminally ill son, who has since died, had just emerged from a coma for the first time in months.
"It's a personal discipline thing," he said of his exercise regimen, "but I was also excited about my son, you understand."
While crossing at the light and heading north on Vegas Drive, he waved to police Sgt. Raymond Reyes, who was stopped in traffic.
"He gave me a real hard look," said Phillips.
When the light changed, Reyes turned left on Vegas Drive at a high rate of speed, made a U-turn, activated his light bar and stopped in front of Phillips, who said he set his golf club against the block wall and walked about 40 feet from it, to where Reyes came to a stop.
Phillips said the officer put his hand on his gun and told Phillips he was going to search him for weapons. Phillips asked him why he would do that and refused to be searched when Reyes couldn't offer legal justification.
Reyes called for backup, said Phillips, and six officers responded immediately.
"They were making fun of me," he said. "Calling me an idiot, laughing at me."
He said he did not hear any of the officers utter racial slurs.
Phillips said that when he told the police his name and gave them his address, one officer noted there was a downtown lawyer by that name. Phillips said that when he said he was indeed that lawyer, the officer responded, "What kind of lawyer would live in a shithole neighborhood like this?"
"I lived in this neighborhood all my life," said Phillips. "I love this neighborhood."
In addition to the police substation named for his cousin, an elementary school in the area is named for his mother.
The threats came when Reyes ordered Phillips to walk to the back of his patrol car and another cop told him that if he moved he would be shot with a Taser. A third officer, he said, aimed a Taser at him.
"I just kept my hands up and said 'I'm staying right here until you guys decide what you want me to do."
At that point, Reyes attempted to kick Phillips' legs apart but he slipped, and the remaining officers "jumped on me," said Phillips.
Reyes, Phillips said, then demanded that he sign a citation ---- for what violation is unclear ---- and when Phillips refused, the officer threw the wadded up citation in his face and said, "Enjoy a couple nights in jail, asshole."
"I told Sergeant Reyes his behavior was unprofessional and unnecessary," said Phillips. "He said, 'I'm Metro. We can do whatever we please.' "
Contact reporter Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo @reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.
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Calling him a liar is the understatement of the year! I sued this excuse for an attorney in small claims court for taking money from my son for a defense which he never provided. He never showed up to defend him in court, or replied to any of the correspondence sent to him by the Nevada State Bar concerning my complaint against him. Unfortunately, attorney's do not have to take an oath in court, and thereby was able to lie through his teeth at the small claims hearing. I guess he has run out of clients to scam so looking to Metro for his meal ticket.
Jazz- Idiot. The man got a ticket, right? So there was a reason for the stop....And you dont need Probable cause to do a pat down for weapons. Resonable suspicion, that he may be armed. ....My guess is that he was not being cooperative with the Officer....there fore pat ting him down would be reasonable........Lawyer huh....but didnt make a complaint with the DEPT....waited a yr for the lawsuit........until it was time to start up this "league of idiots"............
Jazzman....stick to something you know....like when to change the grease in the fryer.....cuz your way in over your head. This guy is garbage, and trying to get a payday.
Okay Reality let me clue you in on some things. One this officer stopped this guy for NO STATED REASON and says I'm going to search you for weapons. I hate to tell you this but he had no probable cause. The police except maybe in North Korea can't detain a person for no reason other than he was running down the road, but Mr Phillips should be glad that they didn't shoot him which Metro has a tendency to do also. This is a force that has one questionable shooting a month on average, but you should probably call it murder. If you want examples how about when Metro killed a kid for carrying a dangerous weapon that turned out to be a basketball. Or how about in 01 when a metro officer emptied a 14 round clip into a guy who only offense was jaywalking. Oh and you talk about a few mistakes that get made well those few mistakes COST LIVES, and if you don't know that try asking the guy who walked out of COSTCO.
Way to go...so you diddnt answer the question...........Becaus eyo cant...the ACLU is propaganda....and you buy it.....please.......COPS receive someowhere around 3500 calls a DAY.....you get that...a day......And out of that they make the few mistkes they do is unbelieveable if you ask me......Not a perfect world....though some woul dhave us believe it is......
Either way this piece of crpa lawyer doesnt deserve a penny...piece of garbage, media chaser, liar. period.
@Reality Kingpin: How about the elderly man who was walking home from casino in Henderson and was stopped and put in the hospital by 4 cops because he was 'being beligerent'? Or the ice cream lady who got shot, causing police department to clear airspace around area to prevent media coverage? And then when they got caught they admitted to trying to cover up the shooting?
No, you're right about the ACLU not supporting cops. We have judges for that. "Oh, you raided the wrong house and shot an old lady to death? No problem here case dismissed!"
@Neuromancer....yopu may wanna rething your basing comments on the ACLUs bashing of COPS....NEWSFLASH...thats the ACLU's job...to bash cops, or authority....Name me one single time the supported a COPS shooting.....You cant...because they dont....which is what invalidates them.....they are a bunch of unhugged as kids whack jobs, that people laugh at....and you will be too, if you go around quoting them
The public needs to stop making excuses for bad cops. We've had alot of attention lately for misconduct - guess thats all BS too? ACLU asking Metro why officer shootings are so very high - how dare they!?!?
The mentality of our police officeres in Metro, North LV and Henderson have the same mentality: If you aren't a police officer then you are the enemy.
It is certainly suspicious to be out late at night carrying a golf club.
Phillips escalated the situation by refusing consent to be searched.
JazzMan- What does this go to Show? Am i to believe that you beleive everything you read? Or that This lawyer must be telling the truth? He is a Lawyer after all..paid to LIE.
Jazzman- If you were him and upset would you have waited a year to file a lawsuit...???????????????????.................He never even filed a simple complaint withthe station...or internal affairs........He simply waited a year, and then files a lawsuit to get some news attention for the forming of their new LEAGUE OF ACTION!..................this is the worst case ive seen in a long time of the wool being pulled over yalls eyes.......
This guy is a joke.
You know, this just goes to show that Metro, despite claims, hasn't moved all that far from the old days when the boys ran the casinos and we were known as the Mississippi of the west.