Attorney, arrested while jogging, has lawsuit pending against police

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.