Bar Owner Wins New Civil Rights Trial

A bar owner has won a new trial on her claims that Santa Ana police officers raided her business without a warrant, made illegal seizures and even ordered some of her customers to drop their pants in public to search them.

In a recent decision, the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a civil rights lawsuit brought by Elba Freeman, who operates the Red Turtle bar on South Fairview Street, should be heard by a jury.

Freeman’s lawsuit was thrown out two years ago by U. S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler, who found that Freeman had failed to prove that the police officers intended to violate her constitutional rights.

But the decision by the federal appeals court means that the legal battle between Freeman and the Santa Ana Police Department, which began in 1985, could be extended by a few more years.

City Atty. Edward Cooper said Monday that the city has spent $261,000 in taxpayers’ money to defend the lawsuit and plans to contest Freeman’s claims at the newly ordered trial.

“I don’t see any issue here for a settlement,” Cooper said. “The officers do not believe that they violated anybody’s constitutional rights.”

Cooper and attorneys representing the police have maintained that officers raided the bar on a few occasions because the place was a haven for drug dealers and buyers.

But Freeman contends that the officers harassed her customers, most of whom are immigrants from Mexico, on the basis of their race.

The appeals court said in its Oct. 19 decision that police raids on Freeman’s bar, and the mass searches and seizures that accompanied them, provided sufficient evidence for the case to be determined by a jury.

The opinion, written by Circuit Judge Michael Day Hawkins, refers to a police raid on the Red Turtle in November of 1987, during which police detained everyone in the bar for about 20 minutes and conducted pat-down searches. The police contended that they were responding to a telephone tip that there was a man with a gun in the bar. The bar’s employees said that no such call was made.

In another raid some months later, 20 police officers rushed in with guns drawn, shouting and pushing people up against the walls, the opinion states. That raid, which was conducted with Freeman’s permission, occurred after five undercover officers bought drugs from some of the bar’s patrons.

But officers proceeded to run the names of about 25 patrons through police computers to see if they had any warrants outstanding against them. Witnesses said police used abusive and profane language during the raid.

Meir Westreich, a Glendale civil rights lawyer representing Freeman, said that his client was pleased by the appellate ruling. “Police acted in this manner only because her customers were poor Mexican immigrants. If they tried to do this at white bars, they’d have dozens of lawsuits on their hands,” he said.

“Freeman has decided to stand up to the police as a matter of principle,” Westreich said, adding that he was preparing for trial and that it was unlikely that Freeman would settle the lawsuit.