Reno Approves Settlement of Civil Rights Litigation by BLM Protest Legal Observer

Today, the City of Reno Council approved the settlement in a 42 U.S.C.§ 1983 civil rights lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, Case No. 3:22-cv-00238-MMD-CSD, Rebecca Gasca vs. City of Reno, et al. The McLetchie Law Group represents Ms. Gasca.

Police officers are required to respect the constitutional rights of people who attend protests – including protests that are critical of the police. Ms. Gasca and McLetchie Law filed suit because Reno police did not adhere to that fundamental principal. There was absolutely no reason for the officer to use nonlethal projectile rounds on Ms. Gasca, who was acting as a peaceful legal observer on May 30, 2022, during the protest related to the murder of George Floyd, when she was violently targeted by a Reno police officer.

To be clear, Ms. Gasca was not a threat. Ms. Gasca was not part of an uncontrolled crowd. She was not in a crowd at all. Instead, Ms. Gasca was wearing a clearly marked legal observer vest while standing in the middle of a parking lot by herself. She was peacefully trying to observe interactions between the police and protesters. Ms. Gasca even had her arms above her head when an officer first hit her in the left arm the nonlethal round commonly called 40mm Direct Impact OC. After Ms. Gasca began filming what the Reno police officer was doing to her, the officer hit her with an OC round for a second time, this time in the upper right thigh near her groin. Ms. Gasca was shocked and immobilized with fear. She sat down but the officer continued firing 40mm munitions in her direction. When Ms. Gasca attempted to get up and vocalize her plans to leave the scene, she was hit for a third time by the same type of projectile, this time near the groin on her left side.

Again, Ms. Gasca posed absolutely no threat to any officer or to public safety, and no officer provided any warning to Ms. Gasca prior to opening relentless fire on her, causing extensive bruising and requiring medical care. This incident was a failure of the City of Reno Police Department’s Use of Force standards. Not only was the force illegal and unnecessary, neither the officer nor his sergeant even created any report about the Use of Force against her (an apparent violation of Reno’s existing Use of Force Policy).

The violent encounter with law enforcement physically and emotionally harmed Ms. Gasca. “The trauma I experienced fails in comparison to the history of the suffering of so many others at the hands of institutionalized police brutality in our country,” Ms. Gasca said. “Through much therapy,

I learned to manage Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) caused by the incident and was able to stand up for my rights. But so many individuals unfairly assaulted by ‘peace officers’ don’t know their civil rights or have access to counsel. They also may not know how to navigate mental health care systems for themselves. We need peaceful change through police reform and we need it now.”

“We’re pleased we could resolve the case for our client and get her compensation for what happened without having to go through further litigation,” Maggie McLetchie, the lead attorney representing Ms. Gasca said. “More importantly, Ms. Gasca and I look forward to working with the City of Reno to make meaningful changes to ensure this does not happen again. We are at a crossroads when it comes to the relationship between law enforcement and the community. We should not live in a world where you need to live in fear of the police because of the color of your skin, or because you legally observe or attend a protest drawing attention to police violence.”