Reed apologizes for city's role in Eagle raid

By Christian Boone and Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Wednesday apologized for the 2009 botched raid of a Midtown gay bar, which spawned a $1 million legal settlement that also will require police reforms and an internal investigation into the planning and execution of the raid.

Reed said Atlanta police officers “engaged in inappropriate conduct,” on the night of the raid at Atlanta Eagle, and that the events of that night “have been a matter of serious concern to me for some time.”

“I believe that what occurred that evening should not have happened and should not happen again,” Reed said at a news conference. “As mayor of Atlanta, I feel pain for anyone mistreated in our city and apologize to each plaintiff in the . . . case.”

The city and the bar last week reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging that officers violated the constitutional rights of people in the bar by illegally detaining and mistreating them during the raid. The City Council approved it Monday. The settlement awards $1.025 million to 28 plaintiffs, including bar owner and patrons.

With a gag order lifted, Reed addressed the case, and other settlement details were released Wednesday. The deal calls for the police department to strengthen training and education and revise certain policies and procedures.

“This week’s settlement agreement is a step forward, and I hope, the beginning of a healing process,” said Reed, who was not mayor at the time. “The plaintiffs and the city . . . have agreed upon clear steps which will strengthen and improve our law enforcement capabilities and help ensure that an incident such as this will not happen again in our city.”

The settlement prohibits Atlanta officers from “interfering in any way with a citizen’s right to make video, audio, or photographic recordings of police activity, as long as such recording does not physically interfere with the performance of an officer’s duty.”

According to police records, undercover officers had visited the Ponce de Leon Avenue nightclub and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched. The department also received complaints alleging drug sales on the premises.

No charges were filed against any of the 62 patrons forced to lie down on the bar floor during the raid, though eight Eagle employees were arrested for permit violations. Then-police chief Richard Pennington said the patrons were “frisked” for the officers’ safety. No search warrant was served.

Additional mandates outlined in the settlement include:

• Officers may no longer detain people without “reasonable articulable suspicion,” meaning “the individual is involved in specific and identifiable criminal activity”.
• Police may no longer take or demand identification or require an individual to identify himself without reasonable suspicion the person is engaged in criminal conduct.
• They also can no longer frisk someone for weapons without “a reasonable belief ... that the person is both armed and presently dangerous.”
• Uniformed officers are now required to wear “a conspicuously visible name tag.”

“I believe that the lessons learned here, and the resulting reforms, will have a positive impact on future relations between the Atlanta Police Department, the LGBT community and the residents of Atlanta, and that the rights of all of our citizens will be better safeguarded as a result,” Reed said.

Atlanta Eagle's co-owners, patrons and an attorney gathered at the bar for a separate news conference following the mayor's apology.

“I’m really grateful that the procedures and the policies are going to change and the citizens don’t have to worry about something like this happening to them,” Atlanta Eagle co-owner Richard Ramey told reporters.

Ramey emphasized that the incident that night was not a gay issue.

“We fought for the citizens of Atlanta, we fought for the visitors that come to our great city … this is an issue of civil rights; it had nothing to do with anything other than being mistreated by the police department.”

But Ramey said he holds no grudges against police officers.

“We are very grateful to have the police protect us and our city,” he said.

Bar co-owner Robbie Kelley said he hopes the changes that the city has vowed to make are "real and permanent."

"I spent 19 hours in a plastic chair in the City of Atlanta jail, handcuffed and toted off and denied my civil rights for selling beer, and I just don’t think that’s right. I don’t’ think anybody should go through that," he said.

Dan Grossman, a lawyer for plaintiffs, said it shouldn't have taken a lawsuit for these changes to happen. He did not answer repeated questions on what the plaintiffs will do with the $1.025 million settlement money they received.

"Today we’re talking about the reforms. That’s what matters," Grossman said. "If this had simply been an anti-gay attack on a gay bar, we wouldn’t have had the settlement that you’ve got in your hands."

"One of the great things about working with these clients is that money has never been their motivation," Grossman said.

WSB Radio's Pete Combs contributed to this report.