Eagle bar lawsuit headed to court-ordered mediation
Lawyers for the city of Atlanta and for owners and patrons of a Midtown gay bar that was raided a year ago are scheduled for court-ordered mediation, according to one of the attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten has ordered attorneys not to discuss the case beyond confirming that mediation has been scheduled.
Robert Godfrey, one of the city attorneys, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday that the mediation was set for Monday, which is the deadline Batten set. The mediation is before federal Magistrate Judge Alan J. Baverman.
Details of any solutions being discussed were not known as the city's attorneys declined to comment and lawyers for the Atlanta Eagle bar could not be reached for comment.
Atlanta Eagle owners, employees and patrons of the Atlanta Eagle bar filed a lawsuit earlier this year claiming their rights were violated during a Sept. 10, 2009, raid by the Atlanta Police Department's Red Dog unit.
The federal lawsuit says they were forced to lie on the barroom floor while members of the Red Dog drug unit searched and peppered them with anti-homosexual comments. They also said they were not allowed to leave the bar for a long while.
APD initially said the Red Dog officers went to the bar based on reports that drugs were openly sold and men were engaging in sex acts while others watched. Eight people were charged with city ordinances involving licensing. A municipal court judge dismissed the cases against three of them and then prosecutors dropped charges against the remaining five.
The relationship between the gay community and APD has not been the same since.
One of the biggest issues in the lawsuit recently has been Atlanta Eagle’s complaints that the city’s lawyers have spent most of their energy hiding information or simply ignoring court filings asking for evidence, called discovery.
The city has acknowledged that records were deleted but has offered no reason for the destruction or a way of retrieving the information.