Battle over inquest process goes on
The legal battle over the revamped coroner’s inquest system won’t be leaving the courtroom anytime soon.
Backed by the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, Las Vegas police officers and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers in the past week appealed two cases challenging the constitutionality of the process for reviewing deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers.
The judges in each case had ruled against the officers’ claims that the new process, including the use of an ombudsman to represent relatives of the dead, violated their constitutional rights.
The latest ruling came last month by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro in the case of three Las Vegas police officers who shot and killed a knife-wielding man holding a bartender hostage.
The judge found no constitutional violations under the new process except for a potential sentence that violated the Nevada Constitution’s separation of powers clause. He sent the case back to state court for a ruling on that issue.
In an earlier decision, state District Judge Joanna Kishner made a similar ruling, though she found that the potential constitutional issue could be fixed by deleting a sentence from the county’s inquest ordinance.
County officials have moved forward with the first inquest under the new rules, which were changed a year ago amid criticism that the system favored police.
Officials held a pre-inquest meeting Wednesday in the death of Eduardo Lopez-Hernandez, who died in August 2010 during a confrontation with troopers on U.S. Highway 95. Another meeting will be held Jan. 25 .
Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@review journal.com or 702-383-0281.
