Motion for Summary Judgment Civ. No. 1:19-cv-00296-CL

El Palacio in Klamath Falls, Oregon are Hispanic family members who are the former and current owners of a Mexican restaurant and lounge located downtown on 6th and Main Streets.

The Cisneros’s operated El Palacio in downtown Klamath Falls in a prominent, landmark building between 2004 and 2017. Their son, Carlos Faiers, is the current owner of the business now.

The City of Klamath Falls (“the City”), the Klamath Falls Police Department ("KFPD") at the direction of Chief Henslee, and two city officials, Councilor Bell and City Manager Cherpeski, discriminated against them and targeted them for a higher level of law enforcement activity due to their race.

It is undisputed that officers reported numerous incidents involving El Palacio patrons and patrons of other downtown establishments, and it is undisputed that many of those incidents were attributed to El Palacio. What is disputed, however, is whether that attribution was accurate, and whether Defendants' focus on El Palacio was due to Plaintiffs' race.

Plaintiffs claim that on July 31, 2015, a KFPD officer entered El Palacio and told Elizabeth Cisneros to shut the bar down. Ms. Cisneros stated that the officer did not have any legal authority to shut the bar down and she refused to do so.

The officer identified himself as the new Chief of KFPD, David Henslee. Chief Henslee was new to Klamath Falls, having moved there a couple of months earlier for the position. On August 13, 2015, Chief Henslee sent a letter to Plaintiff Elizabeth Cisneros advising that El Palacio "has been the location of a pattern of activity that has the potential to cause the subject property to be declared a 'Public Nuisance' as defined by City Code." Chief Henslee further advised that if this pattern of behavior continued, the City could make a Public Nuisance declaration.

Chief Henslee's letter provided the dates, times, violations and number of arrests for eight inci-dents that occurred between February 21, 2015, and July 5, 2015. Plaintiffs claim that, over the next year, the Cisneros family worked with Chief Henslee to address what Chief Henslee considered to be issues at El Palacio.

El Palacio is one of many bars in a few-block-radius in downtown Klamath Falls. Directly across the street from El Palacio is a bar called The Pikey, while the Basin Martini Bar and 618 are on the same block, and Black Dog Billiards and the VFW are within a couple of blocks. The downtown Klamath Falls area has a reputation for being a rowdy place with patrons often circulating be-tween the establishments on weekend nights.

Plaintiffs submit evidence that all the establish-ments in this area have issues with these patrons. Plaintiffs claim that they were cooperative and attended meetings with Chief Henslee, changed their security company, hired more security, and closed earlier on weekends in an effort to solve the issues.

For reasons unknown to Plaintiffs, the first Notice of Public Nuisance issued by Chief Henslee in August 2015 was dropped without further action. However, despite this, and despite their efforts at cooperation, Plaintiffs claim that soon after the first nuisance letter, officers began walking through El Palacio several times a night, accusing the Cisneros family of refusing to cooperate with them, and attributing incidents that happened outside of El Palacio to the bar.

As mentioned, El Palacio is in a landmark building downtown and often used as a geographical reference point. However, Plaintiffs assert that police reports began identifying incidents that happened in the street between El Palacio and other bars solely to El Palacio.

(To be continued)