Art professor sues over detention while photographing power lines

EVERETT, Wash. -- A veteran University of Washington professor knew Snohomish would be a good place to shoot photographs of power lines against an unobstructed sky to use in her art work.

What Shirley E. Scheier, 54, didn't know was that she would be detained by police for 44 minutes in which she was frisked, patted down, handcuffed and held in the back of a police car.

Scheier, a fine arts professor whose etchings have been exhibited at the Seattle and Portland, Ore., art museums, filed a claim for $50,000, a written apology and written assurance that she would not be detained again.

The claim was rejected, so on Thursday she filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages in Snohomish County Superior Court accusing the town and its police of negligence, invasion of privacy and false arrest.

Other claims in the case include violation of Scheier's rights to freedom of expression under the First Amendment and to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

City Manager Larry Bauman would not comment, saying local officials had not seen the legal papers.

According to the lawsuit, filed with aid from the American Civil Liberties Union, police arrived on Oct. 17, 2005, after Scheier took pictures near a Bonneville Power Administration substation to use in an artistic exploration of industrialization and other aspects of the relationship between people and the environment.

"We don't think an art professor should get frisked, handcuffed and put in the back of a squad car for taking photographs on public property in plain sight," ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said. "As an artist and as a teacher, she doesn't want other people who are taking photos of landscapes and other things to be hassled and detained by law enforcement."

Rejecting the damage claim in a letter Sept. 24, Washington Cities Insurance Authority asserted that police had reasonable cause for their actions, partly because the Department of Homeland Security rates the substation a "critical infrastructure-key asset target."

Moreover, according to the letter, BPA officials called 911 only after Scheier left hurriedly without responding when they tried to ask what she was doing, and maps that were found in her car after she consented to a search showed locations such as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the downtown Westin Hotel circled

"A camera is not dangerous," Scheier said. "I was terribly frightened about how I was going to be treated, because everything seemed so completely out of proportion with my activity."

Police must be given latitude to determine whether there is a security threat when potentially suspicious activity is reported in such areas, said David Gomez, an FBI counterterrorism specialist.

"In today's age, people have to understand that law enforcement is always concerned when people are doing things that are perceived as unusual," Gomez said. "They could be perfectly normal, but if it's perceived as unusual, it draws the attention of law enforcement."

The ACLU has represented other photographers in the state Washington who said they were unduly harassed by law enforcement agents. Last week the city of Seattle paid $8,000 to settle a claim by Bogdan Mohora, who was arrested after he photographed police making an arrest in 2006.

Police detention of photographers has increased nationwide since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said Kyu Ho Youm, a First Amendment professor at the University of Oregon.

"That is really threatening the basic fundamental characteristics of our American society," Youm said. "Everybody can take those kind of pictures. That is why this is overreaching, overstepping the boundary."