A UCLA student arrested during the fall 1999 Midnight Yell is
suing the Los Angeles Police Department for injuries she said she
received while being arrested.
Because of her injuries, Lisa Danylchuk claims she experienced
severe headaches and neck pains for several months, for which she
had to seek medical treatment and is now seeking compensation in
her suit.
Danylchuk was arrested for “failing to disperse”
while LAPD officers were shutting down Midnight Yell activities on
the night and early morning of Dec. 15 and 16.
According to Adam Axelrad, Danylchuk’s attorney, Danylchuk
had returned to her apartment after taking a study break at a
friend’s house, when LAPD officers in riot gear were walking
shoulder-to-shoulder down Glenrock Avenue, clearing the street of
frolicking students.
Danylchuk was standing in front of her apartment at the corner
of Levering and Strathmore Avenues when eight officers broke from
the line to arrest her and two other UCLA students, Axelrad
said.
The officers then forced her to the ground and slammed her head
into the cement floor of her apartment’s parking garage
during her arrest, Axelrad said.
According to Richard Arias of the Los Angeles City
Attorney’s office, the LAPD acted appropriately in the
arrest.
“There is no question that in order to perfect the arrest,
the police officers had to force her to the ground in order to
handcuff her,” Arias said.
The LAPD claims Danylchuk attempted to help two students evade
the police by letting them into her apartment building through a
pedestrian doorway leading into the garage. Once in the garage,
Arias maintains Danylchuk held her body against the door to keep
the officers out.
“She let them into the garage, closed the door behind her
and used her body to keep the door shut and the LAPD out,”
Arias said.
But Axelrad maintains Danylchuk had just met the two other
students who were arrested, and that they had nothing to do with
the disturbance, but were only observers.
“There are independent witnesses who say that all three
were only standing there talking,” Axelrad said.
He added that the LAPD’S claims Danylchuk resisted arrest
were fabricated to justify their actions against her.
“They can’t have injured someone without a
reason,” Axelrad said.
Axelrad also pointed out Danylchuk was never charged with
resisting arrest.
In her suit, Danylchuk claims her constitutional rights were
violated, in particular the right to be free from illegal searches
and seizures. A jury will determine whether or not the arrest was
proper and if excessive force was used.
According to Arias, if the jury finds that excessive force was
used in the arrest, then Danylchuk’s claim that her rights
were violated are correct.
“It’s a credibility contest,” Axelrad
said.
During finals week of fall 1999, Midnight Yell ““ a
tradition in which students take a break from studying to scream at
the stroke of midnight ““ escalated into streetwide disorder
as LAPD officers responded wearing riot gear, attracting the
attention of news cameras and later school officials. Students set
couches on fire and threw bottles at police officers and
firefighters responding to the scene.
The disturbance, later termed “riotous” by local
television news stations, centered on Glenrock Avenue, where
reportedly hundreds of students were in the street.
Nineteen students were arrested and more were detained for
failing to disperse after the LAPD had given the order to do
so.
The trial will begin on Tuesday, Aug. 20.