P.O. Box 2567, Sparks, Nevada 89432, 775-284-4427, fax 775-356-0727, www.iapn.org

The Clark County Chairman of Nevadans for Sound Government and the Independent American Party State Chairman, Christopher Hansen, filed criminal complaints today with the Secretary of State and local police agencies against numerous government officials including: two Nevada Highway Patrol officers, a DMV "employee in control of the operation" of the Las Vegas Sahara Branch, a Lieutenant who is a Bailiff for the Clark County Court system, several UNLV staff members in charge of Sam Boyd Stadium and the Thomas and Mack Center including their attorney, a Metro officer working at the Las Vegas Airport, the Clark County manager and some staff members, several security guards and the operations director for Cashman Convention Center, several people working for the Clark County Fair located in Logandale, the "employee in control of the operations" of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center and their attorney, and a Henderson Police Officer for violations of Nevada Election law NRS 293.710 which makes it a gross misdemeanor to intimidate petition gatherers.

"We are also looking into possible harassment at one or more of the Las Vegas Libraries and will be interviewing our petitioners to look for other violations of this Nevada law against intimidation of our petitioners," Hansen said. "This continuous intimidation has got to end as it threatens everyone’s constitutional right to petition."

Criminal complaints will also be filed against the "employee in control of operations" of the main branch of the Reno DMV by one of NSG’s petitioners in Washoe County, and persons in charge of the Douglas County Parks Building.

"We have always felt that when government employees threaten us with arrest or removal it is unlawful. After the Reno DMV kicked one of our petition gatherers off the DMV steps last Wednesday, April 28^th while allowing the Education First paid gatherers to remain, it was the last straw," Hansen said. "I decided to do some additional research and found that it was a gross misdemeanor to threaten us and decided to file the criminal complaints today."

"The Secretary of State’s spokesman said on Friday that we should file complaints if we had problems and that violators faced up to a $20,000 civil penalty. I had previously been told on the phone that the Secretary of State’s office would do nothing. They had done nothing when I requested criminal charges be sought back in September of 2003 AD in my first complaint. These problems all go back to the fact that Dean Heller did not do his job last September in enforcing the election laws so government employees thought they could ‘make mistakes by chasing us off’ that have crippled our efforts without facing any repercussions. Now we will see if Heller enforces that law or if he only likes to sue the Hansen family." (Seven members of the Hansen family have been sued by Heller’s office in the last year.)

"I was thrilled when I found this law. I believe it not only will protect us in further petitioning on government property but also makes it a crime to interfere with us in community parking lots like malls, mini-malls and other shopping centers. It is a victory for all Nevadans that believe petitioning is a right and not a privilege to be granted or denied by some government employee, security guard or cop’s whim. The next time we are threatened with arrest the shoe will be on the other foot as we will be calling the police to arrest these anti-democracy criminals. It is sad that when I asked Heller for help in stopping all this harassment back in September of 2003 AD that he did not direct me to this law. We want enforcement of this law to protect petitioning, which is the most direct form of democracy in our Nevada Republic."

The law is very clear and applies to petitioning:

NRS 293.710 Intimidation of voters.
1. It is unlawful for any person, in connection with any election or petition, whether acting himself or through another person in his behalf, to:

(a) Use or threaten to use any force, coercion, violence, restraint or undue influence;