Doors close on bus case - Technicality frees Arvada woman who refused to show ID

Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against Deborah Davis, the 53-year-old Arvada woman who refused to show her identification to federal police officers on an RTD bus traveling through the Federal Center in Lakewood.

Davis' supporters, at first jubilant to learn Wednesday morning that she will not be prosecuted, were dismayed to learn hours later that officers of the Federal Protective Service still will ask passengers on the public bus to show their identification. The policy applies to all passengers, including those, as in Davis' case, who are traveling through the Federal Center and not getting off the bus there.

Federal officials said the Davis case was closed because of a technicality involving a problem with a sign at the Federal Center at the time Davis was ticketed. The sign was supposed to inform people that their IDs would be checked.

"The policy hasn't changed," said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, of which the Federal Protective Service is a part. "There are no plans to change our procedures."

"We're very pleased that they dropped charges against Ms. Davis," said Davis' volunteer lawyer, Gail Johnson, of the Denver law firm Haddon, Morgan, Mueller, Jordan, Mackey & Foreman. "But sign or no sign, she and other Colorado citizens continue to have the constitutional right to travel by public bus without being forced to show identification to federal agents."

"I think if the government is going to insist on continuing to violate the constitutional rights of our citizens, then they're going to find themselves back in court on this one," Johnson said. "We're not interested in the Deborah Davis exception."

Johnson said lawyers from outside Colorado had volunteered to help represent Davis following nationwide publicity about the controversy, and that other bus passengers who refuse to show identification likely could find legal representation as well.

"There are plenty of lawyers in Denver who would be happy to help people," she said.

Davis had been scheduled to appear for arraignment before a U.S. magistrate judge in Denver on Friday. She could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Bill Scannell, a spokesman for Davis and an activist who has helped publicize other challenges to government identification requests, said a rally outside the courthouse, at 19th and Champa streets, will occur at 8:30 a.m. Friday as planned.

He said Davis will speak during the rally and she and her supporters will ride through the Federal Center on the Regional Transportation District's Bus 100 - the one from which Davis was removed for not showing her ID.

Scannell called it "a victory ride," even after he learned that the policy has not changed.

"My anticipation is that the victory riders will be fully exercising their constitutional rights to travel freely in their own country on a public bus," he said.

Asked if some or all of the riders might refuse to show their IDs to Federal Center police, he said, "I think that's a fair assumption."

Zuieback, the spokeswoman for ICE in Washington, D.C., declined to discuss how federal officers would respond to any such refusals.

"We never speculate about what our response is going to be to a specific situation," she said.

She said the dispute isn't about the bus or its passengers, but about the security of a federal facility.

"It's not a city bus on a city road," Zuieback said. "It is entering a federal facility."

Two RTD buses, the 3 and the 100, pass through the Federal Center several times a day. Thousands of people work at the Federal Center, and thousands more visit some of its agencies, including a popular map sales office and a heavily used depository for genealogical information.

In addition, the road through the Federal Center leads from South Kipling Street on the east side of the facility to the Cold Spring park-n-ride at the Federal Center's northwest corner, a major connecting point for buses bound elsewhere.

RTD officials have said some passengers have complained in the past about the federal police ID checks, which began after the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The bus routes through the Federal Center had existed for many years before that.

"It's clearly not an ideal situation for RTD or our passengers, but it is controlled wholly by the federal police at that site," RTD spokesman Scott Reed said Wednesday.

"We hope there will be some resolution of this, and we are doing the best we can to comply with their regulations while providing a long- standing service to our passengers," he said.

Davis, who routinely rode RTD's 100 bus through the Federal Center to get to her job at a small business in Lakewood, said she first showed her ID to federal police who boarded the bus and asked to see all passengers' identification, but it bothered her.

She then spent several days telling the officers she didn't have her ID with her and wasn't getting off the bus in the Federal Center anyway. Officers eventually told her she had to bring her ID or she couldn't ride the bus.

Finally, Davis refused on Sept. 26 to show her ID and was removed from the bus, handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car and taken to a police station in the Federal Center. She was later released after officers issued her petty offense tickets.

Zuieback said the ID checks are only one part of "many layers of security." She would not discuss the other parts.

"Looking at that ID, having that initial contact with an individual, does allow us to know that that person is who they say they are," she said.

Asked how officers know a person's ID is genuine, she said, "We have trained professionals doing that work."

• The Federal Protective Service says its policy of checking IDs of bus riders at the Denver Federal Center has not changed. Here are the RTD bus routes that enter the center on at least some runs (some routes vary with time of day):

3 Alameda Crosstown 5x Cold Springs Express 14 West Florida 100 Kipling Crosstown G Golden/Boulder

All pass through the Cold Springs Park-n-Ride at Fourth Avenue and Union Boulevard on the northeast corner of the Federal Center.

"Well put."

especially since it was put against me, right?

The large picture is what we need to focus on. Saying no is contrary to your argument that you disagree with ID checks. An ID check is not the large picture. It is a small component of a 'small picture' and according to you worthless. So, given that, why in the world would you say we should not focus on the 'large picture'? Makes no sense. What should we focus on? For the 57th time, I do not advocate giving up any freedoms. So, the terrorists win because a granny was asked to show ID. This is absolutely moronic.

especially since it was put against me, right?

Nothing personal. Some of us are just trying to wake people up before we all wind up imprisoned in our own country.

It is amazing to me that a single-celled organism will fight confinement or restriction of movement to the death, yet we have the highest lifeforms on this planet in the most freedom-loving country there is advocating the same thing.

I'm wide awake, my friend. Since you want to segregate the world into some of YOU and some of US, let me add that some of US are trying to wake people up to the fact that in fighting a war, compromises are necessary. It is not rational to think all things remain the same. We also will never acquiesce to losing one iota of our freedoms.

Don't know why, or what you have based your assumptions on. I understand the road to 'being imprisoned in our own country' starts with small steps, just like the left's campaign to take away all firearms starts with small restrictions here and there. The last thing I am worried about today is being imprisoned as you described. If it should ever get anywhere close to that I think we will all fight to the death, as has been done before, and we will prevail. The jump from granny getting arrested because she didn't show her ID to a totalitarian police state is specious. It just ain't there. I think it an extreme view. We keep an eye on it, like we do all things, that's all.

I think it an extreme view.

Well then, we'd better get a handle on it before the real kooks take over.

Secret ID Law to Get Hearing

especially since it was put against me, right?

Wrong.

Because it expressed my feelings on the matter perfectly.

FRegards,

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