Public Safety · Downtown Las Vegas
Federal judge bars Metro police from firing pepperballs at a 2025 downtown protester and faults the department's tactics
Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon issued a limited injunction Saturday protecting a woman arrested at a June 2025 downtown Las Vegas protest and criticized Metro's response, the Review-Journal reported.
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What happened
A federal judge has barred Las Vegas police from firing pepperballs at one protester, Kathleen Cavalaro, unless she is being assaultive or poses an immediate public safety threat, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon issued the limited injunction on Saturday.
The ruling also criticized the Metropolitan Police Department's protest tactics, according to the Review-Journal. In his order, Gordon wrote that "Metro does not appear to adequately recognize the wrongfulness of the officers' conduct."
What the judge described
How the arrest unfolded
Gordon's order laid out how officers treated Cavalaro, the Review-Journal reported. According to the judge, officers shot her in the back with a pepperball and fired dozens more at her feet while she was following their command to leave.
The judge wrote that officers then pursued her on the sidewalk as she kept walking away as ordered, zip-tied her hands behind her back and arrested her. Gordon said the arrest was made under Metro's policy of ending a protest after a dispersal order, regardless of location.
What the order covers
As the Review-Journal described it, the injunction is limited in scope. It addresses pepperball use against Cavalaro as an individual protester. It does not apply when she is being assaultive or poses an immediate threat to public safety.
Background: the June 2025 protest
Thousands gathered downtown
Cavalaro was one of thousands of people who gathered in downtown Las Vegas in June 2025, the Review-Journal reported. The crowd had come out to oppose the immigration enforcement tactics of President Donald Trump's administration.
Most cases were dropped
More than 100 protesters were arrested, according to the newspaper. The Las Vegas city attorney's office later decided not to prosecute 90 of them. Cavalaro's case was among those that were dropped.
Lawsuits against Metro
Since the protest, some of the people who were arrested have sued, the Review-Journal reported. One of them, Karlin Martinez, reached a $325,000 settlement with the department.
The newspaper also pointed to an earlier report about a woman suing Metro over its actions during a 2025 protest who asked a judge to issue an injunction over how Metro issues dispersal orders and uses pepperballs. The injunction Gordon granted Saturday, as the Review-Journal described it, addresses pepperball use against one protester.
What to watch next
- Other lawsuits brought by people arrested at the June 2025 downtown protest, which the Review-Journal said some have filed; the newspaper reported one settlement, for $325,000.
- The request, described in an earlier Review-Journal report, by a woman suing Metro over a 2025 protest for an injunction on how the department issues dispersal orders and uses pepperballs.
