Ruttenberg not done with Manassas Park

David Ruttenberg isn't finished with the City of Manassas Park.

He's appealing a U.S. District Court ruling which found that his Fourth Amendment rights were not violated during a 2004 Alcoholic Beverage Control inspection at Rack 'N Roll, Ruttenberg's pool hall at 8488-A Centreville Road in Manassas Park.

Ruttenberg sued the city two years after the inspection, saying that 38 officers from the Prince William-Manassas-Manassas Park Narcotics Task Force acted in a threatening manner during the 54-minute inspection.

Ruttenberg said that officers of the task force pointed handguns at him and one of his bartenders, and that another officer pointed a shotgun at one of his customers.

In April, Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia found in favor of Manassas Park, saying that video recordings from security cameras at the pool hall did not corroborate Ruttenberg's claims.

Among other things, Ruttenberg's filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which names Manassas Park Mayor Frank Jones, Manassas Park police Chief John Evans and a Manassas Park police detective identified only as "L," contends that the recordings do indeed show that police used excessive force and that Ellis was incorrect in his ruling.

An answering brief filed on behalf of Manassas Park by John D. Wilburn of McGuire Woods LLP, out of McLean, stated that the videos recorded on several Rack 'N Roll cameras showed that no Manassas Park police officer "ever engaged in any violent conduct, detained or ordered any patrons up against any walls, engaged in any dangerous or physically threatening behavior, injured anyone that night, or drew or pointed any weapons at anybody."

"Some of what he complains about we just disagree with and we don't see on the tape. I don't know how else we can say it other than what we've done in our pleadings," Wilburn said.

"One point that shouldn't be lost in all of this is that this was a joint task force that was involved with officers from a number of different agencies," Wilburn said.

Ruttenberg supplied the News & Messenger with a photo from his security cameras that he said shows a masked police officer pointing a gun in the pool hall during the investigation.

Ruttenberg's appeal further states that before the inspection police tried to "paint" the establishment as a "drug venue" by engineering drug deals at Rack 'N Roll, and that police used an informant to "import drug dealers" to Rack 'N Roll and then "fabricate" drug transactions at the pool hall.

"There was no drug dealing going on in that place. None," Ruttenberg said. "Our point is there wouldn't have been one drug deal if they hadn't created them."

Ruttenberg said that all the people arrested during the raid were confidential police informants, who were arrested for show.

"That raid can't have been reasonable if the people they arrested were working for the police," Ruttenberg said.

According to court documents, it is Ruttenberg's contention that police "knew" that the pool hall was not a "violent, crime-plagued" establishment since they had so many undercover officers in the place before the operation.

The brief for Manassas Park cited 41 police calls to Rack 'N Roll over the seven months prior to the investigation.

Ruttenberg said that many of those calls were indeed made from Rack 'N Roll, but they were made because of disturbances at a neighboring business.

At least 14 of the police calls attributed to Rack 'N Roll were made for the shopping center in general, Ruttenberg said.

Ruttenberg's brief contains statements from six people who were in the pool hall when the task force entered Rack 'N Roll to begin the inspection.

One witnesses stated in Ruttenberg's brief that the officers had "pistols pointed like they were going to shoot somebody."

Another stated "I knew if I said anything to piss these guys off, I risked getting shot."

Attorneys for the City of Manassas Park again referred to the security recordings, which they said showed that no Manassas Park police officers "brandished or pointed any weapons during the operation."

Wilburn said he's confident the city will win the appeal.

"Our view of the case is they brought this. It's been to the civil rights claim. It's been dismissed. It's on appeal to the Court of Appeals. We're very confident that we're going to win there," Wilburn said. "The factual underpinnings to his claim are just not accurate."

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.