An attorney filed another lawsuit Friday claiming Southern Nevada police departments have been violating the rights of a motorcyclist by improperly enforcing the state’s helmet law.
Attorney Travis Barrick filed suit in federal court, three months after a similar suit was thrown out by a federal judge.
In the first suit, filed in September, Barrick sued on behalf of a dozen motorcyclists and named as defendants Clark County and cities within the county: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City.
That suit focused on riders who believe they’re in compliance with the helmet law when wearing headgear such as ''skull caps,'' crown-like novelty helmets or ceramic discs measuring 3 or 4 inches and equipped with a chin strap.
As a proposed class action, the suit would have represented more than 40,000 motorcycle riders in the county.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro dismissed the suit, saying it was so vague the defendant government agencies couldn’t be expected to defend it.
Barrick, in his new suit Friday, is trying a new strategy in which he’s suing on behalf of just one motorcyclist, David Roy Stilwell.
And instead of suing government agencies, the defendants this time are three police officers in Boulder City, North Las Vegas and Las Vegas.
The suit says Stilwell had been cited by the officers at various times in 2010 and claims his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure was violated because the officers lacked probable cause to stop him.
His rights also were violated because the officers issued citations without any knowledge of the ''CFR'' standard for protective headgear, the suit said.
The CFR standard, from the Code of Federal Regulations, is issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is the only standard that may be enforced in Nevada, the suit says.
One of the citations attached to the suit says Stilwell was cited for wearing a non-Department of Transportation approved helmet that only covered the top of his head.
The suit says the officers ''failed to enforce the CFR standard and, instead, made purely subjective determinations based upon complete ignorance of the CFR standard.''
Nevertheless, the suit acknowledges, Stilwell was convicted of helmet violations in two of the three cases. He was acquitted in the third.
In the two cases he was convicted of, from Boulder City and North Las Vegas, Stilwell appealed but both cities then dropped the charges, the suit says.
The officers haven’t yet responded to the lawsuit.
Police typically follow guidelines in a U.S. Transportation Department brochure called "How to Identify Unsafe Motorcycle Helmets."
The brochure says helmets should weigh about three pounds and meet standards for thickness of the inner liner. It says they should have a sturdy chin strap and appropriate labeling showing they meet federal standards. Unsafe "novelty helmets" typically don’t have the preferred full-face design, the brochure says.