LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A federal judge is now restricting how Las Vegas Metropolitan police can use pepperballs against one woman arrested during the June 2025 anti-ICE protest, citing what he called repeated, documented incidents of excessive force and warning the conduct is likely to continue.
WATCH: 13 Investigates' Darcy Spears has the latest details
Metro has paid out nearly half a million dollars to settle lawsuits from protesters who say they were mistreated by police during the June 2025 ICE protest. Now, a federal judge has granted protection to one protester whose lawsuit is still pending. The order is narrow, applying only to one woman, but her attorneys hope it will have a broader impact on protesters' rights.
Body camera video shows officers firing dozens of pepperballs at protester Kathleen Cavalaro as she walks away, following police commands to leave. She's shot in the back, pursued down the sidewalk, taken to the ground, zip-tied and arrested. She was never charged with a crime.
LVMPD had argued the shot to her back was "unintentional." The judge disagreed after watching the video, finding the shot allegedly fired by then-Deputy Chief, now Assistant Sheriff Bryan Peterson, was "intentional, retaliatory and excessive."
"Turns out it's quite intimidating to be put in jail for 24 hours for exercising your rights," Cavalaro said. "And I'm still recovering from that."
Cavalaro told the court she's afraid to attend future protests, saying she is "still full of anxiety and fear of being falsely arrested again, being shot with pepperballs or worse."
Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon found that fear is chilling her First Amendment rights. He pointed to other uses of force that night.
The order says officers fired pepperballs at the feet of a non-threatening photographer who was kneeling and photographing the police skirmish line, then shot him in the back as he retreated. Another officer fired pepperballs toward retreating protesters across an intersection.
"It's just wrong," Cavalaro said. "People should not be trying to intimidate others into being quiet, into not exercising their rights."
Metro has since revised its policies governing protests and pepperball use. But the judge found that wasn't enough, writing the department "does not appear to adequately recognize the wrongfulness of the officers' conduct" and that the "conduct is likely to continue."
So the court granted a limited preliminary injunction. LVMPD and its officers are now ordered not to use pepperballs against Cavalaro unless she engages in assaultive conduct or presents an immediate threat to public safety.
The judge acknowledged that may sound like something police should already be doing.
"I recognize that this language orders Metro to simply comply with its own policies. Nevertheless, that is appropriate given that Metro appears to have violated both its own policies and clearly established law," Gordon wrote.
This injunction does not end Cavalaro's case against Metro. Her lawsuit is still ongoing, and the order applies while that case moves forward.
