The city of Nome filed a motion on Friday, January 21, 2022, in U.S. District Court to dismiss an equal protection lawsuit.
The legal news service Law 360 reports (January 24, 2022) that the city is arguing that crime victims have no constitutional right to a police investigation – and cites a 1972 Supreme Court decision (Linda R.S. v Richard D).
(Editor's note: The plaintiff’s name is publicly available via court documents. As a standard policy, KNBA does not name sexual assault survivors without their permission.)
In 2017, the city’s 911 operator who is Iñupiaq reported a sexual assault to police department superiors.
In February 2020, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Nome on behalf of the 911 operator.
They’re alleging a pattern of racial bias in the police department’s failure to investigate sexual assaults reported by Native women – including her own.
The complaint said that the case was one example of a pattern of discrimination against Alaska Native women – and their constitutional rights to equal protection were violated.
In summer 2021, thecourt compelled Nome to turn over discovery in the case – including a former police chief’s assessment of case suspensions and insufficient resources to continue cold-case investigations. But the city hasn’t done that.
TheACLUis calling for sanctions against the city for violating that court order. The organization says those audits and emails demonstrate the discrimination against Alaska Native women in sexual assault cases.