File Suit Against Police : Beauty Pageant Foes Gird for Battle Again

A week before the Miss California beauty contest, protesters from the Myth California counter-pageant filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court alleging that San Diego police violated their constitutional rights in 1986.

In the suit, protesters Ann Simonton, Dee Heckman and Diane Germain claim they were denied their free speech rights, were falsely arrested on charges of littering, and were subjected to the “fear and humiliation” of body searches at the County Jail at Las Colinas.

The lawsuit seeks $300,000 in damages and a permanent injunction against police to assure that “all future peaceful and lawful protests . . . will be handled lawfully.”

About an hour before the start of last year’s contest, police arrested 11 people who had gathered to protest the pageant, which they contend is racist and makes sex objects of young women. Charges were never filed against 10, and only one had to go to court--for dropping a vial of blood, the protesters said.

The three who sued the City of San Diego, the Police Department and Police Chief Bill Kolender were arrested for “dropping a rose, a cigarette and cornflakes,” according to Germain, who spoke at a press conference held to discuss the suit.

“The Police Department arrested these people because they were embarrassing the city,” said Judith DiGennaro, an attorney for the protesters. “ . . . If people can be arrested for tossing some cornflakes in the air, every person who feeds a pigeon or a sea gull or a squirrel is a candidate for incarceration.”

Police Capt. Ken Moller said in a telephone interview that officers “don’t normally pick up anybody” for littering. But he said the protesters already had told the police they wanted to be arrested.

Simonton and the others were outraged that they were whisked off to jail on such slight charges. Asked if police may have misunderstood what they planned, Simonton said: “Absolutely not. I was the leader. They wanted me out of there.”

She and the others were arrested 20 minutes after they arrived, but before their main demonstration, she said. Simonton said they are suing now “to let (the police) know right now that we’re serious. We’ll sue again if our rights are being infringed again.”

Simonton and others will protest this year’s pageant finale next Monday.

Miss California Pageant officials are concerned about the protests, said spokeswoman Rowena Smith.

“We know that they are going to be there,” she said. “But the police have stated that things are going to be under control outside. We’re going to be inside, and there will not be any harassment of pageantgoers.”

Germain said she is concerned that the pageant is encouraging “the younger and younger image of women portrayed as the ideal sex object. We’d like to see the standard of beauty to be changed. We’d like the pageant to express women’s diversity--older women, fat women, Asian women and black women.”

The Myth California protesters will present the film, “Miss or Myth,” a documentary about beauty pageants, at 11 a.m. today at the Ken Cinema.