Animal-rights group wins county suit

A federal judge has ruled that Salt Lake County violated the free-speech rights of a group of animal-rights protesters after a sheriff's deputy dispersed the group on two occasions as it handed out literature in downtown Salt Lake City last year.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart ruled Wednesday that Salt Lake County cannot impose a 30-day prior protest permit application on small spontaneous groups of protesters on the plaza at Abravanel Hall.

Aaron Lee and Peter Tucker, members of the Utah Animal Rights Coalition, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit after they say they were forced off public property near the entrance of Abravanel Hall, which is owned by the county, and again on a nearby sidewalk on two separate occasions in December of last year.

Lee and Tucker sought to display a video and hand out leaflets to people leaving the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert on Dec. 7. About six UARC members also protested on Dec. 10.

Their attorney, Brian Barnard, said both times a sheriff's deputy told the group they could not demonstrate within one block of the hall because the group had not applied for a protest permit 30 days previously. Barnard said at the time that Salt Lake County did not have an exception in its permit requirement for small groups of protesters.

In the ruling, Stewart noted the two were entitled to collect damages from the county.

Since the suit, Salt Lake County has amended its policy to allow up to four people to demonstrate on the Abravanel Hall plaza without a permit.