A federal judge in Las Vegas has ordered the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department not to fire pepperballs at one specific protester unless she becomes assaultive or presents an immediate threat to public safety, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Monday afternoon.
What the judge ordered
Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon issued the limited injunction on Saturday, Oct. 31, in a case brought by protester Kathleen Cavalaro against Metro. The order applies to her individually; it is not a department-wide ban on pepperballs.
In his ruling, Gordon was critical of how officers handled the protest. He wrote that officers hit Cavalaro in the back with a pepperball while she was complying with an order to leave, followed her down the sidewalk as she kept walking away, zip-tied her and arrested her under Metro’s practice of ending a protest after a dispersal order regardless of where people are. He also wrote that “Metro does not appear to adequately recognize the wrongfulness of the officers’ conduct.”
Background
Cavalaro was among thousands of people who rallied in downtown Las Vegas in June 2025 against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. More than 100 people were arrested at those protests, and the Las Vegas city attorney’s office later chose not to prosecute 90 of them, including Cavalaro, according to the Review-Journal.
Several of those arrested have since filed lawsuits. One woman reached a $325,000 settlement with the department, the newspaper reported. The Review-Journal described the injunction story as developing, and Metro’s response had not been reported as of this posting.
What it means for locals and visitors
For now, the ruling directly covers one person, but it puts a federal judge’s criticism of Metro’s dispersal policy on the record while related civil cases move forward. Anyone planning to attend a demonstration downtown should follow any dispersal orders, know the closest exit route and keep an eye on court updates as these lawsuits continue.