A hand holds a judge’s gavel in a courtroom.

A lawsuit over alleged civil rights infractions committed by Klamath Falls city officials has been decided in favor of the defendants.

Elizabeth and Antonio Cisneros, and their son, Carlos Faiers, are the respective past and present owners of the El Palacio Restaurant and Lounge, a longtime downtown restaurant and bar located in an historic building on Main Street.

In 2019, the family filed a lawsuit against multiple former city officials and staff as well as the municipality itself, claiming certain city actions qualified as violations of their civil rights to equal protection under the law as defined by the 14th Amendment.

The Cisneros and Faiers filed the lawsuit in February 2019 with complaints dating back to 2015 shortly after Klamath County Commissioner Dave Henslee arrived in Klamath Falls to serve in his previous position as Klamath Falls Chief of Police.

Their allegations against the city, its officials and staff, started the night of July 31, 2015, when, according to the plaintiffs, the former police chief approached Elizabeth at El Palacio sometime around or after midnight.

The plaintiff’s claims are restated in U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken’s court opinion.

“Plaintiffs claim that on July 31, 2015, a KFPD officer entered El Palacio and told Elizabeth Cisneros to shut the bar down. Ms. Cisneros stated that the officer did not have any legal authority to shut the bar down and she refused to do so. The officer identified himself as the new Chief of KFPD, David Henslee.”

Over the course of two years that followed, the plaintiffs said they became a target of unfair policing by the city police department.

The court opinion refers back to Henslee’s declaration, in which he said the El Palacio “has been the location of a pattern of activity that has the potential to cause the subject property to be declared a ‘Public Nuisance’ as defined by City Code.”

Following the loss of their liquor license in 2017, the Cisneros sold the El Palacio to their son, Faiers.

After a public hearing regarding Faiers’ application for a liquor license before city council resulted in a large number of people presenting concerns about possible racial discrimination against the family, the city approved Faiers’ application on the condition that El Palacio ended their service hours at 10 p.m. each night.

In all, the federal trial ran from Monday, Jan. 22 through Friday, Jan. 29.

A long list of witnesses were examined and cross-examined by both parties’ legal representatives, including members of the security team at El Palacio, former employees of the establishment and regular customers.

The week-long trial was decided by a seven-person jury last Friday afternoon, resulting in a unanimous verdict in favor of the city defendants.

The city published a civic alert following the outcome of the trial, announcing the results.