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

After four long years and thousands of pages of documents filed, a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Klamath Falls and local leaders is set to go to trial.

On Monday, a jury in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Medford will hear the case of Cisneros, Faiers v. City of Klamath Falls, et al.

Dating back to February 2019, the civil rights lawsuit was filed by family owners and founders of El Palacio Restaurant and Cantina —Elizabeth and Antonio Cisneros and their son, Carlos Faiers.

Faiers purchased the business from his parents after their liquor license was revoked and the couple was banned from so much as entering their own establishment.

The family filed a complaint for civil rights violations and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the city and multiple officials, staff and the former chief of police, Dave Henslee, now serving as the chair of the Klamath County board of commissioners.

Also among the defendants are former city councilor Kendall Bell, former city manager Nathan Cherpeski and the municipality itself.

When asked for a statement regarding the upcoming trial, Henslee expressed relief.

“For several years, my family and I have lived with the burden of a frivolous lawsuit,” Henslee said. “I look forward to being vindicated and focusing my time and energy on serving the people of Klamath County.”

Elizabeth Cisneros and her family declined to comment on the upcoming trial on the basis that the court ordered all members of both parties not to discuss the case publicly.

The following information is taken from court documents and the U.S. District Court’s opinion issued in 2022.

‘Public nuisance’

El Palacio first opened its doors to the public in 2004 with a restaurant in one-half of the location and a bar in the adjacent room.

The business is located in an historic building in downtown Klamath Falls neighboring multiple other bars and restaurants.

In 2015, shortly after he arrived in Klamath Falls to fulfill the role of city police chief, Henslee visited the El Palacio bar.

According to a statement from Elizabeth Cisneros found in the case documents, Henslee came into the establishment the night of July 31, 2015, and instructed the owners to shut their bar down.

Elizabeth refused on the basis that the Klamath Falls Police Department did not have the authority to demand them to close.

“Chief Henslee told me that he had been watching our place for a while and that he did not like our security,” Elizabeth said in her declaration statement. “We decided to arrange a meeting to discuss the issues he was concerned about.”

Elizabeth said she was agreeable with all of the former chief’s recommendations and adhered to his instructions.

“We fired the security company we were then using at Chief Henslee’s suggestion and hired a new company,” Elizabeth’s statement reads. “And we increased the number of security personnel.”

Elizabeth said she and her husband also agreed to start shutting down their bar at 1:30 a.m. every night rather than at 2 a.m. to help reduce the number of intoxicated persons leaving establishments at the same time on Fridays and Saturdays and ensured their security team was contacting law enforcement whenever there was an incident on site.

“None of these things seemed enough for Chief Henslee,” she said in her statement.

Less than two weeks later, on Aug. 13, 2015, the Cisneros family received a letter from Henslee, the court opinion said.

“[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,” the letter read.

Henslee also warned them that if the pattern continued, the establishment could be declared a nuisance, which, according to city code, could close the business for up to a year.

Though Henslee did not follow up regarding the public nuisance warning, KFPD officers began walking through the El Palacio multiple times a night, according to the Cisneros.

“Officers began acting aggressively towards our patrons and security personnel,” Elizabeth wrote. “Many incidents that did not happen at El Palacio were incorrectly reported as happening at El Palacio — our security cameras documented many such reports.”

Then, a second letter came in May 2016.

According to the reports submitted to the courts, there had been 70-plus reports made about incidents at the establishment between January 2015 and May 2016.

In her statement, Elizabeth described two incidents wrongly attributed to the El Palacio, including a stabbing which she said occurred down the street and the death of a man who had been driving drunk who had only gotten dinner at their restaurant and who had left the establishment six hours prior to the crash.

Although the El Palacio is centrally located by multiple other bars, including the Pikey, Black Dog, 618, V.F.W. and the Basin Martini Bar, these 70 incidents were all attributed to the El Palacio.

The defendants claimed in a previous hearing that officers have no control over the location identified by members of the public who call in to report incidents.

But every one of the 70 reports was made by a KFPD officer.

The family plaintiffs proved as such with a statement from Executive Director of Klamath 911 Emergency Communications District Keith Endacott who explained in his deposition that when the “created” and “dispatched” times are the same on the Computer Assisted Dispatch, or “CAD”, report, this means the report came directly from an officer.

‘Pulled up like a weed’

Soon after receiving the second public nuisance letter, Antonio Cisneros and his son, Faiers, met with Henslee in May 2016.

The father and son recorded the exchange and submitted the conversation as evidence, to which the defense did not initially object but later attempted to have stricken from the record. The court denied this motion to strike.

On the recording, the court opinion said, Henslee says, “It’s not your bar that’s the problem, it’s the people and your culture.”

Henslee is also heard saying that the El Palacio needs to be “pulled up like a weed.”

After this meeting, Henslee contacted the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and suggested an investigation into El Palacio for a history of serious and persistent problems, or HSPP.

KFPD provided the 70 reports associated with the facility to the investigator.

The court’s deposition of OLCC Investigator Kent Oldham revealed that these 70 reports were the only reports provided by KFPD “on its own initiative.” No other reports had been provided as such.

The court opinion said that Oldham noted that both the Black Dog and V.F.W. had comparable issues to those at the El Palacio.

“Despite the history, El Palacio has been the only HSPP investigation Oldham has conducted in his 21 years with OLCC,” the court opinion reads.

Nonetheless, the investigation was ordered based on the KFPD-provided reports.

During the investigation, Henslee submitted a letter to the OLCC dated Aug. 22, 2016, providing an “unfavorable recommendation for liquor license renewal.” This is the first and only unfavorable licensing recommendation OLCC has received from KFPD.

After an administrative hearing in April 2017, the Cisneros’ liquor license was revoked.

In her statement Elizabeth said the blow to their business was crippling.

“We could serve food, but no alcoholic beverages,” she said in the document. “My husband and I were forbidden from having anything to do with the business or even entering it.”

Though their son, Faiers, purchased the business, the financial loss has been greater than the Cisneros could afford.

“The loss of our livelihood and what we worked so hard to build has been devastating,” Elizabeth said in her statement. “We have lost our home and other assets that we worked hard for.”

Liquor license

When the city received Faiers’ application for a liquor license, a public hearing was scheduled for the matter on Nov. 6, 2017.

Numerous community members spoke at the hearing, expressing concerns that the family was being targeted, potentially due to their race, as the El Palacio is the only Hispanic-owned establishment in the downtown area and the only business being recognized as problematic.

On Oct. 31, 2017, KFPD submitted a letter recommending that the city council deny Faiers a recommendation letter of approval to the OLCC.

Prior to the hearing, former city councilor Kendall Bell sent an email to Henslee asking for more information about the El Palacio. In her deposition, Bell admitted that this was an inordinate action before a public hearing.

With a 3-2 vote, city council approved the recommendation for Faiers’ liquor license with one restriction: no liquor served after 10 p.m.

BELL AND CHERPESKI

Two days later, on Nov. 8. 2017, Bell sent an email to Henslee, the court opinion said, in which she apologized for letting the former police chief down.

The court opinion said that in a subsequent email, Bell went on to ask Henslee what else could be done about the El Palacio.

Former city manager Nathan Cherpeski, also a defendant in the case, went on to draft a publicly posted document on the city’s website in which he attempted to address the city council’s vote as a means to “set the record straight” that police were not “unfairly targeting” based on race. Cherpeski also testified that this was an inordinate action.

The final piece of evidence referenced in the court’s opinion is a letter written by Bell which she sent to Faiers:

“You had three testimonials that stood out to me. One made the claim that the Police Department was being ‘racist’ in picking on your business. Being ‘racist’ would have meant that another establishment with the same long list of incidences was not being penalized. There are at least 15 other restaurants in the community that are run by Hispanics that are not being penalized because they are following the rules. Again, no racism can be claimed.”

Bell testified that she wrote the letter to address things she had left “unaddressed” during the public hearing.