Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- September 27, 2023
- Targets
- Las Vegas Review-Journal
A portion of the lawsuit filed by a Nevada police union against the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sept. 27, 2023, which sought an injunction requiring the newspaper to take down published footage from inside the Henderson Detention Center.
Police union settles suit against Las Vegas paper
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reached a settlement agreement on May 2, 2025, with a Nevada police union in the union’s suit over the paper’s use of footage from inside a detention center. Under the terms of the agreement, the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers paid a portion of the paper’s attorneys fees and agreed to dismiss the suit, the Review-Journal’s attorney confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The police union sued the outlet in 2023 over an article that included photographs and video footage of officers’ interactions with inmates at Henderson Detention Center outside of Las Vegas. But the trial court rejected the union’s request for an injunction forcing the Review-Journal to unpublish the photos and footage or obscure the officers’ faces.
The Review-Journal then asked the court to dismiss the suit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation or SLAPP, intended to chill the paper’s speech. The trial court ruled that Nevada’s anti-SLAPP statutes didn’t apply to the type of case the union had filed, but the state’s Supreme Court disagreed, sending the outlet’s motion to dismiss back to the trial court to reevaluate in February 2025.
In May, the Review-Journal reported that the parties had settled.
Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook reiterated the paper’s right to publish the uncensored footage. “Just as we have the freedom to report from source-provided government documents that agencies would have redacted or never provided at all, we have the freedom to publish video images that were not obtained through Henderson’s preferred channels,” he said.
“Outside parties do not dictate our news coverage,” he added.
The union’s executive director, Andrew Regenbaum, said that the suit had been intended to protect the officers and that it was “never our intent” to violate the paper’s constitutional rights.
“The uncertainty of continuing the litigation and the cost of essentially starting over obviously was influential towards getting this thing settled,” he said.
The Review-Journal’s Ben Lipman, senior vice president for legal and employment affairs, told the paper, “It’s a shame we had to spend all this time, effort and money fighting what we believed to be a baseless case.”
Court says suit against Las Vegas Review-Journal could be retaliatory
The Nevada Supreme Court reversed a trial court’s order on Feb. 26, 2025, ruling that a lawsuit by a Nevada police union against the Las Vegas Review-Journal could be a strategic lawsuit against public participation, baseless litigation targeting the newspaper’s free speech.
The trial court had ruled in 2023 that Nevada’s anti-SLAPP statutes didn’t apply to the type of case the union had filed. The state’s Supreme Court disagreed, sending the Review-Journal’s motion to dismiss the suit back to the trial court to reevaluate.
The Review-Journal published an article in September 2023 about corrections officers at Henderson Detention Center outside of Las Vegas that included photographs and video footage of the officers’ interactions with inmates.
Two days later, the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers, which represents Henderson officers, sent a letter to the Review-Journal and Henderson city officials demanding that the outlet blur officers’ faces in the photos and video, and calling on the city to investigate the source of the footage.
The Review-Journal refused and the union then sued the outlet, asking the court to order it to unpublish or censor the footage and photos. After the court rejected the union’s request for an injunction, the Review-Journal asked the court to dismiss the suit as a SLAPP.
In December, the district court denied the request. The Review-Journal appealed the denial.
In its February 2025 order, the state’s Supreme Court “ruled that any lawsuit aimed at punishing a person for speaking out on public matters is covered by the law,” the Review-Journal’s attorney Benjamin Lipman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
A Nevada police union filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sept. 27, 2023, seeking an injunction requiring the newspaper to unpublish or censor footage and photos from inside the Henderson Detention Center, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The Review-Journal published a story on Sept. 20 about millions of dollars paid in overtime and mistakes made by overworked corrections officers. Two days later, the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers — a union representing Henderson officers, among others — sent a letter to the Review-Journal and Henderson city officials demanding that pictures and video obtained and published by the newspaper be edited to blur the officers’ faces, according to court filings. The union also called on the city to investigate the source of the leaked footage.
“Frankly, it is quite distressing that both the newspaper and City have not already taken the steps outlined above,” NAPSO Executive Director Andrew Regenbaum wrote. “The officers who protect Henderson, indeed all peace officers throughout Nevada, should not have to worry that their safety and privacy would wantonly be jeopardized by the dissemination and cavalier use of their personal identities for ‘sensational’ motives.”
The newspaper declined to alter or replace its published work, defending its reporting as being in the public interest. NAPSO filed its lawsuit a few days later, asserting that the Review-Journal broke a state law dictating that images of officers in the possession of a law enforcement agency are confidential and “may be released” if the officer authorizes it or if the officer has been arrested.
Benjamin Lipman, the newspaper’s chief legal officer, told the outlet that the lawsuit is baseless. “The statute that the union is suing under does not put any restrictions on the public, and if it were to apply to the public, it would violate the protections provided by the First Amendment,” Lipman said.
On Oct. 2, District Judge Mark Denton ruled against issuing a temporary restraining order, finding that the union had not proven that its members face irreparable harm or injury.
Two weeks later, Denton denied NAPSO’s request for an injunction that would have required the Review-Journal to take down or alter its video or photos. Executive Editor Glenn Cook commended the Oct. 16 decision in a statement to the newspaper, saying, “Today’s ruling was affirmation that press freedoms are enshrined in the First Amendment for an important reason: The government and public employees can’t tell the media what to publish and not publish.”
After joining NAPSO as a plaintiff in early October, the city of Henderson settled its claims against the Review-Journal on Dec. 13, agreeing to pay the newspaper $20,000 in legal fees.
On Dec. 21, Denton denied the newspaper’s motion to dismiss the case under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, which argued that the case was filed in an attempt to chill the Review-Journal’s First Amendment rights.
William Schuller, an attorney representing the union, told the Tracker that they are no longer seeking an injunction and are only pursuing a decision from the court on whether the law enforcement confidentiality statute applies to third parties, such as the Review-Journal.
“Either the media has an absolute right to publish anything it wants at any time in any manner with no restraints or it doesn’t,” Schuller said. “And our position, obviously, is that it doesn’t.”
The Review-Journal appealed Denton’s ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court on Feb. 8, 2024. Attorney Lipman told the Tracker that if upheld, Denton’s decision could create a large loophole in the state’s anti-SLAPP law, but he is hopeful that the Supreme Court will reverse the denial.
“I think our arguments are very strong and with that I have high hopes that we will prevail,” Lipman said. “It’s a shame that all of this time and money is being wasted on a case that is simply seeking to shut down the ability of the press and the public to discuss issues of public concern.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].