Seventeen students and two alumni have filed a federal lawsuit against UC Davis over the arrests and point-blank dousing with pepper spray of Occupy protesters.

They are accusing the university and its Police Department of failing to properly train and supervise its officers, resulting in the use of “unacceptable and excessive force” that violated the protesters’ state and federal rights, including their First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.

“Using military-grade pepper spray and police violence against nonviolent student protesters violates the constitution, and it’s just wrong,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, who is among those representing the protesters, in a news release.

“When the cost of speech is a shot of blinding, burning pepper spray in the face, speech is not free.”

Other defendants include: Chancellor Linda Katehi, Provost Ralph Hexter, Vice Chancellors John Meyer and Fred Wood, UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza, Lt. John Pike and all of the other unnamed officers on the scene.

The protesters are seeking a jury trial and an injunction barring a similar police response to nonviolent protests, as well as compensatory and punitive damages

About 35 officers wearing helmets and batons cleared a small, day-old Occupy UC Davis encampment from the Quad on Nov. 18.

Nine students and one alumnus were arrested — charges were never filed — and about a dozen protesters, who sat down and locked arms in the path of police, were treated for the effects of the pepper spray. The incident drew worldwide attention after YouTube videos went viral.

Spicuzza, Pike and a second unnamed officer are on administrative leave while several inquiries into what happened — including a criminal investigation — are completed.

UCD spokesperson Barry Schiller said in a statement that attorneys for both sides have been in talks.

“We hope those conversations continue. In the meantime, we’ve not seen the lawsuit and therefore aren’t in a position to comment on details,” Schiller said.

Some of the allegations in the complaint are being aired for the first time, including that:

* Three officers pulled down and zip-tied the wrists of Charles Parker, an international relations major and veteran, aggravating a combat injury. The suit alleges Parker asked for medical assistance but was denied.

* Jailers were not equipped to cut zip ties, some of which were put on so tightly they restricted blood flow.

* That Pike was “not qualified for the position he held and (that UCD) failed to terminate him when his lack of qualifications became known” because of previous incidents in which people complained he had violated their rights, according to Mark Merin, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs say the incident has had a “chilling effect” on the willingness of students to protest. One of them, mechanical engineering major David Buscho, said in the news release that his first demonstration as a protester ended with him being hit in the face with pepper spray and struggling to breathe.

“Many of my friends can barely make ends meet and then another tuition hike was proposed,” he said. “We had no idea there would be police in riot gear or that we would be pepper-sprayed because we were making our voices heard.”

Middle East/South Asia studies major Fatima Sbeih, another plaintiff, took part in the demonstration after attending afternoon prayer. She was able to help care for others who, like her, had been pepper-sprayed.

“The university needs to respect students’ rights to make our voices heard, especially when we’re protesting university policies that impact our studies,” Sbeih said in the news release.

In addition to Merin — a Sacramento attorney who is perhaps best known locally for representing the defense in West Sacramento’s long-running Broderick Boys street gang injunction case — and a team of ACLU staff attorneys, the students also are represented by Oakland attorney Meredith Wallis, a UCD Law School graduate.

The protesters have said they were objecting to tuition increases, what they see as the privatization of the university, and the use of batons by police a few days earlier at UC Berkeley, as well as the Occupy’s movements broader complaints about the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a relative few.

UCD officials said they chose to clear the encampment because of potential health and safety concerns and because it violated a campus prohibition against camping.

For more information, visit http://www.aclunc.org/.

— Reach Cory Golden at [email protected] Follow him at http://twitter.com/cory_golden

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David Buscho, a mechanical engineering major at UC Davis, has his eyes washed out by students after he was pepper-sprayed by UCD police during a nonviolent protest on Nov. 18 on the campus Quad. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise file photo

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