When Doing Right Results in Being Wronged: The Blazing Saddle Arrests 

Editor’s Note: Protests held in the wake of George Floyd’s murder changed the world. This must-read series about the protests in Des Moines is researched and written by members of Just Voices, which is part of a movement to end racial profiling by the police. The series appears exclusively in Black Iowa News. (The views and opinions expressed in this series are solely the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Black Iowa News.)

---

By Karen Downing, Just Voices

Five hours into a peaceful protest, the June temperatures were still warm as evening darkness fell. Two hundred people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol in Des Moines.  Songs and chants carried into the night sky. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” The street lights glowed in the distance, lining Locust Street and Grand Avenue, the light pointing toward downtown. Police with riot gear – gas masks, helmets and shields – descended upon the gathering, and protesters didn’t fight back or hurl insults. Instead, they asked the police to take off their tactical gear and join them. 

On June 1, 2020, Des Moines saw the fourth night of protests in response to the police brutality connected to George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Thousands of people took to the streets and parks across the country to speak out against Floyd’s murder by ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes in the course of an arrest. 

In Des Moines, police ordered protesters to disperse five times before using flash bands and tear gas on the crowd of 200 at the Capitol. SWAT team officers stood in line as clouds of tear gas filled the night air. A countywide curfew was in effect, and the incident at the Capitol occurred around midnight, three hours after the curfew.  

The event, according to eyewitness accounts, security footage, a review of court documents and media reports, started in the evening on Monday with a peaceful “Together We Can Make A Change: A Call To Action” rally that was attended by at least 1,000 people. By evening’s end, chaos ensued. Arrests were made, and protesters would feel further resentment and mistrust toward the police. A peaceful protest devolved into a war scene with weapons and tear gas to combat raised fists and raised voices. The idea of “together we can make a change” felt like an empty idea. 

A close look at three participants

Three men – Matthew Raper, Thuan Luong and Logan Villhauer – returning from giving first aid to the protesters were arrested outside The Blazing Saddle bar in Des Moines’ East Village. Four men who had been inside the bar went outside when they noticed the police and protesters approaching along East 5th Street and Locust Avenue. They witnessed the arrests. 

Raper, Luong and Villhauer stopped to help a protester who had been sprayed with a chemical irritant. As they walked back to the bar, security footage showed a white pickup truck arriving on the scene. Several officers in riot gear exited the vehicle and ordered the men to the pavement. Raper, Luong and Villhauer stuck up their hands and dropped to the ground without resisting arrest.  

Raper, Long and Villhauer were charged with Failure to Disperse, a misdemeanor. 

These men, who had been at the protest to provide first aid, now faced criminal charges. The police believed the men heard the order to disperse and disobeyed. The men believed they were, in fact, leaving the scene in a peaceful way, doing just what the officers had asked of them. 

Villhauer said, “I was terrified for not just myself. If you look at the video, there’s a number of people that ran. We were the only ones that got on the ground. We were complying, but when you’re in a situation when you have guns pointed at you, and you are told to disperse, and that is immediately followed up with no more than five, 10 seconds, with ‘Get on the ground,’ which order are you supposed to follow?”  

The video footage presents surreal moments of a swarm of SWAT team officers descending upon three men in front of the bar, officers in full armor with guns drawn.  

The men comply with the requests of the officers, from dropping to the ground to sitting on the bench outside the bar when handcuffed. What isn’t clear is what the men did wrong, other than being outside a bar on the night of a protest gone wrong. 

A closer look at The Blazing Saddle 

The Blazing Saddle, located at 416 E. 5th Street in Des Moines, is the oldest gay bar in Des Moines, opening in 1983 in the historic East Village that had yet to see much in the way of urban renewal. The motto of The Blazing Saddle is “We accept everyone as long as they accept and respect us.” A “Black Lives Matter” sign occupies space in the front window. 

To live up to this motto, the bar is open 365 days a year so the LGBTQ community has a place to go. The Blazing Saddle strives to make the community safe and healthy by working with the Polk County Health Department and The Project of Primary Health Care by offering Free HIV & STI testing regularly, along with Mpox vaccinations and COVID vaccinations.  

Due to legislation and current shifts in culture and politics, The Blazing Saddle is busier than ever as people in the LGBTQ community look for safe spaces to be in community with others. Security has been increased at the bar to protect the patrons. 

The Blazing Saddle: June 1, 2020

On June 1, 2020, the staff at The Blazing Saddle decided to offer medical assistance to anyone harmed on the fourth night of the Black Lives Matter protests. The bar owner said, “Three of our people were prepared with a backpack full of first aid supplies and went outside in case anyone would need assistance, post-protest. We also had bottles of water and towels available for use if needed,” they added, noting that protesters trickled down Locust and East 5th streets as police trailed behind in unmarked pick-up trucks. 

In the aftermath of the Capitol protests, the police arrived at the bar and ordered everyone out at gunpoint. When searching the establishment, the police found one showgirl in the basement.  She was greeted with the glare of a flashlight and a pointed gun. The officer who found her took her outside and frisked her while her hands were raised, Smith said.

“I understand that times are different right now and that emotions are running pretty high, and I get that whole thing,” Bryan Smith, co-owner of The Blazing Saddle, told WeAreIowa, WOI-TV. “But nobody asked who we were, nobody asked for any ID for anything like that.”

The police – rifles drawn – entered an establishment that according to Smith had a really good relationship with the department. Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek told the television station that the action used that night was frightening, however, it was done with protecting the bar in mind. “I think given what we’ve seen around the nation with business owners being beaten and killed, businesses being looted, we had an obligation to go in there and make sure that everything was OK there at the Saddle,” Parizek said. “It was truly in the best interest of the businesses in the village.” 

Smith was just happy that no one was injured that night. “And luckily nobody was hurt like you’ve seen in other places. So, they weren’t that rough, but it was an eye-opener,” he said.  

But three Saddle patrons were arrested by a SWAT team of at least 10 officers.  

The court document version 

In contrast to the bar security video, the court documents describe bar employees Luong and Raper as being in the vicinity of a riot and of unlawful assembly. Documents also say Villhauer, Luong and Raper were members of a group of “well over three people.”  

Prosecutors describe the group as “assaultive,” “intimidating people” and destroying property. Court documents say of the men, “The destruction was open, extensive and obvious, yet the defendants willfully remained among the group of persons responsible for this conduct.”  Of Villhauer, court documents say, “Defendant was within hearing distance of the commands to disperse and failed to leave.” 

What the police said

In a Register story, Parizek said officers felt at the time of the arrest of Luong, Villhauer and Raper that the three men were purposefully violating the 9 p.m. curfew.  

“We don’t nit-pick tiny violations of ordinances under regular circumstances, but this is something we had never seen before. In order to get this back on track, we all have to do our part,” said Parizek told the Des Moines Register.

“After speaking with the management at The Blazing Saddle, it sounds like we could have done a better job communicating in the moment. Fortunately, our relationship with one of the longest-serving businesses in the East Village had been nurtured long before Monday night, and we can have those frank discussions with one another,” he said, in the Register story.

Polk County Attorney Review

Jeff Noble, bureau chief of the Intake Division at the Polk County Attorney’s Office, reviewed the arrest of the three defendants charged with Failure to Disperse who made a jury demand.  

In emails from Noble, he notes that there is “scant” information surrounding the arrest of Roper, Villhauer and Luong. He notes that The Des Moines Register asked for a request to review the charges and that the security camera footage taken outside The Blazing Saddle bar had been provided. 

Additionally, in emails written to Sgt. House, Noble concedes that the officers listed in the report as arresting officers not only didn’t have any actual contact with the three men charged, and some of the listed officers weren’t even at the scene.

Equally troubling was the fact that generic language was used in the affidavits for these cases, language that had been drafted to apply to the Court Avenue arrests the night before. Noble acknowledges in an email to Sgt. House that “We have a bit of egg on our face with regard to charges since the affidavit portion of the complaint appears to be inaccurate for these arrests.” 

The police response to the review 

Sgt. House, in an email to Noble reviewed by Just Voices, writes: “There were some issues with the charging process,” and he goes on to detail the police version of the arrest: 

“Yes, those were my guys outside The Blazing Saddle. We had just assisted in pushing the rioters off the Capitol grounds and they went west down Locust. We were attempting to parallel them on Grand and turned north on E6th. As we did so, my driver, Ofc. Escobar, looked over at a group moving quickly on the west sidewalk northbound. He shouted that they had Molotov cocktails and I told him to stop. Running around the truck, I pointed my rifle at them and ordered them on the ground. Three of them ran into The Blazing Saddle, and I ordered my guys after them. 

We secured the three outside, and they admitted coming from the protests. They did have bottles, but one of the offenders said one was milk of magnesia and one was sodium bicarbonate. They had them in aftermarket bottles, and I could see how Escobar took them for something to be thrown. They admitted to being part of the protests, so I told Sgt. Chapman and Officer Cawthorn who weren’t part of my group that they should be charged with failure to disperse. I then left with my guys to complete the assignment.” 

In an email reviewed by Just Voices, House stated ordinarily he wouldn’t care about dropping the charge, but he was concerned that if that happened, the three men would file a lawsuit. House said, “These guys are constantly trying to stir media attention now in LGBTQ media.” But he didn’t provide any examples that showed media coverage of issues with the LGBTQ community and the police.  

House concluded his email to Noble with the comment, “…realizing this whole situation is a mess.” 

Polk County Attorney Review, Part Two

Brad Kinkade from the Polk County Attorney’s office then picked up the review, and he told House in an email, “I’ve had some conversations with the D attorney who is hell-bent on dismissal. Nothing will be good enough absent a full apology. I’ve told him it’s my intention to continue with the case.” 

Civil rights lawsuit and case outcome

Raper and Luong filed a civil rights lawsuit against Garth House, Jackson Bruckner and Kaleb Schultz alleging the officers violated their rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution by arresting them without probable cause.  

“I don’t feel safe here anymore” Matthew Raper’s experience 

Raper spent about 12 hours in jail, but that was after he and others were held in a parking lot where pictures were taken of all those who had been arrested, pictures that were separate from the mugshots taken later. When he went to the Polk County jail, he was placed in a holding tank and not moved to a cell until the final hours of his arrest. “I wasn’t able to call anyone until much later when we were moved into a cell. The phone in the holding tank wasn’t working, so no one knew where I was beyond the Saddle employees who saw us getting arrested. Having never been to jail before, it was a weird experience.” 

Someone from The Blazing Saddle posted bail, but Raper, Villhauer and Luang were not allowed to leave for more than seven hours after being bailed out. Raper said, “Being in the jail and having unclear documentation on when we were going to be released was a scary situation to be in. That was more alarming than having automatic weapons pointed at us during the arrest.” 

Even though the charges against the men were dismissed, Raper said he felt permanently unsettled about the experience. “As a queer person, I have always been leery of the police. But now in Iowa, it’s even worse. Law enforcement is not being held accountable.” 

Raper now lives in California, and he notes that he no longer feels safe in Iowa. “Lots of people I know in the gay community have left. Iowa is not getting better. It’s hard to feel safe In Iowa in general, but moving has been hard because all of my friends and family are still back home. It doesn’t feel the same when I come home; I watch over my shoulder when I come back,” he said.   

Even though it’s been almost three years since Raper was arrested and jailed, he said he still suffers from intense anxiety and PTSD.  

”I am working on this with a therapist and psychiatrist. I am working on not freaking out in public if I see the police interacting with people in an inappropriate way. Because of the color of my skin, this experience could have been a lot different,” he said. “I know I have privilege, but I will carry this with me for a long time. I am here in it, I exist in it.” 

“I have no faith in America anymore” Logan Villhauer’s experience

Villhauer, Raper and Luong didn’t attend the protests. When the police arrived, the three men were outside the Saddle attempting to help those who had been at the protest. They complied with the police. “We were told to get on the ground after being circled by 12 officers with guns. We didn’t resist. We didn’t even really talk. We did nothing wrong.” 

Like Raper, Villhauer emphasized how little information the men were given regarding their arrests. “The police questioned us in an outdoor fenced-in area, took our pictures and held us there without explaining the charges. We didn’t know where we were. I interacted with about three officers and begged them to loosen my cuffs because my circulation was being cut off, but they ignored me.” 

“I was not allowed to self-bond myself out, even though I had the money. I needed to take my HIV medication. I asked them hourly about this. When another person in the cell heard me ask for my medication, he started screaming that I would give everyone AIDS. They removed him. I was laughed at by the correction officers when I made the requests for my medication,” he said. ” I was lied to as they told me they were going to bring a nurse, then they laughed at me when a nurse didn’t come.” 

Villhauer notes that he has always been someone at the forefront of social justice through his involvement in the Queer community. As someone on the spectrum, he said he has a clear sense of morality and justice, but the way their case was handled, from the arrest to the dismissal of their lawsuit against the arresting officers, has contributed to his mental health decline. 

“I can be doing nothing, and violence can be used against me. Before this incident, I understood things on an intellectual and moral level, but to have violence be used against people? That showed me the police lie. I will never trust them,” he said.  

Villhauer did leave the state after this incident, but he returned as moving away from his support system was hard. But he said he plans to move again as this is not the same state where he grew up. “I have no faith in the American government. I have no faith in Americans as a people. I am so afraid of going out and interacting in the community in any capacity. I fear that someone will come in and kill us all. I am honestly scared to leave my apartment some days,” he said.  

Despite playing by every single rule put in front of him for success – college, employment – Villhauer says he hasn’t been able to achieve it.

“I am a resilient person. I have had to be since I had been masked for many years,” he said. “But the other side of this resilience is exhaustion.” 

Just Voices Review: Why this case matters

The Blazing Saddle is a gay bar, and Luong, Raper and Villhauer are gay men. Villhauer believes the struggles of LGBTQ communities for civil rights mirror the struggles of the Black community. Marginalized minorities – like gay men and people of color – stick together, according to Smith, the co-owner of the Saddle.  The three men were trying to help people and stay out of trouble, yet they were arrested anyway.  

The Blazing Saddle serves as the center of their community for the three men, and they felt violated when their safe space became unsafe. Raper and Villhauer felt the officers showed contempt toward the protesters, but Villhauer accepted Parizek’s contrition that the officers could have handled the situation more tactfully. 

While the police were overwhelmed with the number of protesters on the night of June 1, and were tasked with managing a crowd in defiance of a curfew, Just Voices believes this illustrates an overly vigorous altercation when the police questioned the three men, sloppy police work related to charging the three men and unsubstantiated claims related to the charges filed.  

“We’ve never gone into this with the expectation that we wanted to break the law. It’s definitely given me a more focused vision into what we need to do to help people behind the scenes who are being prosecuted,” Raper said.