(AP) DENVER A commuter arrested for refusing to show identification when a bus entered federal property is fighting two misdemeanor charges with help from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Deborah Davis, 50, was taken off a Regional Transportation District bus, handcuffed and cited on Sept. 26 at the Denver Federal Center, a sprawling campus of federal offices in the west Denver suburb of Lakewood.
Carl Rusnok of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the officers who arrested Davis, said federal officials have been checking the IDs of anyone entering the center since the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
The ACLU has agreed to help defend Davis, who is charged with violating laws governing access to federal property and obeying signs.
Mark Silverstein, the legal director of the ACLU in Colorado, said the officers were out of line.
"We don't believe the federal government has the legal authority to put Deborah Davis in jail, or even make her pay a fine, just because she declined the government's request for identification," he said.
"Passengers aren't required to carry passports or any other identification documents in order to ride to work on a public bus," he said.
RTD spokesman Scott Reed said federal center guards ask to see bus passengers' IDs only when the center is on a heightened security alert.
U.S. attorney's spokesman Jeff Dorschner said Monday the matter was under review.
