The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver agreed that the plaintiffs, who alleged their civil rights were violated by officers who held them at gunpoint while they searched Panaderia La Diana, had forfeited their right to bring suit by failing to show up for depositions.
"Absent deposition testimony or other competent evidence of what occurred, it was incumbent upon these plaintiffs to provide - at the very least - affidavits detailing what happened to them. None of these ten plaintiffs did," the 10th Circuit said in upholding a 2004 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell to throw out their claims.
Law enforcement officials have said they organized the April 24, 1997, raid after a confidential informant told them the owner was a major drug supplier and undercover officers bought heroin and cocaine near the parking lot at La Diana, 56 S. 900 West.
About 80 people were ordered to the floor after officers kicked down the doors, handcuffed and held for up to three hours.
However, the task force of 75 local and federal officers found no weapons or street drugs at the business. The only illegal substances found in the business were common medicines imported from Mexico - two 24-pill packages of the painkiller Darvon and two bottles of the antibiotic penicillin. They are sold freely south of the border but require a prescription in the United States.
Outcry over the raid was one factor that led to the eventual ouster of then-Salt Lake City Police Chief Ruben Ortega, and some of the customers and employees there that day filed suit alleging civil rights violations.
The parties settled on the day in November 2004 a two-week trial was slated to begin. Salt Lake City, while admitting no wrongdoing or discrimination, agreed to pay $290,000 to the remaining 18 plaintiffs and their attorneys.
La Diana is no longer in operation.
Tribune correspondent Robert Boczkiewicz contributed to this story from Denver.
