Milo Yiannopoulos fan files lawsuit against Berkeley

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ByAmy Hollyfield KGO logo
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Milo Yiannopoulos fan files lawsuit against Berkeley
A fan of right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has filed a lawsuit against the regents of the University of California, the mayor of Berkeley and a slew of others over alleged civil rights and First Amendment violations.

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- A fan of right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has filed a lawsuit against the regents of the University of California, the mayor of Berkeley and a slew of others over alleged civil rights and First Amendment violations.

The lawsuit in federal court in Northern California alleges University of California and other officials curtailed the rights of Kiara Robles by subjecting her and other invitees to bodily harm because they were expressing a different viewpoint.

She's suing for more than $23 million for what happened to her on campus in February. Robles was pepper sprayed while giving an interview to ABC7 News. She is a conservative and believes the university was negligent for limiting conservative speech and for telling police to hold back instead of protecting those who were there to hear the speech.

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The Oakland resident planned to attend a Feb. 1 speech by Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley's campus that was cancelled after protests turned violent.

The lawsuit filed Monday also names House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party Chairman John Burton and wealthy investor George Soros.

UC Berkeley said in a statement it will mount a "vigorous and successful defense of its actions, and looks forward to contesting this collection of false claims."

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Broken glass litters the ground of the Martin Luther King Student Union at U.C. Berkeley on Feb. 2, 2017.
Wayne Freedman

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.