Rodeo Settles Lawsuit with Free Speech Protesters

The Rowell Ranch Pro Rodeo announced Friday it has settled a 2023 lawsuit related to a group of protesters and their right to free expression during the 2022 rodeo in Castro Valley.

Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol, a Peninsula-based couple who protest the rodeo yearly, were named plaintiffs in the suit. Neither was immediately available to comment. Since 2004, one or both have been in at least 10 similar lawsuits in Federal Courts in California and Nevada, alleging violations of their right to free expression, often to protest animal cruelty.

Court documents cite four incidents over two days at the rodeo in 2022. The Plaintiffs claim that staff (and a park supervisor later) told them they must go to the designated free speech area on the first day. On the second day, Bolbol claims that rodeo staff temporarily blocked her from entering. Cuviello claimed a staffer bumped him with an electric golf cart carrying a disabled person. 

United States District Judge Vince Chhabria decided the case on August 8, 2024. In his opinion, he cited video evidence of all four incidents. 

“Although there is video evidence of all the incidents, there is still a dispute of material fact as to whether the actions of the defendants constitute threats, coercion, or intimidation,” Judge Chhabria wrote in his opinion, also citing a lack of confrontations during the subsequent Rowell Rodeo events. 

The Rowell Ranch Rodeo committee said that after 2022, it took steps to implement a Code of Conduct and Freedom of Expression policy in 2024. Activists were welcomed daily and given the opportunity to sign a freedom of expression policy and use the designated free speech areas. 

Neither the plaintiffs nor the Rodeo committee disclosed the amount paid for injunctive relief for the claims.