Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha falsely reported hostage-taking at EGT, a lie he backed away from after it had spread worldwide in the media.

Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha falsely reported hostage-taking at EGT, a lie he backed away from after it had spread worldwide in the media.

A trial date has been set in the federal civil rights case the longshore union filed against local law enforcement agencies — but it’s still more than a year away.

The jury trial is scheduled to start March 4, 2013, though both sides also have been ordered into mediation in hopes of settling the case out of court. Requiring a mediation attempt is standard in federal cases. No date for the mediation has been set because both sides want to gather more information first, according to recent U.S. District Court filings in Tacoma.

On Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson's watch, officers like this one have been aggressive with workers who are standing up to multinational corporation EGT.

On Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson's watch, officers like this one have been 'acting with aggression, brutality and force when arresting members for non-violent misdemeanors without probable cause for such force and without having a reasonable suspicion that the members or supporters posed an immediate or credible threat or injury to law enforcement or any other person,' according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in September, names Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson and Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha, as well as the county and city. It claims that law enforcement violated the civil rights of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members last summer and fall during protests directed at the EGT grain terminal in Longview.

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Photos by the Daily News and the Associated Press.