Robin Paulson, a regular park customer, alleges in a lawsuit that she and her children were grabbed, shaken, kicked and punched by at least five Disneyland guards. She was one of several people to complain recently about aggressive Disney security officers.
Myron Marlin, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed the case was under review for possible civil-rights violations but declined to talk about the status of the investigation.
Former Irvine police officer Mark Mazza said FBI agents had also questioned him about possible civil rights violations. Mazza was detained and suspended from his job last year after Disneyland accused him of using another person's ticket toward the purchase of an annual pass.
His children had to spend two hours in security offices while guards locked up their father, a 17-year police veteran, for questioning. Polly Mazza said park guards also tried to interrogate the couple's two children during the October 1995 incident.
An annual pass holder, Paulson said she visited Disneyland several times a week with daughters Jennifer Christine, 21, Michel, 16, Amy, 12, and son Samuel, 6.
On April 19, 1995, unidentified plainclothes security people surrounded them on the trail between Fantasyland and Frontierland, she said.
"I thought these people were going to kidnap us," said Paulson, 49.
A female guard punched Paulson in the face, dislocating her jaw, she said. The guards kicked and dragged her daughters, spraining the 16-year-old's ankle, she said.
"I kept saying, 'Why are you doing this to us?'" Paulson said. "They said, 'This is private property. We can do whatever we want.'"
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