The sheriff says the ravers are mistaken. "We don't have any M-16s," Tracy says. He acknowledges that officers at the rave did have Taser weapons as well as tear gas and either sidearm pistols or rifles, but that equipment is standard issue for all police officers, he insists. "It would be no different if a guy got stopped on the road." And even though officers carried those weapons, they didn't use them, the sheriff says. In a couple of instances officers pointed but did not fire their Tasers, according to Tracy; but he says he's aware of no instances in which officers pointed guns or used tear gas.

Tracy also defends the officers' practice of surrounding ravers and pushing them to the ground, as we see them doing to Matagi in the Coombs video. "That's standard procedure," Tracy says. "What we do is take them to the ground, wrestle them till we get their hands. Now you see a guy with a knee on her back and you ask why you need to do that. But officers have been shot and killed and stabbed by people who weighed 90 pounds and were actively resisting arrest." Tracy says the takedown procedure was used sparingly -- just two or three times -- that night.

Not only does Tracy believe his officers acted with restraint, he also says that his decision to shut down the party can be seen, in retrospect, as wise. Many drugs were confiscated at the party, he says, and of the 30 or so people arrested that night -- most for disobeying or resisting officers -- a handful were charged with possession.

The rave promoters say Tracy's drug argument is bogus. They say the bulk of the contraband was in possession of the security guards, who had confiscated it from the crowd. Tracy doesn't buy the story. The security guards' possession of drugs was still illegal, he says, as they should have notified police of the contraband as soon as they discovered it. Tracy also says that he personally found drugs as he walked around the grounds after the raid." I picked up a bag off the ground," he says. Tracy says he found marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, methamphetamines and mushrooms. "For the size of area we picked those up in, I consider that a large amount."

The sheriff claims ravers were dangerously high. One woman -- whom Tracy did not name -- was found to be close to overdosing on Ecstasy, with a resting pulse rate of 176. But Tracy's claims have been difficult to verify: The woman he cites was not sent to a hospital; she was allowed to go home to her parents. Indeed, an investigation into the health situation at the rave yields cloudy results.

Byers, one of the ambulance personnel, tells Salon that no medical people saw any signs of danger regarding the health conditions at the rave. Asked whether anyone at the medical booth had heard reports of overdosing kids at the rave before the cops came in, Byers says, "None that we're aware of -- nothing that anyone reported to us."

In an affidavit filed with a federal court after Fullmer sued Tracy, the medical people at the party appeared to reverse their story. They said that in fact they were concerned that drug use could cause heart attacks among people at the rave. It's unclear why the two stories diverge -- ambulance personnel could not be reached for further questions on the matter.

In any case, other rave experts who were present -- including Jonathan Meader, the Salt Lake City coordinator for DanceSafe, a national organization that promotes healthy conditions at dance parties -- say Versus II was well-managed. Meader says he'd rank it as being "one of the higher-caliber parties" in terms of safe conditions for partiers.

Fullmer and other ravers argue that police violently overreacted in shutting down the event. If Tracy had talked to them about his concerns before police busted in, they would have tried to accommodate him, they insist. They say that his reluctance to do so suggests a cultural bias; you can find drugs at virtually any public event, from NASCAR to a Stones concert, but only at a rave do cops think they have carte blanche to storm in with choppers and tear gas.

"My reaction is that this is not justification to close down a concert," says Barnard, Fullmer's attorney. "My guess is that at any large concert of young people's music there is a going being smoking in the bathroom, marijuana exchanging hands in the facility. The mere fact that criminal conduct occurs by an individual patron does not justify shutting down the venue. If people are passing a joint down the row at a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert, that does not justify sending storm troopers in to close the concert."

Now that a federal judge has rejected Barnard's argument, it's not clear what recourse ravers have. Many say they will now feel unsafe at raves -- fearful of the cops. Ravers still plan to organize -- to protest against and to document police misconduct online -- but they worry that the public won't rally behind their case. "I think it's a cultural thing," says Meader of DanceSafe. "The Utah cops are saying, 'Our way of life is right. Yours isn't.'"

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