DENVER -- Federal prosecutors are considering whether to file charges against a woman who refused to show identification while riding a Regional Transportation District bus through the Federal Center in Lakewood.

Deborah Davis, 50, of Arvada, Colo., told the Rocky Mountain News that the bus she took to work passed through the Federal Center, and that federal officers would routinely board it asking for identification.

She said the officers with the Federal Protective Service just looked at the IDs and did not record them or compare them with any lists.

After reviewing her rights, one day in September she refused to produce her ID and she refused their orders to get off the bus. She said she was removed from the bus, handcuffed and ticketed for two petty offenses.

Two volunteer attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado are taking up her case.

A federal official said the practice of asking for IDs began after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

RTD spokesman Scott Reed told the News that federal guards only check IDs of bus passengers when the Federal Center is on "heightened alert," which may not be known to the general public.

"That is something we don't control," said Reed. "We try to cooperate as best we can and inform the public that this will occur."

Davis is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on Dec. 9.

Her case has prompted a Web site that documented her troubles. It calls her "the Rosa Parks of the Patriot Act generation."