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eastbaydave

Needs a job
Posts: 2245

posted October 14, 2004 06:01 AM

Flip off a cop, win money!

This is just crazy....ebd.

Irate motorist's vulgar gesture turns profitable
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An Ambridge man is a little richer for receiving a disorderly conduct citation last year for flipping his middle finger at Sewickley's fire chief.

The borough's insurance company has agreed to pay the man, David R. Dickinson, and his lawyer, Harlan Stone, $9,000 to settle the federal lawsuit Dickinson brought in April against Sewickley and police Officer Robert McNatt that claimed the citation violated his rights.

The settlement was reached after a conference a few months back with Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch.

"They came up with a number that the insurance company could live with," attorney Paul Krepps, who represented the borough, said yesterday.

Stone refused to discuss the settlement. But he said flipping the bird at the fire chief was protected free speech because it was not meant as a threat or to incite violence.

"In this case it was clear it was meant to insult the recipient," he said.

That is OK, constitutionally speaking.

"I really regret that it had happened at all," said Sewickley Council President Don Kipke. "It didn't have to come to this."

Dickinson, who is in his 30s, said he and his wife, Katie, were headed for the baptism of Dickinson's nephew at a house on Locust Street in Sewickley on Aug. 16 and were afraid they'd be late.

As they approached the business district, they got stuck in a traffic jam on Beaver Street that Dickinson said was caused by Fire Chief Jeff Neff and McNatt. He said he was behind McNatt's cruiser and saw him talking to Neff, who was in the opposite lane in his car.

It's not clear what they were discussing, but Kipke said it was important borough business and not something frivolous.

At any rate, from the passenger seat of their car, Katie Dickinson hit the horn and traffic started to move. As Dickinson drove by Neff's car, "frustrated by the delay," he gave the chief the finger.

"The gesture, albeit insulting, had no sexual meaning, did not appeal to anyone's prurient interest, and did not create a public disturbance or breach of the peace," wrote Stone in his initial complaint.

Dickinson said Neff called to McNatt to ask him to get an apology. After Dickinson pulled into the driveway of the house for the baptism, McNatt pulled in, walked through the back yard and approached Dickinson to demand the apology. In court papers, Stone said McNatt "hunted down" Dickinson.

At the end of the confrontation, McNatt issued him a citation for disorderly conduct.

At a hearing before a district justice on Sept. 24, Dickinson said McNatt indicated he issued the citation because Neff felt he had been insulted.

The district justice dismissed the case.

In addition to charging that McNatt violated his rights, Dickinson said in his suit that Sewickley police have a pattern of illegally issuing citations under the state's disorderly conduct statute to people who are engaging in protected free speech.

Krepps denied that in his court briefs and argued that the citation didn't violate Dickinson's constitutional rights. He said the law governing such behavior is not well-established enough that McNatt or any reasonable officer would have known he was violating the First Amendment.

But in the end, Krepps said, the settlement numbers looked right so the borough settled as a matter of convenience.

Dickinson couldn't be reached for comment about the settlement.

Neff and Mayor John Wise didn't return calls yesterday, but Kipke said the whole sequence of events -- from a raised middle finger to a federal lawsuit -- could have been avoided if everyone had kept his cool.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04287/395063.stm

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CrotchRocket

Moderator
Bracket Racing with Betsy
Posts: 8038

posted October 14, 2004 08:13 AM

Hmmm, so I guess its ok when someone is in the court room for whatever reason to flip the judge off too!!!

Just make sure you have a copy of this case in your pocket as the judge orders the court officers to put your ass in jail...lol...
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jasonc32amg

Novice Class
Posts: 61

posted October 14, 2004 01:05 PM

I'm not going to be the next one to test this
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worm~hole

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Posts: 10623

posted October 14, 2004 01:13 PM

Edited By: worm~hole on 14 Oct 2004 14:14

...makes one wonder how this would've turned out if the fire chief returned the flip-off to Dickenson in kind as most people do in instances like this, huh?...you'd think fair's fair, but noooooo, we're held to a higher standard, we're not allowed to do that, and we just have to 'take it'...personally, I'd have just laughed at Dickerson's silly finger and be on my way...
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“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell

worm~hole

Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623

posted October 14, 2004 01:14 PM