Man Wins Partial Victory In Circuit City Arrest

JeremyDuffy writes "Michael Righi, the man who was arrested at Circuit City for failing to show his reciept/driver's license, has fought a moral battle against the city for almost a month now. The case has already been settled and he emerged victorious... sort of. It turns out that he's already spent almost $7500 and would have kept fighting them too, but because his family would have been dragged into it, he was forced to take a deal. They've expunged his record and dropped all charges, but he had to give up his right to sue the city to do it."

Can you imagine...

[FlyByPC (841016)]

...can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in to Circuit City, buying something, and refusing to show ID? My friends, they may think it's a movement [arlo.net].

Re:Can you imagine...

[SydShamino (547793)]

Fifty people a day walking into Circuit City and buying something and the shareholders would wet their pants with glee.

Well they did silence you...

[garcia (6573)]

In the days that followed a few things changed. First, I learned that the prosecutor was more interested in protecting the city against a civil law suit than she was in silencing my speech.

And by doing so she effectively did silence you and the Brooklyn, OH police department and city will not have a blemish on their record because one of their officers acted like an uninformed dick.

It's an unfortunate situation where you still have to pay out when you are completely in the right.

Re:Well they did silence you...

[sqlrob (173498)]

If "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is valid when prosecuting, then the police damn well should know every one on the books.

Re:Well they did silence you...

[Fallingcow (213461)]

Precisely.

It's my responsibility to know what I can't do.

Therefore it is the police's responsibility to know what they can't fucking arrest me for, and the cop's ass should be on the line if they get it wrong. Mine certainly is if I fail in my duty, since the result is a cop arresting me, probably knocking me around a bit in the process, and backing their authority with deadly force. That's hardly trivial, so misapplication of this kind of force should be severely punished. Fine the fuckers, and fire them then throw their asses in jail if they do it repeatedly.

As my old mate said...

[gowen (141411)]

"One more such victory and we will be undone."
This headline needs rewriting as "Man wins Pyrrhic Victory". $7500 worse off and he didn't even get an apology. Hell, if he'd actually been shoplifting he'd have got a smaller fine than that.

Citizen Review Boards

[by Anonymous Coward]

I think every city/county/state with a reasonable sized police force needs to have citizen review boards with the power to punish/fire officers. It's the ultimate solution.

It will solve many problems and make cops stop and think before doing something stupid - especially with all the news lately about abuses of power and authority.

Internal reviews are useless and don't change a thing. If some kind of "policing for police" isn't done soon, it's only going to get much worse.

Re:Citizen Review Boards

[Hatta (162192)]

Many cities have gone on to hire an Ombudsman.

My city (Omaha) hired an police auditor. Then when she released a report saying that the police were overly rude to black people at traffic stops, she got fired. It's been almost a year now and we still don't have any public review of the police. It's damn frightening.

so what was the victory?

[saleenS281 (859657)]

Since he didn't actually force the city to admit any wrongdoing... all they did was drop the case. Seems to me like he wasted a lot of time and money for nothing.

The PhoneDot effect

[dada21 (163177)]

Many years ago, when the web was still quiet and tiny, we had a little group of friends who promised to follow through with customer service and govenrment issues for one another. Since we all had various newsletters, writing gigs, and other media-style connections, we had the ability to contact people giving bad service via the phone and inquire to the service issues from a media perspective.

Of course it was more a joke than a reality, but as time grew, we found that hundreds of people calling businesses and police departments inquiring about "Any new information?" was a great way to get things fixed. I can recall one incident with Circuit City (of all places!) where the managers on duty received nearly 200 phone calls a day from "media inquiries" relating to a direct lie from a sales person to one of our group. It only took 2 weeks of "Any new information" for the company to back down and repair the situation, at which point there was no more news to cover.

Now I know harassment is a "crime," but why isn't there a site like phonedot.org? Instead of the slashdot effect, you can have the phonedot effect. Give it digg like capabilities so bloggers and other media contributors can vote up or down various customer service issues, and then let these thousands or hundreds of thousands of bloggers make their calls to see if there is "Any new information?" until the issue is settled.

When my previous city refused to get rid of the city sticker for vehicles, I typed up a newsletter and printed 30,000 of them to distribute. The newsletter had every phone number of every city official (home, work, cell). It only took 2 months of massive phone inquiries for the city council to end the city sticker harassment, and I think it was a net gain for those who called to inquire. Fight idiotic harassment with idiotic harassment.

Re:The PhoneDot effect

[jollyreaper (513215)]

Now I know harassment is a "crime," but why isn't there a site like phonedot.org? Instead of the slashdot effect, you can have the phonedot effect. Give it digg like capabilities so bloggers and other media contributors can vote up or down various customer service issues, and then let these thousands or hundreds of thousands of bloggers make their calls to see if there is "Any new information?" until the issue is settled.

I really like your idea. But since a site like that does not yet exist, a good second option is to obtain the manager's name, reverse lookup his phone number, and post both to Craigslist under the kinky sexual perversion of your choice.

A highly illegal variation of that is to note the license plate number of a personal enemy and then place "concerned citizen" calls from phone booths near public schools. Give a different name each time and say that you see a suspicious person (give description of enemy's appearance) loitering around an elementary school. Provide license plate number. Of course, if you get caught you'll go to jail but it's such a funny prank that the other inmates might be willing to skip the forcible sodomy in light of the chuckle you gave them.

Victory?

[pcgamez (40751)]

I fail to see where the victory is in this. The only thing he gained was that the charges were dropped. Considering that the charges were baseless to begin with, that is not much. On the other hand, the city won by making him pay $10k to fight a baseless charge and by getting away with no punishment for the city or the officer involved. Seems to be a weak victory to me...

I Salute Him

[tjstork (137384)]

Ya know, I had in my head that this guy was some sort of a punk just looking for attention or money. Having read his blog about the case, I must admit that I am thoroughly impressed with this man and his principaled stand. I was blown away by the calm but strong tone of his wrap up, and his desire to put his family first, in the end. For this right winger, this man is everything that there is to be admired about the left wing, and the United States is better off for his citizen ship.

And reality sets in..

[Chas (5144)]

It's great to yell and scream about your rights.

It's great to be able to have the ready cash to spend to help defend your rights when they're infringed upon.

Unfortunately, there are other pain-points that can be hit by authorities to make you comply with their wishes.

Lengthy court battles are the root of it. Sure, YOU may not mind taking all that time off work, and spending all that money.

But what about the people you have to drag into it (witnesses, family, etc)?

Moreover, they rely on apathy.

At the time, the anger and outrage are hot enough to barbecue whole cattle.

But, as time goes on, that anger cools. And it becomes harder and harder to keep oneself motivated.

The authorities know this. And time is on their side, ESPECIALLY since they've got the deep pockets to back it up.

Ethical?

[spiritraveller (641174)]

So the city lawyer used a criminal case to gain an advantage in a civil case.

That's on shaky ground ethically speaking

DR 7-105. THREATENING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

(A) A lawyer shall not present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present criminal charges solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.

Whether he threatened to present the charges *solely* to gain an advantage in the civil case would be the point of argument. The prosecutor would say that it wasn't solely to gain an advantage, because it was the police officer who made the arrest, and the prosecutor just prosecutes whatever cases come to him. However, if the case is not supported by probable cause, he's not allowed to go forward.

DR 7-103. PERFORMING THE DUTY OF PUBLIC PROSECUTOR OR OTHER GOVERNMENT LAWYER.

(A) A public prosecutor or other government lawyer shall not institute or cause to be instituted criminal charges when he knows or it is obvious that the charges are not supported by probable cause.

I would argue that the only reason the prosecutor threatened to go forward was to get the waiver of liability in the civil case. There was no merit to this case. An officer needs some level of suspicion to search a person or to require a showing of ID. There was no level of suspicion whatsoever here. There was no merit to this criminal case... at least according to what this fellow is telling us. One thing I've learned in my practice is that sometimes people charged with crimes lie... yeah, I know, hard to imagine.

great way when they ask for your reciepts!

[MooseTick (895855)]

If asking for reciepts make you mad also, here is something you can do.

The next time you are in a checkout where they check for reciepts at the door, wad it up and stick it down your pants when they give it to you. When you get to the door and they ask for it, be obvious about the fact that it is down there and retrieve it but don't unwad it. I think it is unlikely that they will take it from you and unwad it. At that point you can ask if they have any more requests and be on your merry way!

Re:This guy is an idiot

[TheGratefulNet (143330)]

we now call freedom fighters 'idoits'?

the guy had balls to stand up for WHAT IS RIGHT and you criticize him for doing what is right over a few dollars (that won't matter in a couple of years)?

when we put money and personal comfort up against all other Rights of society, we are phucked, truly.

I'm proud of that guy. I would call him 'friend' if I knew him.

Re:This guy is an idiot

[Jason Levine (196982)]

He isn't a freedom fighter. In fact, he lost one of his own freedoms in the process. Now if the same incident happens again, he can't sue the city.

Checking the PDF version of the release [michaelrighi.com] that he uploaded, it specifically mentions that incident. It also includes some vague "anything before this" text. Likely to make sure all legal loopholes are closed. (For example, if Righi claimed that the officer had verbally threatened him with arrest the previous day.) It doesn't, however, say anything about subsequent incidents. Even if the same officer were to arrest him outside of the same Circuit City under similar circumstances in the future, this agreement wouldn't prevent him from suing the city.

Re:hey folks

[taustin (171655)]

You may be asked for your receipt. You cannot be forced to show it. That's the law. The store employees should be in jail for assault and unlawful imprisonment. What the cop did was not only not allowed by law, but specifcially prohibited by state law. He belongs in prison. But instead, people like you have made it absolutely clear that he will not be punished in any way for abusing his authority.

You, personally, are what's wrong with the world today.

Re:Attempted Murder for a beating? Not cool.

[adam1234 (696497)]

Would you feel the same way if the white kids had hung up swastikas and some jewish kids had beaten up the ring-leader?

Yes.

Would those jewish kids deserve 'attempted murder' when the bigot walked out of the hospitol hours later with less damage than most people involved in a car crash?

Yes.

Re:Why Would ACLU Take This?

[plague3106 (71849)]

Especially since it involves a guy who was basically being a prick.

Ya, what an asshole, standing up for his rights against a cop that BROKE THE LAW or a store that does the same.

Re:Why not cooperate?

[Wavicle (181176)]

if this person is not cooperating then they have something to hide.

Your post makes the baby 5th amendment cry.

Something to hide

[tkrotchko (124118)]

"if this person is not cooperating then they have something to hide"

If a person replies as AC, does that mean they have something to hide? Or does it mean that there's an expectation of privacy in going about your business.

Re:I respectfully disagree

[spyrochaete (707033)]

He was on their property when he was asked to show his receipt, but the receipt and the merchandise were his property at that point. Then a manager and an employee followed him outside the store and physically detained the car he was a passenger in.

A store has a right to protect its property and eject people from its premises. They have no rights concerning someone else's property nor their mobility. They should have written down his license plate number and let the police do the policing.

Two of my least favorite sayings in one quote

[Rob the Bold (788862)]

He must have a lot of time on his hands if he can pick small fights like this just to make a statement.

Saying: "He must have a lot of time on his hands". Translation: "I don't approve of how you spend your time."

Saying: "You've gotta pick your battles". Translation: "I've gotta pick your battles."

Talk about "snobbish".