CONTACT: Kathleen MacRae, Executive Director— 302-654-5326 x102 (office), 505-681-3920 (cell); kmacrae@aclu-de.org
Wilmington, DE (October 6, 2014) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware for wrongful arrest in two separate incidents. This is the second time in less than five months that the ACLU has sued the Town of Smyrna due to the conduct of members of the town’s police force. The lawsuit alleges that in both cases the officers arrested people for exercising their First Amendment rights.
In December 2013, Officer W. Davis (IBM 58027) wrongfully arrested Anthony Jackson, a Smyrna resident, when he gave him a ticket for flashing his headlights at oncoming traffic. Jackson pleaded not guilty to the change and, in July 2014, arrived in court with his lawyer to present his case. However, Officer Davis did not appear for the court date, so the charges were dropped.
The First Amendment gives people the right to flash their headlights to send a message,” said Richard Morse, legal director of the ACLU of Delaware.
The suit alleges that police officers employed by the Town of Smyrna repeatedly arrest motorists driving in the town, without regard to whether those motorists are violating the law, for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the town. The suit further claims that the expectation of the Town of Smyrna Police Department is that the motorists will pay the ticket, regardless of guilt, rather than incur the inconvenience and expense of contesting the charges.
In the second incident of wrongful arrest, a Smyrna High School student, Michael Santana, was arrested by PFC Evans A. Leighty, a Smyrna police officer assigned as a student resource officer to the school, despite knowledge on Leighty’s part that Santana had been the target of bullying and had done nothing wrong except act in his own defense. The bullying activity was triggered when Santana spoke Spanish. Because of concern about repeated harassment, Santana and Santana’s mother asked Officer Leighty to charge the student who had harassed her son. Leighty replied that if he was going to charge one, he was going to charge both students. That is what he did, arresting Santana even though his own description of the facts proved Santana had not committed a crime.
Leighty charged Santana and procured a warrant for his arrest in retaliation for his and his mother’s requests that he charge the other student. Months later, the charge was dropped by the Delaware Department of Justice. A complaint about Leighty’s actions to his supervisor in the Smyrna police department was summarily rejected without an investigation.
According to ACLU of Delaware legal director Richard Morse:
The First Amendment gives people the right to request police action, without fear that they will be arrested because the police don’t like the request. It is unfortunate that we’ve had to sue Smyrna twice this year because its officers don’t obey that law.”
"The stories told in the lawsuits we have filed and other stories shared with us by Smyrna residents seem to indicate that the Smyrna police believe they can operate outside the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution without reproach. Wrongful arrest is a serious breach of the public trust and a flagrant misuse of the authority a police officer embodies when he straps on a gun and his badge,” said Kathleen MacRae, ACLU-DE Executive Director.
The Smyrna Police Department needs to vastly improve their training, supervision and internal review procedures. Individual officers cannot be permitted to abuse their authority and police departments must hold them accountable when they do so,” MacRae continued.
The suit asks the court to require the Smyrna Police Department to institute appropriate training, supervision and internal review procedures and to award compensatory damages to Jackson and Santana and for payment of attorney’s fees.
