Posted on 06/26/2024 6:55:15 PM PDT by TomServo
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard’s First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.
Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.
Bombard was stopped again and arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, and his car was towed. He was jailed for over an hour and cited to criminal court, according to the ACLU. The charge was eventually dismissed.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
How utterly ridiculous. Should have told the flipper to bug off and wished them a nice day. Today, citizens have to pay good money for the tiniest thing.
Of course their juries in Vermonts are nuts so you have to guard against the jury going rogue and delivering a vast amount, yet, taking the facts as given, that seems like a pretty high settlement
Hubby and I have watched the video of that encounter two or three times on “cops violating rights” videos over the past few months. Each time I saw it, I was more pissed than the last.
Have your been following the Karen Read trial in MA?
The guy is lucky he was not just gunned down for disrespect and butthurt.
Cop should work for TSA where there are signs up about not hurting the drone’s feelings.
Hopefully that officer is fired.
> Hopefully that officer is fired. <
Wouldn’t matter much if he was. He’d just move on down the road, and get hired by another department. Such cops are called “gypsy cops”.
The trick is to revoke the cop’s police certification. That rarely happens - even when the cop is fired not just for bad judgment but for committing an actual crime.
Serious stuff that.
some LEOs should have to shoulder some of the cost in individual circumstances.
I understand the possible ramifications but on the other hand, if there is NO personal cost to some LEO misbehavior then it will continue unabated.
This is the kind of stuff where police really get bad reps. You don’t control the world just because you have a badge. There are good reasons for a car stop, this is not one of them.
> some LEOs should have to shoulder some of the cost in individual circumstances <
Police officers sometimes have to make difficult decisions while under pressure. That’s when qualified immunity should apply. But when they casually misbehave, as is the case here, they should pay out of their own pocket.
Yep. while I understand and appreciate the difficulty and danger of their employment, retaliation under color of law should be punished !
But the tax payers still get body slammed with the bill. And often real sleezy people get big fat pay days.
really not much of a cop, if he couldn’t figure out something to stop him for other than that... just sayin
Just watched the full video of BOTH traffic stops...lol
Wow....Trying to imagine a cop like this working somewhere like LA. He wouldn’t last an hour.
Did the 16 year old Nick Sandeman even get this much for hits lawsuit when the media networks slandered him?
He made millions
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