A man who sued Buffalo police after yelling at officers to turn on his headlights and getting a ticket can move forward with legal action, an appeals court has ruled.
The U.S. Court of Appeals last week overturned a decision by a federal district judge in Buffalo who had dismissed the case, saying the officer had reasonable cause to charge a man with noise violations after he yelled, “Turn the lights on, turn the lights on!” . ” and interrupted his statement with an insult.
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The new ruling argues that the profane utterances during the December 2016 encounter could be considered a “eminently reasonable” attempt to avoid the accident, and the case will be sent to District Court for trial. It was sent back to .
Civil rights attorney R. Anthony Rapp III said he did not initially intend to litigate the case, but that the same officer was involved in the arrest of an unarmed man who died of an asthma attack two months later. He said he changed his mind after learning that he had done so. After struggling while being handcuffed.
A 2017 investigation by the Attorney General’s Office found insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges against Officers Todd McAllister and Nicholas Parisi in the death of 20-year-old Wardell “Meech” Davis. There was found.
But Rapp said she feels the need to stand up for the man who died. He sued the city, the police chief, and the officer making the traffic stop, alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution, and First Amendment retaliation. Rupp told The Buffalo News all he is asking for is $1 and recognition that the officers acted inappropriately.
“Seeing that it was the same two police officers who were involved in my case, I (upset) them and Meech Davis resisted arrest and (upset) them, so they When they retaliated against me, I proceeded with a lawsuit that I would never have done.” Rupp told the newspaper.
A Buffalo Police Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Evening traffic in Tilden Township taken on Friday night, November 20, 2020. (Ben Hastie/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
Mr. Rupp’s encounter with officers began at approximately 8:30 p.m. on December 1, 2016, when Mr. Rupp and his wife left a downtown restaurant.
Rupp witnessed an approaching vehicle with its headlights off nearly hit two pedestrians, and then yelled at the driver to “turn on his lights”.
It was only after McAllister responded and pulled over that Rupp realized it was a police SUV, according to court filings.
“You know you can get arrested for something like that,” McAllister told Rapp through the open window.
Rupp responded that McAllister shouldn’t be driving without headlights on after dark and told officers he nearly caused an accident.
McAllister then “got out of the car and told Mr. Rupp that he was restraining him,” according to the complaint.
The situation worsened when other police officers arrived, including Parisi. Parisi denied Rapp’s request to issue McAllister a traffic ticket for driving without headlights. Instead, Rapp received a citation for violating the city’s noise ordinance. The citation was later rejected at a hearing.
Rupp said a letter he wrote to the police chief the day after the encounter went unanswered.
“I wrote that letter because I thought they needed more training,” Rupp said. “They unnecessarily caused an incident. They were wrong. They confronted me. They used the power of their badge to name me.”
Lawyers for the city said in court documents that Rapp’s legal claims are unsubstantiated.
A U.S. district judge agreed, writing in a March 2021 ruling that the officer had probable cause to ticket the lawyer for his angry comments.
“Given the loudness and nature of Rapp’s screams in the presence of bystanders, it is likely that a reasonable person of normal sensibilities would be irritated and disturbed his sense of calm, peace and rest,” the judgment read. ” is stated.
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However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit disagreed in a January 31, 2024 decision. The appellate court said that if all five words were expletives, a jury could consider the screams to be “unreasonable noise,” but a “reasonable juror” would not have considered Rupp’s actual He said the words could easily be seen as “an attempt to avoid a possible accident”.
