Civil Rights & Constitutional Law
Huron mayor orders police seize local activist as she speaks before council about officials’...
May 15, 2019
Monday, November 27, 2023
As soon as Mrs. Hinners disclosed the lawsuit, Council member and then-Vice Mayor Trey Hardy cut her off and then–Mayor Brad Hartung announced he was having Mrs. Hinners charged with supposedly disturbing a lawful meeting.
Police arrived minutes later, yanked Mrs. Hinners out of her chair, threw her against the wall, and charged her with disturbing a lawful meeting. And days later, they charged her with supposedly resisting arrest.
The amended federal complaint alleged that this and other conduct by City officials violated all of Mr. and Mrs. Hinners’s First Amendment rights:
The suit also brought claims for malicious prosecution. The purported criminal case against Stacy Hinners was dismissed.
The civil lawsuit named as Defendants the City of Huron and several other former and current city officials, including Hartung, Hardy, and the police officers who pulled Mrs. Hinners out of the meeting and filed charges against her.
The settlement follows a ruling by the federal court, after reviewing video footage of the incident, that it was plausible that the officers and city lacked probable cause to arrest Mrs. Hinners. In other words, the video footage evidence of what happened showed that the arrest was wrongful.
Subodh Chandra, Mrs. Hinners’s lead counsel, said, "Rarely do we see so many First Amendment rights violated in one case. Many of the officials who put Huron in hot water are no longer public officials. The Hinnerses are pleased to see this unfortunate episode behind them and will continue to be productive and engaged members of the community they love."
The case was captioned Hinners, et al. v. City of Huron, et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Case No. 1:19-cv-02868, and was assigned to Judge J. Philip Calabrese, who presided over settlement talks.
The operative amended complaint may be viewed here.
Mr. and Mrs. Hinners were represented by Subodh Chandra of The Chandra Law Firm LLC and Brian D. Bardwell of Speech Law LLC.
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