1 February 2012, 10:40 am
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/01/eugene_verdict_clarifies_law_p.html - Eugene verdict clarifies legal protections for protesters who turn video cameras on police - Camcorders, smart phones and live-streaming gizmos bob atop seas of demonstrators these days in Oregon, often capturing hostilities between police and demonstrators from various angles. State law permits protesters to record police in public places. But courts have made few rulings on what officers can do with the recording devices they seize from people during arrests. The rules of engagement became clearer in Eugene's U.S. District Court last week, when a civil jury determined that a city police sergeant violated an environmental activist's constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure during a 2009 leafletting campaign outside a bank. The eight-person panel determined that Sgt. Bill Solesbee arrested environmentalist Josh Schlossberg without probable cause and used excessive force. But it was Solesbee's next act that sent legal minds across Oregon into hyperdrive: He seized the environmentalist's video camera without a warrant. That's the electronic equivalent of police walking off with several file cabinets of private papers without benefit of a judge's signature, said Lauren Regan, Schlossberg's lawyer. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin ruled in a pretrial hearing in the Eugene case that Solesbee violated Schlossberg's Fourth Amendment rights by searching the contents of his camera without a warrant. That ruling marked the first time that a federal court in Oregon weighed in on warrantless seizures of digital devices. "Across the country right now, legal scholars and lawyers are just eating it up," Regan said of the ruling, "because it's actually a solid statement of the right to privacy in the age of technology." - New police policy Schlossberg complained about his treatment to the Eugene Police Department. His accusations were investigated by the department's internal affairs section and reviewed by an independent police auditor before reaching the desk of Chief Pete Kerns, who in late 2009 determined Solesbee hadn't violated department policy. "I think all of his actions were within policy," Kerns said this week. The chief said court rulings between the time of Schlossberg's arrest and today changed his department's policy. Now, he said, Eugene police are discouraged from arresting people for the same offense. "The state of the law concerning that particular crime has changed," he said. The Eugene jury last Monday awarded Schlossberg $4,083 for injuries suffered as a result of Solesbee's excessive force and $1,500 for pain and suffering. The city also will pay about $200,000 for Schlossberg's legal fees, Regan said. Kerns said the city was still deciding whether to appeal the verdict. The damages were small, Regan said, but the jury's determinations were big because they held Solesbee accountable for his actions and protected Schlossberg's right to tape the encounter. She remains baffled by the police department's position on the incident. "Not only did a federal judge just spank them on the issue of this illegal search and seizure," she said, "Solesbee to this day still believes he's right."... Read More »
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