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.
This is settled law. It’s been this way for a long time. Multiple people have had huge monetary settlements in multiple states for being arrested for flipping off a cop.
Imma gonna go flip off some cops and get rich
My father-in-law smiled and waved at a CHP cop when driving through California and got pulled over and told that was illegal, but was let off with a warning. Which I always thought was bullshit. Sounds like it is.
But the guy liked cops. He was literally just saying hi to a cop because he liked cops.
Did he like them after that?
He was a white evangelical (but never preachy) Republican from Indiana who was born in 1931. So not even a boomer, someone who had kids who were boomers. He died loving cops. He didn’t even hold it against that guy because he assumed he’d broken the law and was glad the nice cop let him off with a warning.
He was an old man and had some very archaic ideas about the world. When he was home, he watched old Westerns, sports, or Fox News. I assume he voted for Trump in 2016. But he was also super nice to everyone no matter who they were. He was just not a judgmental sort of guy on an individual level. He was the sort of person who would would have a friendly conversation to find out when the restaurant waiter got off their shift and what they were planning to do that day and said he hoped they had a good time doing it.
So he probably (I never asked) believed in the “gay agenda,” but would also be happy to have a friendly chat with some people hanging outside a gay bar if he happened to walked by and saw that people were standing there. Even if he knew it was a gay bar.
[It’s his birthday today, so he’s been on my mind.]
That’s really nice.
We’ve also lost a lot of this, which is a shame.
I’d love to be part of bringing back being able to disagree with people on issues but still treat each other well. Like people.
I do try to remember to try. We all should.
Glad the cop I flipped off when I was three didn’t charge me. Despite what my brothers taught me, that is not how you wave hello to police.
I firmly disagree, your brothers taught you the correct greeting.
Who was harmed here to the tune of $175k? The ACLU should have settled for something much less.
In law it is the defense who is supposed to argue the amount is too much, and the plaintiff should ask for as much as possible because at that point it is punitive. Second, while you may not feel threatened by any single interaction with police, this officer was angry and had to have exhibited aggressive behavior. These ingredients have resulted in lots of interactions going south.
Thirdly, let’s put you in this man’s position, we will make one assumption - that you know flipping a cop off is settled law and protected free speech. You’re driving home and you get pulled over. For what? You were just driving and not speeding, what gives? “Licence and registration. Do you know why I pulled you over? Because you flipped me off”. This is not a first level offence. This isn’t being on your phone. This isn’t driving without a seatbelt or speeding. This isn’t driving erratically. This cop just told you he’s going to ticket you because you flipped the bird, but you didn’t. You try to explain you didn’t and he’s going to get mad because you called him a liar. Now you have a citation in hand and you try and NOT swear and actually flip him off. He has deprived your freedom of speech and given you a ticket for it and you know it. If you’re gonna get a ticket you may as well do the crime right? So the officer, rather than writing another citation you know will get thrown, has your car towed. He settles you with a $300 tow AND a citation OVER A GESTURE that he is legally and constitutionally WRONG about, and you know he is. He then arrests you for it, and you spend an hour at the precinct settling this. Then when you’re free to go, you have to bum a ride to go get your fucking car. A month or so later, you have take time off work to go to court. You miss making probably another $300 because a day off. It gets dismissed because it’s a first amendment issue - you knew this would be the result all along. A minor feeling of vindication because you are now out $500 for missing work and other legal fees, maybe an Uber to go pick up your car, and have been harassed by a state patrolman, spent an hour in jail instead of whatever you were driving to go do. 3 years later the ACLU says "hey so you were right, and we want to sue over it. Would you NOT say “yeah fuck that dude” and sign on for it?
Minor footnote, he won 100,000, and 75,000 went to the ACLU
You’re making my point for me. If you’re super generous about paying this man for all his trouble, loss of freedom, court costs, etc. (and we should be) …and then you double that for good measure… and then you double THAT for punitive purposes (and yes we should)… You still are far short of $175k.
I’m only bringing it up because it’s our money as taxpayers. The ACLU should not be another piggy at the public trough.
The defense would be the state, the state failed to argue he didn’t deserve it, and the ACLU their cut. I don’t remember if the article said it was by judge or jury, but even when a jury comes out with X number a judge can still say “yeah no that’s too high, I’m awarding Y instead.” So either way it was achieved, a judge felt that this was a fair number. Idk what to say beyond that other than I wish I could make 100k off something so silly but that is a lot of bullshit to put up with to be right. ACLU deserves some cut for doing probably all this man’s legal grunt work and legal time since he likely didn’t pay out of pocket for a retainer.
But I get what you mean about tax dollars. It should have come from the department something more tangible for the state patrol to not do this again
Can you put a dollar figure on the violation of your constitutional rights? The settlement should have been much higher. Sometimes it’s the only way to get power tripping cops to stop breaking the law.
I think we’re still missing the mark because it’s tax payer money.
Rip immunity from that fucker and let it come out of his pension (if he’s got one) or garnish his wages like everybody else.
Hit the individual, but also pull funds from the department. Make it hurt everyone and maybe they will start hold each other to some semblance of accountability.
