PORTLAND, Maine — A civil rights group has filed a lawsuit against a city police officer on behalf of a Bar Harbor couple who was arrested this past spring for videotaping police officers on a public street.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Hancock County Superior Court in Ellsworth, according to a prepared statement released by the organization on Tuesday.
In the complaint against Portland police Sgt. Benjamin Noyes Jr., the organization claims the May 25 arrest of Jill Walker and Sabatino Scattoloni was “illegal and unconstitutional” and that the officer violated their First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights.
In a separate statement, city officials indicated Tuesday that the Portland Police Department opened an internal investigation into the matter in July and is aware of the lawsuit. Walker and Scattoloni have cooperated with the internal investigation, city officials indicated in the release.
City spokeswoman Jessica Grondin said Tuesday that the internal investigation is ongoing.
“The department takes [the plaintiffs’] allegations very seriously,” Portland officials wrote in the statement. “The department will not comment further on the internal investigation due to the confidentiality of personnel matters and the pending civil lawsuit.”
According to the ACLU of Maine complaint, Walker and Scattoloni were arrested on a weekend night this past May after they used a smartphone to visually record a group of Portland police officers who were questioning a woman on the sidewalk of Spring Street in downtown Portland. They were in Portland for the weekend and were walking back to their hotel room when they came across the encounter.
Walker and Scattoloni decided to record the scene “out of concern for the woman (who was unaccompanied) and out of concern for police abuse of power,” Zachary Heiden, attorney for the group, wrote in the complaint. They stood about 25 feet away and “in no way interfered with the police doing their job,” Heiden wrote.
After police noted they were being recorded, the couple was asked twice by separate officers if they knew the woman, to which they responded they did not. Then, a few minutes later, Noyes approached the couple and told them they would be arrested if they did not leave, according to the complaint.
When Walker and Scattoloni objected, they were arrested on charges of obstructing government administration, the complaint indicates. Each was taken to the Cumberland County Jail, where they were fingerprinted and booked and then held for more than an hour until they each paid $60 bail.
The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office later dropped the charges, according to the civil liberties group.
“We’ve heard a lot about police mistreating innocent bystanders in other places, but we never thought it would happen to us in Portland, Maine,” Walker said in the prepared statement from the ACLU of Maine. “We’re filing this case because we think it’s important for the public to be able to witness government officials doing their job, and we don’t want what happened to us to happen to other people.”
The civil complaint alleges that Noyes violated the rights of Walker and Scattoloni by placing them under arrest. Specifically, the ACLU of Maine accuses Noyes of violating their right to observe and record police on a public street, and their right to be protected from wrongful arrest.
The lawsuit is seeking “reasonable” unspecified monetary damages, including the plaintiffs attorneys’ fees and costs, and any additional unspecified relief that the court may decide is appropriate.
“The right of citizens to observe and record the police is a critical check on the use of power and force,” Heiden indicated in the prepared statement. “The police need to understand that individuals who are quietly observing their work from a distance have a right to do so, and it is not cause for their arrest.”
According to Portland officials, the city is paying Noyes’ legal expenses in the lawsuit, which is consistent with the city’s union contract with police department employees. Noyes is a 17-year veteran with the Portland Police Department and remains on active duty, city officials indicated.
