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A $175,000 settlement has been reached in the lawsuit of a Vermont man who said he was arrested after giving an officer the middle finger, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
The civil rights organization said that a state police trooper pulled over Gregory Bombard, claiming he had made the gesture, which Bombard denied. An argument followed and then Bombard did give the officer the middle finger, which led to his arrest on allegations of disorderly conduct, the ACLU said.
“Police need to respect everyone’s First Amendment rights — even for things they consider offensive or insulting,” Hillary Rich, staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Vermont and the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, against the trooper and the state of Vermont.
The defendants did not admit any guilt, the settlement agreement says.
Bombard will get $100,000 and the other $75,000 will go to attorneys’ fees, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit alleged violations of Bombard’s First Amendment protections of speech and his Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
Dash cam video posted online by FIRE showed the officer tell Bombard during the traffic stop that, as he drove by, “it looked like you looked right at me, and it looked like you stuck your middle finger up in my face.”
Bombard denied it, saying the officer seemed sensitive. “If someone flipped you off, what is the citation? What’s the crime?” he said in the video.
The officer responded that he thought a gesture like that meant someone was trying to get his attention, and it was unusual.
The officer says Bombard is free to go and walks back to his patrol vehicle. Bombard then drives away and the officer in his car is heard saying that Bombard used an offensive phrase and “flipped the bird,” and that he was going to pull him over and arrest him for disorderly conduct.
A Vermont State Police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.
Bombard in a statement released by the ACLU and FIRE said he was pleased with the outcome.
“With this settlement, I hope the Vermont State Police will train its troopers to avoid silencing criticism or making baseless car stops,” Bombard said. “And at least now I can pay my criminal attorney for defending me from the bogus charges and take my 88-year-old mother out for a nice dinner.”
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