Alaska
Woman sues city, says her arrest was improper
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A woman is suing the municipality of Anchorage, claiming she was falsely arrested for drunken driving after she refused to give her phone number to a police officer.
Nancy Means is seeking to have the municipality scrub any evidence of her arrest, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.
Officer David Burns saw a minivan with hazard lights flashing early the morning of Nov. 25, 2011. He found Means and three passengers in the disabled minivan. According to the lawsuit, Means said they were shopping on Black Friday.
Burns noted in his report that he smelled “the slight odor of alcohol coming from her.”
He sought and received her license and insurance information, but she refused when he asked for her phone number. She then asked for her lawyer to be present.
According to the lawsuit, Means interpreted the request for her phone number as an “untoward sexual advance by Burns.”
Seeking a phone number was a “departure from routine procedure for an officer contacting a stranded and disabled vehicle,” according to the lawsuit.
Burns then arrested her for operating a vehicle under the influence. A later breath test listed her blood-alcohol level at .000. Officer Thomas Gaulke conducted the breath test about an hour after the arrest. He noted in his report that he didn’t see any signs of intoxication from her, nor did he smell any alcohol.
She was released after a bail hearing, and city prosecutors nearly a month later decided not to prosecute the case. Means, however, said the arrest for an unspecified misdemeanor charge remains on her record and available on the Internet.
Assistant municipal attorney Pamela Weiss said officers often get phone numbers for possible follow-up questioning.
“It’s not unreasonable to get contact information from a person whom an officer has made contact with,” she said.
When a lawyer sought to have Means’ criminal charge sealed, municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler responded in a Nov. 1 letter that he stood behind the officer and that the city would “mount a vigorous defense” if sued.
He said the officer had probable cause to believe Means had committed a crime, “and the arrest was proper,” Wheeler wrote.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said they do not comment on active lawsuits, but did say Burns remains on the force.
Pennsylvania
Lawyers: School paper to resume ‘Redskins’ ban
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Editors at a suburban Philadelphia high school newspaper plan to resume a ban on the word “Redskins,” even though the principal has told them they cannot do so, according to a law firm.
The firm, which says it represents a dozen Neshaminy High School newspaper editors and their parents, has warned school officials that any attempt to enforce the principal’s directive would violate their clients’ constitutional rights.
“Because the directive is plainly unconstitutional, the students will proceed in accordance with their published policy and, if disciplined for doing so, will take action to defend their rights,” said the letter sent last week by attorneys at Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz.
The dispute between Playwickian editors and school officials began after the students wrote an October editorial saying the newspaper would bar use of the word Redskins, the nickname of the school’s teams. Native American activists and others have challenged use of the same nickname for Washington’s National Football League team.
Principal Rob McGee called their motives “valiant” but said he didn’t think the issue of whether the word was offensive had been decided yet on a national level. The principal, who said he consulted with the school solicitor and others, also called it “a First Amendment issue running into another First Amendment issue” pitting the rights of one group of students against another, since all students are required to publish an article for course credit and shouldn’t be barred from writing the team’s name.
McGee told The Philadelphia Inquirer in an email earlier this week that “those skilled in interpretations of the law” will work to find a solution. If an accord cannot be reached, he said, “then the courts will define a new standard to fit our particular situation in Neshaminy,” which is named for the creek where the Lenape Indians once lived.
Nebraska
Board dismisses complaint against Omaha judge
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The state’s judicial oversight board has cleared an Omaha judge who was accused by his former wife of unethical behavior for his actions in their adult daughter’s drunken-driving case.
The Nebraska Commission on Judicial Qualifications dismissed the complaint against District Judge Michael Coffey. In its 32-page order, the commission said the judge didn’t breach any state conduct rules.
The judge declined comment Friday to The Associated Press. A phone number for his ex-wife couldn’t be found.
The complaint was filed in February 2012 by Stacy Ryan, who was divorced from Coffey in 1997. Ryan alleged that Coffey had improperly contacted probation officers regarding the actions of their eldest child, Megan Coffey, who’d been given a year of probation in March 2011 for her second DUI conviction. Megan Coffey was 23 at the time and was living independently of both parents, the commission said.
Ron Broich, Douglas County’s chief probation officer, told the commission that Ryan had told his staffers that she didn’t believe her daughter was being adequately supervised. Ryan also complained that her ex-husband was manipulating and influencing the probation office on behalf of their daughter, Broich said.
Ryan’s husband, Brad Focht, in February 2012 wrote to the judge who gave Megan Coffey the year of probation, saying Judge Coffey “has used his position to intimidate and mitigate the results of Megan’s behavior.”
The judge acknowledged contacting probation officers but said he did so only to ask questions and make a minor complaint about one officer.
The commission said none of the probation officers involved complained about Judge Coffey’s contacts or said he had been intimidating.
In its conclusion, the commission said it found “no clear and convincing evidence” to sustain the allegations and said Judge Coffey acted in his personal capacity as a father, not as a judge. And a judge “should not lose his or her rights and responsibilities as a parent simply because he or she holds judicial office,” the commission said.
