A man arrested after posting his encounter with Wetumpka police officers to YouTube in June has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated.
Lynwood Keith Golden, of Coosada, was arrested June 7, five days after filming outside the Wetumpka Police Department. He was charged with interference with public safety communications.
While standing on the public sidewalk with his video equipment, several Wetumpka police officers approached Golden and questioned what he was doing.
Golden, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant, said he was exercising his First Amendment rights, and he refused to show officers his identification. One officer stated, "I don't care about your First Amendment right," according to the video of the interaction posted to Golden's YouTube channel Bama Camera.
Golden's charge was dropped in July when an Elmore County grand jury didn't indict him.
The civil rights lawsuit was filed today against the city of Wetumpka and the Wetumpka Police Department in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama-Northern Division. Golden is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama and Buntin, Etheredge and Fowler LLC in Dothan.
Golden, who seeks compensatory and punitive damages, claims officers illegally seized his camera equipment, falsely arrested him and used excessive force.
"This lawsuit involved speech at the very core of the First Amendment," Randall C. Marshall, legal director for ACLU of Alabama, said. "No one should have to face felony criminal charges just for exercising clearly established First Amendment rights. That a city police officer would tell a citizen, 'I don't care about your First Amendment rights' is unconscionable. Perhaps through this lawsuit, the city and its police officers will learn a lesson about the Constitution."
Wetumpka city attorney Regina Edwards said she was notified of the filing of the lawsuit today.
"I haven't had a chance to review the complaint," she said. "I am not in a position to comment."
Wetumpka police claim Golden asked his followers "to begin mass communications" against the department.
"This sparks computer generated calling to the parties filmed in the videos, social media attacks on the municipalities involved, family members of officers and civilians, emails to the local governments and threats to the officer's lives," the city of Wetumpka stated in a June press release.
Wetumpka police say the large volume of calls jammed the department's phone system blocking their "ability to notify ambulance and fire service of emergency calls."
This, in turn, caused "chaos" which crippled the police department's phone system for days, and forced the department to take down its Facebook page.
According to the ACLU, Golden didn't urge anyone to call the police department.
The group Photography is not a Crime did publish an article about Golden's arrest and provided the phone number to the Wetumpka Police Department and a link to the department's Facebook page.