UPDATE: Charges Dropped Against Circut City bag inspection protestor

[whoneedstickets]

http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/09/20/success/

Success

I am proud to announce that the baseless charges brought against me by the Brooklyn, Ohio Police Department were dropped this morning and the process of expunging my record has begun. Although I knew that this was a possible outcome for the last ten days, I didn’t acquire the certainty until late yesterday afternoon. I was not at liberty to make this announcement yesterday since the process had not formally been completed.

This brings to a formal conclusion my criminal defense which began when I was arrested on September 1st, 2007 at a Circuit City for refusing to provide a police officer with my driver’s license.

.....

Finally, I would like to address the donations which I accepted over the past few weeks. I received a total of $5,197.23 USD after PayPal expenses.

.....

In the end, I have decided to donate the entire $5,197.23 to the ACLU of Ohio.


EDIT-- FYI the money raised was by Righi the guy who was arrested. The OP did not raise money or give any to the ACLU. The above is a quote from the blog of Mr Righi

[lapfog_1]

1. I might make one small suggestion....

ACLU is a great idea...

could you drop some portion of that amount on our DU mods and organization??? Just to pay for the increase in bandwidth burned in the last week or so by the many threads on the topic. Say $4,000 to ACLU and $1,197.23 to DU?

[whoneedstickets]

3. Too funny. I posted this so we could find Circut City closure. nm

nm

[cboy4]

4. There is no closure at DU!!

:popcorn:

[seriousstan]

5. Who'd of thought someone here would have known how to spend your money better than you?

Go figure.


The mere fact that you are going to donate whatever you have left is noble enough for me.

God bless.

[lapfog_1]

6. It's a joke... lost on some I guess... oh well, nobody left with a sense of humor

after 7 LOOONG years of Bushco.

[The Doctor.]

8. What? They closed Circuit City?!?

Gosh, I didn't think they'd get in that much trouble. :smoke:

[Tesha]

13. Fuck that idea -- DUers (nearly) all thought he belonged in prison.

Turns out that, as with so many issues, they
were wrong we civil libertarians were right.

The ACLU is the right place to send the money.

Tesha

[malaise]

16. Bingo n/t

[lapfog_1]

18. It was a joke...

and I was one of the ones that spent the time to look up the applicable law and quote it, plus the legal definitions for probable cause.

Glad he won the case...

[pnwmom]

2. Congratulations. And I think the ACLU is the right place for the money. n/t

[bananas]

7. Hooray for someone standing up for their rights.

Boo for all the criticism he was given on a supposedly progressive liberal website.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. I agree

This was one of DU's more shameful days.

[The Doctor.]

9. Good for him. Hope the lawsuit goes well. n/t

[jberryhill]

10. So, when is he suing the store and the cops?

This doesn't do anything about his alleged violation of rights.

[Beth in VT]

14. That's what I thought - they need to be held to account. n/t

[jberryhill]

15. That's probably what most of the folks who gave him money thought.

Ha!

S'cuse me while I go out and have my "rights" violated now....

[Tesha]

11. Golly! Wot a shock! (NT)

[Richard Steele]

12. K&R without further comment.

[Dorian Gray]

17. Well

I got my bag checked when I left PC Richards the other night. They looked at my receipt, peered into my bag, and I was out of there. I didn't feel like there was ANY violation on my rights. They didn't check my purse.

In my opinion, of course, I think that this fight was totally misguided and unnecessary. I'm glad he's not facing any more charges, of course, but I do think he wasted his time, tax-payer time, and police time. For nothing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Good

This was a ridiculous case from the beginning. I am very glad the charges were dropped.