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ACLU Files Suit on Behalf of Newspaper Publisher Arrested for Printing
Stories Critical of Police
December 21, 2001
KEY WEST ? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida filed suit in federal court today on behalf of a local newspaper publisher who was arrested by the Key West Police Department for exercising his First Amendment rights by publishing facts related to active police investigations.
Dennis Cooper, the publisher of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, was arrested on June 22, 2001 for allegedly violating an obscure "gag law" that makes it a crime to publish facts about an active police investigation. The arrest came on the same day that he published an article critical of the local police department.
Key West Police Chief Gordon Dillon arrested Cooper, citing Florida statute 112.533, which was declared unconstitutional more than a decade ago. In a 1990 decision striking down the state statute, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Zloch found that the statute "chills free speech and chills the expression of truthful information."
"Neither the First Amendment nor common sense can tolerate a newspaper publisher being arrested for doing his job ? printing the news," said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida.
Although the criminal charges against Cooper have since been dropped, the ACLU of Florida, through its cooperating attorneys Michael Barnes of Key West and James K. Green of West Palm Beach, is seeking monetary damages and an injunction to prevent the future use of the unconstitutional statute. The complaint was filed today in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, in Key West.
"The Courts are particularly sensitive to governmental actions that stifle critics who comment on matters of public concern,"added ACLU cooperating attorney Michael Barnes of Key West.
As editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, Cooper wrote numerous investigative stories that suggested that the police department was covering up corruption among its officers. He gathered the information from sources and by reviewing public records in a closed police file. When the police department failed to adequately investigate the allegations, Cooper filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
"I couldn't get any answers from the police department so I went to the FDLE," said Cooper, who founded the independent newspaper in 1994. "Some say that's breaking the rules for journalists, but my attitude is, why bother to publish a newspaper if you're not going to try to make a difference?"
Shortly after the FDLE requested that Police Chief Dillon provide additional information about the alleged police misconduct, Chief Dillon personally signed an arrest warrant that claimed Cooper's statements in the press could "substantially jeopardize the success and completion of the active investigation." The arrest came on June 22 ? the same day Cooper published yet another article about the on-going investigation.
The charges were dropped when, less than two weeks after the arrest, State Attorney Mark E. Kohl issued a memo declining to prosecute. Kohl cited Hickox v. Tyre ? the 1990 case in which Judge Zloch ruled in favor of William Hickox, who was threatened with an arrest by the Juno Beach Police Department if he filed a complaint about a "confidential" police investigation.
"The unacceptable actions of this particular Police Chief and the failure of elected city officials to curb his abuses made this lawsuit inevitable," said Cooper.
Since the arrest, there has been an increased interested in a civilian review board to monitor the actions of the Key West Police Department.
Contact:
Miami: Alessandra Soler, Public Education Director, or Howard Simon,
ACLU of Florida Executive Director: (305) 576-2337, ext. 16,
Key West: Michael Barnes, Cooperating Attorney, (305) 296-5297;
- Click here to read the 13-page complaint
- More on the ACLU and police practices
