A man who was arrested by Scottsdale police while filming anti-speed-camera activists during a 2008 protest is suing the city in federal court.
Jason Shelton, who now lives in Bonner Springs, Kansas, alleges in a lawsuit filed yesterday that the police made a false arrest, infringed on his civil rights, inflicted intentional emotional distress and -- perhaps worst of all -- assaulted him.
Before we get into that, we noticed today on the Maricopa County Superior Court's Web site that a jury found Shelton not guilty last year of fraud charges related to the sale of a vehicle on Craig's list.
Scottsdale must have really hosed it on the fraud case. Records show that Shelton even handled it himself, acting as his own lawyer during the trial.
He did well in the case related to the August 27, 2008 protest, too. A judge dropped all of the charges after prosecutors failed to show any evidence Shelton had committed a crime. You can read extensive details of the case on the Freedom's Phoenix Web site. But suffice it say, Shelton's arrest and the subsequent charges of failure to give his true name and obstruction of government operations were complete and utter ca-ca.
Now he's striking back with the lawsuit, which you can read below. We called a phone number for him in Bonner Springs, but couldn't reach him.
Shelton and his Chandler lawyer for the lawsuit, Marc Victor, filed a notice of claim with Scottsdale last year regarding the protest arrest, but it wasn't acknowledged. We've requested a copy of the claim, which should state how much money Shelton is looking for, and we'll update this post when we find out.
With Shelton's record of wins, we're betting Scottsdale settles.
UPDATE: We received the notice of claim from Scottsdale, which contained a copy of a reprimand issued against the cop who "stomped" Shelton's foot. Click here for more info.
Shelton Lawsuit
