Boston attorney Howard Friedman
Massachusetts lawyer Simon Glik is suing three Boston police officers and the city in Boston federal court for arresting him after he used his cell phone to record an arrest.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed Glik v. Cunniffe in the District of Massachusetts on Monday, along with Boston attorney Howard Friedman.
Glik was arrested in October 2007 after openly using his cell phone to record police allegedly using force during a Boston arrest. The Boston Municipal Court threw out the case after four months. At the time of his arrest, Glik was a recent New England School of Law graduate, who had just wrapped up a clerkship with the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court Department.
Glik seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees.
The lawsuit says Glik is suing the city for "failing to properly train Boston police officers that they cannot arrest people for openly making video or audio recordings of their conduct in public."
The suit also claims the city "failed to supervise and discipline" Boston police officers to ensure that they made arrests that complied with the state's unlawful wiretap statute.
The defendants include the city, police sergeant John Cunniffe, police officer Peter Savalis and police officer Hall-Brewster, whose first name is unknown to the plaintiffs.
Reached by telephone at his West Roxbury, Mass., residence, Glik referred all questions to his attorneys.
The Massachusetts statute bars only secret audio recordings of police activity, not open audio recordings or any type of video recording, said Friedman, who specializes in civil rights and police misconduct claims.
"We hope the lawsuit will have the effect of changing the practice and training policies in Boston and also in other departments that will learn of the case and see the precedent set by the decisions in this case," Friedman said.
The Boston Police Department generally doesn't comment on pending litigation, said spokesman Eddy Chrispin.
Christopher Loh, a spokesman in mayor Thomas Menino's press office, said the city had no comment at this time because it hasn't been served with the lawsuit.
