Activist Charles Grapski files new suit against Alachua, employees

Political activist Charles Grapski has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Alachua as well as former and current employees alleging violations of his constitutional rights in 2006 and 2007.

Grapski's 78-page complaint names as defendants the City of Alachua, former city manager Clovis Watson, Jr., former mayor Jean Calderwood, former chief of police Robert Jernigan, current mayor and former commissioner Gib Coerper, and Alachua Police Department (APD) Lieutenant Patrick Barcia. The complaint, which demands a jury trial, was filed July 20.

The incidents for which Grapski seeks damages are an April 28, 2006 arrest for the alleged illegal recording of Watson and other employees, two February 12, 2007 incidents in which Grapski was trespassed from the temporary City Hall and ejected from a City Commission meeting for disorderly conduct, an August 6, 2007 incident in which Grapski was again ejected from a City Commission meeting for disorderly conduct, and an August 13, 2007 incident in which Grapski was arrested for disorderly conduct at APD after attempting to file a complaint against former police chief Jernigan.

A judge dismissed the illegal recording case against Grapski, ruling Grapski had a right to record a public official in his or her office in a public building.

Grapski claims that during the incidents in his complaint, his First Amendment rights to engage in free expression and to petition the government for redress of his grievances were violated, and his Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights were violated during the seizure of his person and property, his unlawful arrest and detention, and the malicious prosecution of false criminal charges.

In his complaint, Grapski claims he “has suffered damages as a direct and proximate result of his illegal arrest and detention, including loss of his freedom, physical discomfort, pain and suffering, fear of physical assault, humiliation and embarrassment.”

The complaint further alleged that Alachua and its employees arrested him “because they wished to thwart his efforts to file a complaint against official wrongdoing by city officials and as part of their campaign to punish plaintiff for his political speech, his several suits against the city, and his political activism, and not because the plaintiff was violating any law or otherwise breaching the peace.”

Grapski is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys fees and costs.

Attorneys Gary S. Edinger and Joseph W. Little are representing Grapski in the lawsuit. Edinger represented Adult World, a sex shop, in its quest to set up shop on U.S. Hwy 441 near Interstate 75 in Alachua in 2003. Little is a University of Florida Levin College of Law professor who has represented Grapski and activist Michael Canney in an ongoing public records case against the city.