As I mentioned in the previous post, we filed a lawsuit against the city of Parkersburg, West Virginia, for the alleged sexual orientation hate crime beating of our client, Timothy Mazza.  There is a good article in the Charleston Gazette – actually the Sunday Gazette Mail, as it is called on Sundays – top of the fold on the front page.  It features a color picture of Mr. Mazza displaying the large black and blue side of his abdomen where his rib was fractured.  The reason I say it is a good article is because the reporter, Gary Harki, conducted his own investigation into the case.  He interviewed witnesses and examined evidence.  Other reporters would have just regurgitated the lawsuit.

An interesting thing about the article is that the mayor and the police chief of the town are quoted several times in reference to the case:

Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell and Police Chief Joe Martin dispute Mazza’s claims. Newell said that if what Mazza claims is true, he should have talked to police – not to a lawyer and the news media. . . .

The mayor blames the lawsuit on what he says is West Virginia’s need for tort reform.

“It is very aggravating that it is being handled this way,” Newell said. “I’ve dealt with attorneys a lot, and they are trying to get cases settled through public pressure.” . . .

Martin and Newell said they will ask their insurance carriers to allow the case to go to court, rather than settle.

Martin, who became chief after the incident, said they never received a formal complaint or even a phone call about the incident before being served with the lawsuit.

“We will let it work itself out through the legal process,” he said. “He can say whatever he wants to say. We’re not as free to speak as they would be.”

So let me get this straight.  If the police trespass on your property, beat you up, fracture your rib, refuse to take you to the hospital, keep you in jail overnight, and call you gay slurs while doing so, you should go to them for help?  Let me tell you something.  I have people who call my office or email me everyday with similar experiences, and there is absolutely no one willing to help them.  Making a formal complaint is laughable.  The only complaint they take seriously is one filed in a courthouse.  Why would you go to them for help while they are trying to prosecute you.  They never voluntarily dropped the charges against Mazza.  It took a criminal defense attorney going to the court to cross examine the officers in order to point out the civil rights violations which occurred.  It was the court that dismissed the charges.  The prosecutors/cops were all-the-while trying to get Mazza to agree to a plea involving 30 days in jail.  It is outrageous to claim that instead of going to lawyers he should have gone to the police.

In reality, Mazza comes from a long line of law enforcement officers.  His father was a police chief.  He has great respect for law enforcement.  After this happened, phone calls were made, and they were ignored.  The police chief would not return a phone call from, or communicate with, Tim’s police chief father about what happened to Tim – nor would they even provide Tim or his father with the officers’ names.  It took lawyers to take action.  And American citizens have every right to go to the media, as we are guaranteed the ability to do under the First Amendment of the US Constitution (regardless of whether the Parkersburg mayor and police chief agree with that document).