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BREAKING NEWS: ACLU sues town over sticker policy
By Mark N. Schieldrop/Independent Staff Writer
NARRAGANSETT – The R.I. Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the town today asking the state Superior Court to halt enforcement of the town’s controversial nuisance ordinance, which allows police to post orange stickers on the doors of houses in violation.
The ACLU said in a release that the ordinance is unconstitutional. The challenge was filed on behalf of several University of Rhode Island students and two landlords who “have been affected by enforcement of the ordinance,” the release said, adding that the ordinance “violates the plaintiffs’ rights to procedural and substantive due process, privacy and freedom of association.”
Three of the plaintiffs, David Keach, Timothy DeMerchant and Michael Spatcher, face charges in District Court for violating the ordinance. Two other plaintiffs – Warren Byrne and Ben Cuddy – were evicted from their house and forced to continue paying rent even after renting a new house, the ACLU said.
Three other plaintiffs – Walter Manning and Steven and Karen Jedson – are landlords whose houses “have been pasted with an orange sticker” and claim it has made their houses harder to rent, the ACLU said.
Some residents say that the ordinance, which gives police discretion to decide whether a loud party complaint meets the criteria of an “unruly gathering” and thus should receive an orange sticker, has been effective at reducing noise, garbage and vandalism problems in some neighborhoods. Last year, the Town Council approved amending the ordinance to increase the duration an orange sticker remains on a door from 60 days to the entire academic year. Fines also were increased by $50 across the board. If police respond to a house that has a sticker, $300 will be fined for a first offense, $400 for the second and $500 for a third offense – the maximum under state law for misdemeanors. Repeat offenders can face evictions and landlords can be fined.
The lawsuit names Town Manager Jeffry Ceasrine, Town Solicitor Mark A. McSally, members of the Town Council and Police Chief Joseph T. Little Jr. It asks the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and halt enforcement.
“The orange sticker ordinance attempts to shame and humiliate students and landlords and violates their rights to due process and equal protection of the laws,” said H. Jefferson Melish of Wakefield, the lawyer filing the suit on behalf of the ACLU.
ACLU Director Steven Brown said that although the ACLU recognizes “town officials certainly have the right to address illegal behavior engaged in by students, they must do so within constitutional bounds. We believe that the town’s ‘scarlet letter’ approach crosses that line and should not be allowed to stand.”
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