Cop Found Finger Offensive But It Wasn’t A Legal Offense

(March 16, 2019) A cop found getting the finger after issuing a ticket was offensive but he went too far when he pulled the car over again to change the ticket he just issued to a moving violation from a non-moving violation. Now the cop must face a trial for violating the driver’s civil rights.

The case arose when City of Taylor, Michigan policeman Matthew Minard pulled over Debra Cruise-Gulyas for speeding. He wrote a ticket for a lesser, non-moving violation.

Then, as the appellate court wrote, “As she drove away, Cruise-Gulyas repaid Minard’s kindness by raising her middle finger at him. Minard pulled Cruise-Gulyas over a second time, less than 100 yards from where the initial stop occurred, and amended the ticket to a speeding violation,” a more serious offense in Michigan.

She sued under Sec. 1983 for violation of her constitutional rights under the Fourth and First Amendments. Minard argued the case should be dismissed because he had qualified immunity. Neither the trial court nor the appellate court agreed and ordered the case be tried on the merits.

The appellate court said Ms. Cruise-Gulyas “could not be stopped a second time in the absence of a new violation of the law, that she had a free speech right to make the gesture, and that the gesture did not violate any identified law.” The court noted that the officer did not argue that the gesture was a potential ground for the second stop. “Any reasonable officer would know that a citizen who raises her middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment,” the opinion states.

In addition, the Fourth Amendment protected the driver from an unreasonable seizure by stopping her a second time. “Any authority to seize her in connection with that infraction [the original speeding stop] ended when the first stop concluded.”

“Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule. But that doesn’t make them illegal or for that matter punishable or for that matter grounds for a seizure,” the appellate court found.

Debra Lee Cruise-Gulyas v. Matthew Wayne Minard, Sixth Cir. No. 18-2196, issued March 13, 2019.