Advertisement ACLU sues Vt. State Police over 'outrageous' traffic stop Second complaint filed against officer this year Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is going to bat for a Rutland motorist filing a lawsuit against the Vermont State Police for its handling of a March traffic stop on U.S. Route 7 in Wallingford.Tap here to watch the video update on your mobile device.State Trooper Lewis Hatch said he pulled over the driver, Greg Zullo, 21, because some snow obscured the renewal decal on the corner of the rear license plate.ACLU lawyer Dan Barrett said that isn't even a violation of Vermont statute - as the rest of Zullo's license plate was perfectly readable - and said the events that followed violated Zullo's rights under the state constitution.Raw Video: VSP dashboard camera footage of the stop.The incident was captured on the VSP dashboard camera system and shows Hatch requesting the man to get out of the car.Zullo complied. Hatch said he'd detected a "faint odor" of marijuana coming from the vehicle.Zullo agreed to be searched. A police dog is heard barking loudly as Zullo empties his pockets on the hood, and is "frisked" - his shoes removed and inspected - all turning up no evidence of a crime. But Zullo declined -- repeatedly -- to allow police to search his car.Hatch decided to have it towed away. "I can smell weed. He won't let me search it, so I'm just going to take it," Hatch is heard telling a fellow trooper. "It's stupid, but whatever, it's what he wants to do."Barrett said Zullo has been arrested once before for marijuana possession, but the charge was dropped. In the video, a flatbed truck arrives about an hour after the initial stop, loaded Zullo's car and took it away to the Rutland State Police barracks.Hatch refused to give Zullo a lift, leaving him by the side of the road in March, in a sweatshirt, to walk the 8 miles home, according to the complaint.Barrett is asking the court to affirm that Hatch had no right to order Zullo from the car, take his car, or search his car, because he lacked probable cause for any of it."It's a pre-2013 mentality," Barrett explained Monday. "Having a small amount of marijuana is no longer a crime (in Vermont), so it's absolutely unreasonable to keep someone on the side of the road for an hour, let alone take their car away and search it over the allegation they have a small amount of marijuana."In 2013, Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a marijuana decriminalization bill. Possession of less than 1 ounce of pot is now regarded as a civil offense.Hatch got a judge to issue a search warrant that evening and found a small "pipe and grinder" in Zullo's Pontiac Sunfire. The motorist was not charged with any offense but did have to pay $150 for the tow if he wanted his car back."It does concern us that this young African-American motorist was subjected to a real roadside ordeal" Barrett said. "It's the definition of outrageous, as far as I'm concerned."Zullo did not respond to a request left Monday seeking comment.Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, the assistant attorney general assigned to defend the VSP in the Zullo case, said she'd just received the lawsuit."We've just started to begin our review," she said, declining comment. Her response to the suit must be filed in court by mid-November, she said.Court records also reveal this is not the first complaint filed this year against Hatch over his conduct during roadside traffic stops.Aaron Hightower and his nephew, Rahmall Hightower, both residents of New York State, have filed a lawsuit over two incidents in July, 2013 and April, 2014.The documents allege that Hatch committed "assault, battery, and unlawful imprisonment" against the men after Hatch pulled their cars over on separate occasions. The document claim the men were strip-searched and forced to expose their bodies from their chests to their ankles in full view of passing motorists. The lawsuit called Hatch's conduct "grossly inhumane treatment and humiliation at the hands of a public servant" and a violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. The Hightower lawsuit is now pending in Federal Court in Rutland and seeks both punitive and compensatory damages.Zullo is seeking only compensatory damages and legal fees, though the ACLU hopes it clarifies what police in Vermont can do now that the pot decriminalization law is in effect.Raw Video: VSP dashboard cam of Wallingford, Vt. traffic stop