Most of those who noticed Barron Segar's anonymous protest outside WSB-TV two years ago — he put a sign in the window of his parked car that said "Shame on WSB" to protest the firing of a gay reporter — have probably long forgotten it.

Segar definitely has not. Since learning that station officials apparently had his tags run by an Atlanta cop who also worked security at the ABC affiliate, Segar has wanted to settle accounts.

"They broke the law and now there needs to be accountability," he says. "They need to acknowledge what they've done."

Last month, Segar filed a lawsuit against Cox Enterprises, which owns WSB, as well as various other players in a mini-drama that centers on privacy issues. Segar had intended his protest to be anonymous, but says WSB blew his cover when it illegally acquired his tag information from police officer Larry Bennett. The station even called Segar's neighbor to inquire about him.

Segar dashed off letters of complaint, including one to the Atlanta Police Department, which concluded in an internal investigation that Bennett had improperly run a check on Segar's tags at the request of Alex Shapiro. Shapiro, a Fulton County Sheriff's Department reserve officer, was also head of security at WSB and Bennett's boss when the Atlanta cop was working security at WSB. The internal investigation resulted in Bennett being suspended for five days without pay for "accessing and improperly turning over to Mr. Shapiro information Shapiro had no right to obtain."

But Segar's still incensed that WSB hasn't owned up to its role in exposing his anonymous protest. "I want to make sure that the next person who wants to park on the street and put a sign on their window can do that and not be investigated the way I was," he says.

Although no amount is named in the lawsuit, Segar says anything he wins he'll donate to charity.

Greg Stone, WSB-TV general manager, said, "In this situation, the station?took a measured response to a clear security risk. We simply asked law?enforcement to identify who owned a car that contained a crude, menacing?sign toward us. ... Once we found out it was someone who lived in the?neighborhood, we were less concerned aout the security element of it."-- Steve Fennessy