Resident's gun lawsuit will go to a jury

PAWTUCKET - A lawsuit from a city man who contends that he was illegally arrested and detained over his lawful possession of a gun while on his property is headed for a jury trial.

John Miner and his attorney say, and video submitted to the court confirms, that Pawtucket police arrested Miner after seeing him carrying his gun in a holster even though he is legally allowed to carry the weapon on the property where he lives.

Police claim that two city contractors on site said that Miner issued some kind of threat, but the contractors later said in sworn statements that there were no threats made during the incident.

"I want people to know what happened that day, that my rights were violated and that all Americans' and Rhode Islanders' rights are being violated, especially in Pawtucket," Miner told The Breeze.

This is "not just a constitutional thing, it's a statutory thing," said Miner, and the outcome of his case will have ramifications for others.

"They just basically don't know the law," he said.

City officials did not respond to a request for comment.

On July 13, District Court Judge John McConnell denied motions from both sides in this case asking for summary judgment, meaning the case will go to a jury trial. According to McConnell, there are too many unanswered questions for a judge to decide alone.

McConnell told attorneys for the city and plaintiff that he was not aware before this case of the law that allows Rhode Islanders to carry guns in their homes even if they don't have a license or permit to carry. Miner had just a blue card, a gun certification card needed to buy a gun.

Officers "were clearly wrong on the law," said McConnell, according to the court transcript, and that's a "major problem" for the defendants.

The attorney for the officers, Marc DeSisto, contends that this was a reasonable "Terry stop," or detention of a person based on reasonable suspicion of involvement with a criminal activity, given the circumstances.

According to evidence presented to the court, Miner was at home on Cole Street in December of 2013 when two city contractors came onto the property to address issues with overgrowth and rubbish. Miner's landlord, Dmitri Lyssikatos, later claimed that he wasn't notified that anyone would be entering his property.

Miner called Lyssikatos when he saw the contractors. Lyssikatos then showed up with another man, Travis Shackelford, who ended up filming the incident in question.

After Lyssikatos began arguing with the contractors, Miner came out of his home to watch. Miner played "the peacemaker" throughout, said his attorney, Corey Allard, telling Lyssikatos to calm down and staying close to the house.

Two police officers, defendants Jared Boudreault and Norman Valade, showed up to handle the situation. Valade gradually approached Miner and "suddenly grabbed him," according to Miner's attorneys. Valade yelled that Miner had a gun and then drew his own weapon. Miner then allowed the officers to disarm him, search him, handcuff him and place him in a cruiser.

Miner was driven to the Pawtucket Police Department where he was processed and held in a cell for more than four hours. After questioning Miner, reading him his Miranda rights, and getting the witness statements from the contractors, police released him without charges.

Miner filed a lawsuit alleging that officers arrested him without probable cause and falsely imprisoned him in violation of his rights.

Since the 2013 incident, Miner and Lyssikatos helped start the citizen action group Community Response Rhode Island, which is calling for police to be equipped with body cameras.

One question that needs to be addressed by a jury is when the officers determined where Miner lived, said McConnell, which would attest to the reasonableness of their belief that he needed a license or permit to carry the gun.

According to Allard, even if police can show that Miner was acting in a threatening way and that they had enough evidence for a possible disorderly conduct charge, his client was still detained for two hours beyond when the contractors made statements that he had not made threats.

Allard said that ignorance of the law is not an excuse for officers.

DeSisto said the plaintiffs must show that the officers were "plainly incompetent" or knowingly violated the law. He contends that attorneys should show one of those and the fact that Miner's statutory rights were violated for a successful suit.

McConnell asked DeSisto how "a lack of knowledge of a very clear law" was anything but "plainly incompetent" behavior on the part of the police.

DeSisto called it a "chaotic scene" and questioned how officers could be seen as incompetent for seeing that there was a situation with a gun and deciding to take Miner into custody. The officers were even caught on video telling Miner that he was wrong on the law, showing that they were not knowingly violating his rights, said DeSisto.

McConnell wasn't buying the officers' lack of knowledge as an excuse.

"I think the issue here is, were these defendants in applying the law plainly incompetent about the law, and truth be told, I believe there's no question that they were," he said.