Two ladies arrested in 2022 for feeding feral cats on public property in Wetumpka have filed a federal lawsuit saying the mayor and police focused them as a result of they have been outspoken animal advocates.
Police officers charged Beverly Roberts, 86, and Mary Alston, 62, with trespassing after they obtained a name concerning the ladies leaving meals for stray cats. Roberts was additionally charged with disorderly conduct and Alston confronted fees of interfering with authorities operations.
Video of the ladies’s arrests went viral and sparked outrage amongst animal advocates. The ladies had been feeding and trapping feral cats in Wetumpka to spay and neuter them as a part of an effort to cut back the inhabitants, they mentioned. The federal lawsuit filed Jan. 24 mentioned the ladies had additionally spoken up about different points affecting animals, urging higher enforcement of legal guidelines regulating the chaining of dogs.
The lawsuit mentioned the mayor and police “directed the unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution of Ms. Roberts and Ms. Alston to retaliate against them for exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble on public property, engage in expressive conduct and engage in peaceful political speech.”
Neither Alston nor Roberts had any felony historical past once they have been arrested on June 25, 2022, the lawsuit mentioned. Alston had set a lure and was ready to catch a feminine cat when she noticed Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis drive by in his automobile. Several minutes later, three police cruisers arrived and officers instructed Alston to depart.
Alston didn’t depart, and Roberts additionally arrived on the scene. The police vehicles returned, and Officers Kameron Ricks, Jason Crumpton and Brenden Foster arrested the ladies. Video of the arrest exhibits the ladies arguing with officers. At one level, Roberts slapped her keys into Foster’s fingers and known as him a “son of a bitch.”
The lawsuit names the mayor, all three officers, Wetumpka Police Chief Greg Benton and Assistant Police Chief Ed Reeves as defendants.
“Defendants Ricks, Crumpton, and Foster—each of whom is a City of Wetumpka patrol officer—violently handcuffed Ms. Roberts (an 86-year-old woman) and Ms. Alston (a 61-year-old woman), aggressively forced them into a police car, and then unjustifiably jailed them. They did so under color of state law, based on a patently absurd, obviously pretextual assertion that Ms. Roberts and Ms. Alston were ‘trespassing’ on public property,” lawsuit mentioned.
After they have been taken to the jail, Roberts misplaced consciousness and hit her head, in accordance with the lawsuit. It additionally alleges that jail officers delayed the ladies’s launch by deliberately failing to finish the required paperwork.
In December 2022, a choose discovered each ladies responsible of all fees throughout a bench trial that lasted all day. Witnesses from the town mentioned the feral cats had turn into a nuisance on public property and that the ladies’s actions had made the issue worse.
An legal professional for Roberts and Alston mentioned the 2 ladies have been attempting to assist the town, which didn’t have an official trap-neuter-release program of its personal. In the lawsuit, they mentioned feral cats had been a longstanding downside in Wetumpka. Advocates for feral cats testified on behalf of the ladies.
The choose sentenced the ladies to 2 years’ probation and fines of $50. The ladies appealed to Elmore Circuit Court, however prosecutors dropped the case earlier than it might go to trial.
Alston and Roberts are suing the City of Wetumpka and the opposite events for illegal seizure and detention, extreme power, malicious prosecution, negligence and violation of the Rehabilitation Act due to Roberts’ disabilities.
The defendants haven’t but filed a response to the lawsuit. The mayor didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
