As hoped and expected the State Attorney has dropped charges against Steve Horrigan for video tapping a traffic stop from his front yard. In an article published by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, it has been reported that Assistant State Attorney Eric Werbeck wrote “the State would be unable to prove the officer enjoyed an expectation of privacy with the defendant” and that the state likely could not “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s duties were obstructed by the defendant’s conduct.”

Now, Horrigan’s attorney Andrea Mogensen, a very active civil rights litigator has announced that her client will seek monetary damages of $200,000 from the North Port Police Department.  Given the spate of recent awards to folks like Horrigan that seem like a reasonable outcome.

After Horrigan’s arrest the North Port PD claimed in sworn affidavidts that he, Horrigan, had committed all manner of deplorable criminal violations.  The problem for the North Port PD is that Horrigan went to the trouble of creating a video of entire incident – the cause of his arrest in the first place.  The video clearly shows that Horrigan did nothing wrong and certainly committed no criminal acts.

The video did, however, show that the North Port Police Department employs liars and purjerers – and that is criminal.  Now let’s see if the State Attorney applies the law equally.  I’d be willing to bet what little I own that they won’t.