NORTH CAROLINA (July 5, 2023) \u2014 Joshua Rohrer, a disabled and formerly homeless veteran who was forcibly arrested under an unconstitutional anti-panhandling law and whose service dog, Sunshine, was tased during the arrest, filed a lawsuit Friday in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.\u00a0 Mr. Rohrer seeks damages for the injuries he suffered during the arrest and from the loss of his service dog, as well as for the City\u2019s extended campaign of making false, taunting, and disparaging statements about him on social media.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was filed against the City of Gastonia, the two City police officers who arrested Mr. Rohrer, and the City employees responsible for running the Gastonia Police Department Facebook page. It asserts claims under the First and Fourth Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and state law. Mr. Rohrer is represented by the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center (ICAP) and the Guidry Law Firm.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that in October 2021, Gastonia police officers Cierra Brooks and Maurice Taylor III approached Mr. Rohrer and Sunshine while they were standing on the median of a public road in order to arrest Mr. Rohrer under the City\u2019s plainly unconstitutional anti-panhandling ordinances. During the arrest\u2014and despite knowing of Mr. Rohrer\u2019s disabilities\u2014the officers unnecessarily escalated the situation, forcing Mr. Rohrer against their car and then to the ground and tasing Sunshine, who ran off and was later killed by a car.<\/p>\n
Following that event, Mr. Rohrer and members of the community issued public calls for accountability for the City and the officers involved. In retaliation for Mr. Rohrer\u2019s activism, the City has made hundreds of disparaging, false, and taunting public comments through the official Gastonia Police Department Facebook account\u2014a retaliation campaign that continues to this day more than a year and a half later. The City\u2019s comments attack Mr. Rohrer\u2019s character and intentionally mislead the public about the events of the day and the fact that the criminal charges brought against Mr. Rohrer were dismissed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gastonia police officers who arrested Mr. Rohrer with gratuitous force and tased Sunshine did so with full knowledge that he has military service\u2013related PTSD and is reliant on his service dog to function,\u201d said ICAP senior counsel Elizabeth Cruikshank.\u00a0 \u201cMr. Rohrer\u2019s life will never be the same, but this lawsuit seeks justice for the lasting physical and emotional harm the Gastonia police inflicted on him and for the loss of Sunshine.\u00a0 And it will send a message to Gastonia and to police departments everywhere that they will face accountability for these kinds of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Rohrer has been\u2014and continues to be\u2014targeted by the Gastonia police for his constitutionally protected speech, from standing on a median accepting donations from passersby to protesting government misconduct and calling for accountability in the wake of his arrest,\u201d said ICAP senior counsel Joseph Mead.\u00a0 \u201cThis case is about ensuring that even members of the most vulnerable populations in our society\u2014including people with disabilities or without housing\u2014will be protected from government overreach and retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read the complaint<\/a>. —<\/p>\n The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP<\/strong>) at Georgetown University Law Center uses strategic legal advocacy to defend constitutional rights and values while working to restore people\u2019s confidence in the integrity of their governmental institutions. More information about ICAP can be found at https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap.<\/p>\n Guidry Law Firm<\/strong> is a boutique business litigation firm that provides strategic and practical advice to its clients, representing them in and out of court to resolve disputes, recover damages, and defend against claims. More information about Guidry Law Firm can be found at https:\/\/www.guidrylawfirm.com.<\/p>\n Press Contacts:<\/strong> NORTH CAROLINA (July 5, 2023) \u2014 Joshua Rohrer, a disabled and formerly homeless veteran who was forcibly arrested under an unconstitutional anti-panhandling law and whose service dog, Sunshine, was tased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10947,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-3513","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3513"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4757,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513\/revisions\/4757"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVideo footage of Mr. Rohrer\u2019s arrest can be viewed on City of Gastonia’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nElizabeth Cruikshank, erc56@georgetown.edu
\nJoseph Mead, jm3468@georgetown.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"