Land owner's civil rights case goes to court Land owner's civil rights case goes to court (December 08, 2000)

By Justin Scheck

At a Tuesday morning hearing at the Northern California U.S. District Court in San Jose, Judge William Ingram and attorneys for Mountain View resident Donald Letcher and the City of Mountain View set the ground rules for this week's trial of Letcher's lawsuit against three city employees.

In the suit, Letcher claims that his civil rights were violated when he was arrested on March 21, 1998, on charges of trespassing inside the Mountain View City Hall. The city later dropped the charges.

"We're saying (Letcher) has the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment," said Gary Wesley, Letcher's attorney.

The defendants in the case are James Lynch, a former Mountain View city employee, and policemen Allen Sakeguchi and Frank St. Clair. Wesley said the city was originally named in the case, but Ingram dismissed the city as a defendant because "they did not summarily order (police) officers to arrest people" unjustly.

Attorney Lou Leone, who has been contracted by the city to handle the case, made no comment, citing a policy of not commenting on cases currently in trial.

City Attorney Mike Martello said Wednesday that he felt the arrest was justified, and that he had initially wanted to have Letcher prosecuted.

"His lawyers begged us to dismiss (the charges), saying (Letcher) was not rational," Martello said. Because Lynch had made the citizen's arrest, he made the ultimate decision to drop the charges, Martello said.

According to Wesley, Letcher's case will hinge on the allegations that the arrest was unjust and violated Letcher's right to conduct business with the city. The charges in the arrest were refusing to leave public property and intimidating and abusing public officials, Wesley said.

During the incident, which occurred in the Mountain View city planning office, Letcher called the police because he felt Lynch was treating him unjustly, Wesley said. When the police officers arrived on the scene, Wesley said, they informed Lynch that if he made a citizen's arrest, the officers could remove Letcher from the building.

In a sworn statement made just after his arrest, Letcher said, "I believe Mr. Lynch wanted me to leave the building for his own personal reasons and not for other city business purposes."

Martello said that "Letcher was relatively calm" during the incident, but was "somewhat intimidating when the police were there."

"People were worried about the police leaving ... There was a history of Letcher being abusive, and he's licensed to carry a gun," Martello said. He added that shortly before the incident, Letcher had been abusive to security guards at 400 Castro St., the previous location of city hall.

Wesley said that because Letcher's arrest record has not been sealed, Letcher, a former Sunnyvale police officer, could suffer humiliation and embarrassment if others find out about the arrest. Wesley said his client was particularly concerned that he might appear diminished in the eyes of his former colleagues at the Sunnyvale Police Department.

At the hearing, Ingram referred to the claim as a "garden variety emotional distress and humiliation" suit.

The trial, which began Tuesday, will probably be over by the end of next week, according to both Wesley and the city attorney's office.