Hermosa Beach Law on Displaying Signs Will Be ACLU Target

A misdemeanor charge against longtime activist Paul Herriott for displaying political signs on his car was dropped this week by the City of Hermosa Beach, but the American Civil Liberties Union says it will press the city to rewrite its law prohibiting political signs on public property.

Herriott said he plans a civil suit to win damages and lost wages he claims he suffered while fighting the citation.

Herriott’s spat with the city began on Election Day in November when he was charged with violating the sign ban by parking his car, which had five signs on and leaning against it, on Pier Avenue. Police confiscated the signs and several balloons, which promoted the City Council campaign of Roger Creighton.

Herriott, 51, who faced a fine of up to $300 and a maximum jail sentence of 90 days if convicted, said he has staged similar campaigns on the same corner during the past 20 years without a problem.

Warned to Move Car

Officer Spike Kelly said in an interview that he warned Herriott earlier that morning to remove his car and political signs from city-owned vacant lot on Pacific Coast Highway. He confiscated the signs later, when he found Herriott had moved to Pier Avenue.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Carol Sobel, who represented Herriott, said the issue is “a fundamental kind of free-speech case. The most basic free-speech cases grow out of some member of the community trying to get his message or her message to the rest of the community.”

City Prosecutor John Barry disagreed, calling the matter “trivial.”

“I don’t think it was big enough even for the ACLU,” Barry added. “They get some chicken deals, but this is below the charts.”

He wouldn’t waste the city’s money on a case that “wasn’t a big deal,” Barry said.

The city always was willing to dismiss the criminal charge as long as Herriott would stipulate that the police had “probable cause” to arrest him, Barry said. The stipulation would help the city defend itself in a civil suit, he said.

Herriott refused and the ACLU stepped in. After consulting with City Manager Kevin Northcraft and City Atty. James Lough, Barry said he decided to drop the charge--without a stipulation.

Herriott believes he was victorious and so does the ACLU. The city’s ordinance is unconstitutional, Sobel asserted, and because the city dropped the charge without a stipulation, it is, in effect, acknowledging that.

Barry disagreed and maintained that the law is constitutional. “I had confidence the arrest was correct and he got off scot-free” because it’s not worth the expense to pursue it, the prosecutor said.

The city no longer needed the stipulation, he believed, because he thought the time period to file a claim--the first step to a lawsuit against a city--had passed, and he did not know that Herriott had filed a $500,000 claim on Jan. 28.

“I wasn’t aware of the claim,” Barry said. “. . . that puts quite a different color on the whole thing.” In Hermosa Beach, the prosecutor does not handle claims.

Northcraft said that getting a stipulation from Herriott was not a factor in dropping the criminal charge because “we don’t think the claim is valid.”

He said the prosecutor “raised a question on the appropriateness” of the criminal charge and indicated the law was open to interpretation.

Herriott’s claim was denied by the City Council on Feb. 9. He has until August to file a lawsuit in Torrance Superior Court, which he said he plans to do.

He said in his claim that his state and federal constitutional rights of free speech were violated and that he was falsely arrested and imprisoned. According to police, Herriott was only cited, not arrested or imprisoned.

Herriott, who is in the merchant marine, said in an interview that he plans to sue the city because he spent $1,200 for an attorney--who quit before the ACLU agreed to represent him--lost up to seven months salary because he stayed home to defend the citation instead of going to sea, suffered the insult of a criminal charge and had his life disrupted.

“If I violate a law, I pay a ticket,” Herriott said. “Now, I didn’t violate a law and I think the city should pay my attorney fees. . . . I lived here for 30 years and I don’t think they should treat law-abiding, tax-paying citizens that way--like criminals.”

Sobel said the ACLU has not decided if it will represent Herriott in his civil suit. If not, Herriott said he will get another lawyer.

Sobel said the ACLU will urge the city to rewrite its ordinance so that it prohibits all private signs, not just political ones, from public property. “It seems to us, there should be no distinction between political signs and nonpolitical signs,” she said.

Barry said it would be constructive for the city to consider rewriting the ordinance to include all signs, but he believes it is constitutional as is.