Court Reverses Verdict in Case of ‘Duck’ Sign

Last year, a Santa Clarita Valley jury found Gary Shaw guilty of foul play for responding to a traffic ticket and the sheriff’s deputy who gave it to him by placing a sign on the back of his van that said: “Deputy J. Banks can suck my duck.”

Following a two-year legal skirmish capped by a five-day trial, Shaw was convicted of disturbing the peace after the jurors agreed with prosecutors that the sign had provoked a violent response from residents in his previously quiet Valencia neighborhood.

But an appeals court disagreed this week. Those aren’t fighting words, the three judges concluded in reversing the verdict Wednesday.

After apparently winning the legal battle that has taken center stage in his life, Shaw was not short for words Friday. He castigated the legal system for his ordeal.

Shaw employed four lawyers, spent--by his estimate--more than $20,000, and turned down early offers to plea-bargain in his pursuit of keeping a clean record and proving he had done nothing wrong.

All told, Shaw said, he has learned one lesson:

“If you ever get charged with anything, just cop a plea,” said Shaw, who owns a messenger service. “Even if you’re innocent like me. Because it will ruin your life, your bank account, your business. The conviction was reversed, but justice was not done.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael P. Noyes, who was the prosecutor in the Shaw case, said it was unclear whether his agency would appeal the reversal or seek a new trial.

Though Shaw said he fought the charges on the principle of free speech, that was never an issue at his trial in April, 1992.

Noyes successfully argued that Shaw’s free speech rights were secondary to the public good. In this case, Noyes said state law prohibits the use of offensive words in a public place that are likely to provoke an “immediate violent reaction.”

Noyes argued that the sign met that legal standard because it provoked an angry dispute between Shaw and some of his neighbors. The neighbors contended during the trial that the sign had originally contained an off-color word which Shaw later changed to the word “duck.”

After his conviction, Shaw was sentenced to a year on probation and a $1,087 fine.

But the judges of the Appellate Department of the Superior Court said in their ruling that the language of the sign did not meet legal criteria for “fighting words,” therefore Shaw cannot be punished for it.

Shaw praised one of his attorneys, Eve Triffo, for the appellate victory but said he hopes it is his last tangle with the law and lawyers.

“I have attorney bills coming out my ears,” he said. “And tune into this: Now that it’s been reversed I should get my $1,087 back. So I asked how I get it and I am told that I should probably hire an attorney. Sometimes you just can’t win.”