The legal wrangling related to Mulvane casino action continues with a civil suit filed in the state’s district court against the City of Mulvane and Mulvane Mayor Jim Ford by Peck resident Jacque Farnsworth.
The suit alleges Farnsworth’s constitutional rights were violated Jan. 16 when Ford ordered her escorted out of a casino meeting following an argument over the question she presented to Harrah’s developers.
The suit names violations of the right to freedom of speech, of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, and of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. It asks the court for “nominal and compensatory damages” for the violation of those rights, as well as the costs and expense of filing the action.
The suit also alleges the City of Mulvane and Mayor Ford “have a policy and practice of unconstitutionally discriminating based on speech content and viewpoint” during public comment portions of casino meetings.
According to the suit, Farnsworth was denied access to a public forum based on the content and viewpoint of her speech as a direct result of the City of Mulvane and Mayor Ford.
Farnsworth and Mayor Ford argued at the Jan. 16 city council meeting on whether her question related to social ills — which Ford had said would not be allowed during the meeting — or the casino’s impact on the economy.
Farnsworth had stated the casino would take money normally spent on the local economy before the mayor called her comments out of order. After a brief argument with the mayor, Farnsworth was escorted from the meeting by two armed police officers.
The suit alleges the mayor allowed numerous public comments expressing the opinion that the casino would be an economic boon to the City, but later that same meeting another resident wishing to speak against the casino was also silenced by the mayor.
The suit alleges similar sentiments favoring the casinos were allowed in abundance at the following March 13 meeting with the MGM/Foxwoods developers, while those who spoke against the casino were called out of order by Ford.
Those comments against the casino were heard, however, after a member of the city council stated he would like those statements to be heard. Ford still called those comments out of order.
“None of those individuals expressing the view that the casino would be good for the community required a City Council member to speak up for them before they were allowed to continue speaking,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ policy and practice of censoring speech based on content and viewpoint violated, and is violating, clearly established law.”
The suit was filed by attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, Benjamin W. Bull, Kevin Theriot and Joel Oster.
Both meetings were said to be held in order to hear public comments and questions on the proposals by the Harrah’s and MGM Mirage/Foxwoods Development casino developers.
Alliance Defense Fund Senior Council Kevin Theriot stated, “The city council seemed to deliberately want to silence any sincere objections to the location of a casino in this small town.”
The ADF is, “a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the rights of people to freely live out their faith.”
“Christians have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America,” Theriot said.
Wellington, Kan. —
