EDMONDS—Libertarian State Representative candidate for the 21st Legislative District, Bruce Guthrie, who was arrested for gathering signatures on the playfield of Frances Anderson Center on Friday, June 14, is now seeking legal representation to sue the Edmonds Arts Festival, Edmonds Police Department, and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, for, what he considers, an infringement on his First Amendment rights.

Guthrie was gathering signatures to place Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver on the Washington State ballot when he was approached by the Arts Festival Manager and asked to leave. When he did not, three Edmonds Police Officers, Ryan Callahan, Robert Peck, and Trevor Matsui, intervened and arrested him on the grounds of criminal trespassing.

Shane Pocius, operations manager at the Edmonds Arts Festival, wrote in his witness report, obtained by the Lynnwood Times, that Guthrie was “aggressively gathering signatures” and harassing guests. Guthrie informed the Lynnwood Times this was not the case.

To bring a First Amendment retaliation claim, the plaintiff must allege that (1) it engaged in constitutionally protected activity; (2) the defendant’s actions would ‘chill a person of ordinary firmness’ from continuing to engage in the protected activity; and (3) the protected activity was a substantial or motivating.

In line 2.3 of the Edmonds Arts Festival Event Agreement—signed by Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen, Edmonds City Clerk Scott Passey, Edmonds Arts Festival Co-President Dianne Cutts, and Sharon Cates with the Office of the City Attorney—it explicitly states that the Festival Association would agree that the Edmonds Arts Festival would remain a public event and, as a result, “the Festival Association will permit citizens attending events open to the general public during the Edmonds Art Festival to exercise therein their protected constitutional right to free speech without interference on City property.”

On the other side of the mountains, the Spokane Police Department even ingrains one’s right to free speech in its training manual publishing, in Training Bulletin #15 through 019, that “free speech activity invokes a fundamental right under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution…In a traditional public forum, restrictions on speech will only withstand scrutiny if narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental purpose. If not, then the restriction will be found to violate a person’s First Amendment rights.”

The police department further defines public parks as being considered a traditional public forum and are not private. This does not change when a special events permit is issued to an individual for use of the park, particularly for an event which is open to the public.

This is supported by the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals decision during Gathright v. City of Portland in which the court ruled in 2006:

“A special event permit does not empower an event organizer to decide whether certain individuals may hold signs, gather signatures, hand out leaflets or project messages onto buildings. Even where speech activity conflicts with the message or purpose of the event, a permit does not privatize the property or provide a legal basis to exclude individuals.”

In another case, Goodhue v. County of Maui, held in District Court in 2015, the federal court ruled that “Our tradition of free speech commands that a speaker who takes to the street corner to express his views … should be free from interference by the State based on the content of what he says.”

This case arose out of an incident that took place at the Maui County Fair in 2013 when plaintiffs Stratford and Doreen Goodhue, both evangelical Christians, were distributing pamphlets discussing their religious beliefs.

Although the plaintiffs argued in court that Police Officers walked by them at least 25 times throughout the day without incident it wasn’t until event organizer Avery Chumbley approached the plaintiffs and requested that they leave that they felt their first amendment rights were being violated.

This incident did not result in an arrest, but Police Officers did get involve, requesting that the Goodhues move across the street to distribute their pamphlets. They did so but still filed a lawsuit against the county for invasion of their First Amendment rights to free speech.

The case was settled, and the County of Maui dropped its appeal to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals. As part of the settlement agreement, the county was required to perform specialized training for current and new Maui Police Department officers on upholding the First Amendment in public spaces. After the case was filed, the County of Maui had in turn sued the Maui County Fair  whose insurance carrier paid for the damaged and court costs.

In resolution to this case, the court concluded that, regardless of whether the sidewalk area outside the Kanaloa Gate was technically encompassed by the Fair Defendents’ permit, it remained a traditional public forum. In so finding, the Court relies upon the undisputed fact that this area was a public thoroughfare on which the public could freely walk without having to pay any admission fee. 

In Title 18. U.S.C., Section 241 – Conspiracy Against Rights, the statute makes it unlawful for two or more persons to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.”

In Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242 – Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, the statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.

And finally, in Title 18, U.S.C., Section 245 – Federally Protected Activities, the statute prohibits willful injury, intimidation, or interference, or attempt to do so, by force or threat of force of any person or class of persons because their activity as: a.) a voter or person qualifying to vote…, b.) a participant in any benefit, service, privilege, program, facility, or activity provided or administered by the United States, c.) an applicant for federal employment or an employee by the federal employment or an employee by the federal government, d.) a juror or prospective juror in federal court, and e.) a participant in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Guthrie says the first step of his lawsuit is to focus on getting cleared of his criminal trespassing charge. Phase two is to file a lawsuit.

“I don’t have a beef against the taxpayers, in fact I would feel guilty taking money from any taxpayers when the actual people who have harmed me are Shane – the event organizer – the Edmonds Police, and the Snohomish County Sheriff,” Guthrie told the Lynnwood Times. “The Nuremberg defense is not a valid defense and I really want to pursue the individual police officers.”

When asked why Guthrie had “beef” with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office when the Edmonds Police Department was the arresting, and subsequently filing, agency, he said that it was a “stressful situation” when he was being arrested and he “vaguely remembers” seeing both Edmonds Police uniforms as well as Snohomish County Sheriff uniforms.

Guthrie, 61, was strip searched then jailed at the Snohomish County Jail for six hours, four of which were in solitary confinement he said, before being released.

The Lynnwood Times reached out to Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen, the Edmonds Police Department, and the Edmonds Arts Festival Association for comment but did not receive a response by the publication of this article.

Editor’s Note: [Correction 1:48 p.m., 6/26/24] Shane Pocius, is the operations manager at the Edmonds Art Festival and not the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce.