[Peace] Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller Arrive At Settlement In Federal Suit For 2004 Eavesdropping Charges

[Brian Dolinar]

In negotiations this summer, Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller arrived at a
settlement in a civil suit against local authorities claiming their civil
rights had been violated when eavesdropping charges were leveled against
them in 2004 for videotaping the police.

In June 2005, Thompson and Miller filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court against Champaign, Urbana, and Champaign County. The
complaint contained three major components: 1) Patrick Thompson had been
racially profiled by Champaign police in three traffic stops in late 2003.
2) Martel Miller had his Fourth Amendment rights violated when Champaign
police illegally seized his videotape and equipment. 3) Assistant State's
Attorney Elizabeth Dobson had maliciously prosecuted Miller and Thompson on
charges of felony eavesdropping.

Those named in the original suit included Champaign City Manager Steve
Carter, Champaign Police Chief R.T. Finney, Deputy Chiefs John Murphy and
Troy Daniels, Sgt. David Griffet, Officer Justus Clinton, State's Attorney
John Piland, and Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Dobson.

In a series of events that led up to the eavesdropping charges, there were
several questionable traffic stops. Thompson was stopped by Champaign Police
in October 2003 for an alleged seat belt violation. In December 2003,
Thompson was sitting in his car in a parking lot waiting to merge into
traffic when Champaign Sgt. David Griffet approached him and asked what was
in the cup he was drinking from, apparently suspecting it was alcohol.
Thompson answered that he was drinking tea. Although he was allowed to go,
Thompson says he was followed by several police cars and later was stopped
by one of them. He was given a warning ticket for having a license plate
light out, an illegitimate claim according to Thompson. He entered a formal
complaint for what he said was a case of racial profiling.

In January 9, 2004, a meeting took place between City Manager Steve Carter,
several members of the Champaign police command staff, Patrick Thompson, and
John Lee Johnson, then still alive. Despite Johnson's support of Thompson,
the complaint was dismissed. In a letter dated February 5, 2004, Steve
Carter wrote:

"After reviewing the information from our meeting and the police reports,
and after conferring with the City Attorney with regard to the legal
arguments made by Mr. Johnson, it is my decision to uphold the decisions of
the Chief. As to whether the stops were racially motivated, I do not feel
that there were facts presented to support this allegation […]. Finally,
neither the fact that you were not ticketed for the alleged seat belt
violation nor that you were issued a warning ticket for the equipment
violation seems to indicate racial bias."

Exhausting the complaint process, Thompson took direction action, teaming up
with long-time friend Martel Miller to videotape police encounters with
African Americans. After notifying authorities of their intentions in a
letter dated March 26, 2004, Thompson and Miller hit the streets collecting
video footage. As early as June 2004, Champaign police moved to shut them
down. Indeed, Thompson captured video images of Assistant State's Attorney
Elizabeth Dobson watching him with her own video camera.

On August 7, 2004, Champaign police seized Martel Miller's camera and tape
without arresting him and without a warrant. On August 10, the State's
Attorney filed charges against Miller, but Judge Heidi Ladd refused to agree
to a warrant and instead issued a summons for him to appear in court. On
August 23, Miller was formally indicted on two counts of felony
eavesdropping, an antiquated law that was never enforced—that is, not until
two black activists started videotaping police. The following day, August
24, Thompson was arrested on charges of home invasion and sexual abuse, and
held on an exorbitant $250,000 bond. On September 2, 2004, Thompson was
charged for the first time with eavesdropping and Miller was hit with a
third charge.

State's Attorney John Piland told the *News-Gazette * (Oct. 17, 2004) that
the eavesdropping charges were filed at the request of the Champaign Police
Department's command staff. The police, he said, wanted the charges kept
against Thompson and Miller to bring them to the table for a conversation.

City Manager Steve Carter refuted Piland, saying "R.T. was consistent from
early on that we were interested in having the charges dropped." Chief
Finney stuck to this script, telling me in 2007 that he knew nothing about
plot to charge Thompson and Miller, and that if he had known he would have
put a stop to it.

An affidavit from Elizabeth Dobson refutes Finney's claim. According to
Dobson, on August 9, 2004, she met with command staff at the Champaign
Police Station to discuss charges against Thompson and Miller. Dobson states
that Chief Finney's concern was that Champaign "not be the first or only
police agency alleged as the victim of the Eavesdropping offense." Chief
Finney, Dobson claims, wanted the University of Illinois Police Department
to go along with the charges. After UIPD refused to participate, the
prosecution still went forward.

In the following weeks there were several public screenings of *Citizen's
Watch*, the video produced from Thompson and Miller's footage, and
editorials in the *News-Gazette* criticizing Piland. The phony eavesdropping
charges turned out to be a great embarrassment for local authorities. Piland
eventually dropped the charges against Miller, and after a new State's
Attorney was elected in November 2004, eavesdropping charges against
Thompson were also dismissed.

Since it was filed in 2005, the federal suit managed to withstand challenges
by an army of city, county, and private attorneys. The complaint was
originally written and defended by Thompson, and was later picked up by Bob
Kirchner and Ruth Wyman who had stepped in to provide counsel on Thompson's
sexual abuse and home invasion case. The legal accomplishments of Thompson,
a legal novice, have truly been extraordinary. Thompson defended himself in
his first trial against criminal charges of sexual abuse invasion and
received a hung jury. He won a small claims suit against his former attorney
Harvey Welch. And now he has forced a settlement in a federal courthouse.

Yet despite the egregiousness of public officials, legal immunity still
protected many of their actions. The suit originally asked for more than a
million dollars in compensation, but in the end the settlement came in far
below that figure. Although there was no confidentiality agreement that
often goes along with such a settlement, Thompson and Miller asked that the
dollar amount not be made public.

A settlement in this case indicates that local authorities were unwilling to
take the stand to defend their actions in 2004. The full extent of their
conspiracy to send Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller to prison will remain
unknown.
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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