A Syracuse man claims in a federal lawsuit that DeWitt police violated his rights to free speech and religion when they arrested him last year for preaching from the sidewalk. Nicholas Auricchio, 42, sued the town and the police department this week in U.S. District Court over his arrest Sept. 6, 2009, on charges of violating the town noise ordinance....
A Syracuse man claims in a federal lawsuit that DeWitt police violated his rights to free speech and religion when they arrested him last year for preaching from the sidewalk.
Nicholas Auricchio, 42, sued the town and the police department this week in U.S. District Court over his arrest Sept. 6, 2009, on charges of violating the town noise ordinance.
Auricchio, described in the lawsuit as a “professing Catholic Christian and a traveling evangelist,” was standing on a sidewalk across East Genesee Street from Holy Cross Church at 4:45 p.m. when he started sharing his religious beliefs “in a raised voice,” the lawsuit said. The area is often noisy with passing traffic, the lawsuit said. He did not use any kind of amplifier, the suit said.
Here’s what happened from there, according to the lawsuit:
Within 10 minutes, two DeWitt police officers ordered him to stop. They told him he was causing a disturbance and that if he didn’t stop, they’d arrest him. One of the officers was identified in court papers as Brenton White.
White told Auricchio that he’d be arrested if he preached in DeWitt.
While White continued talking with Auricchio, the other officer went to a nearby home and spoke to the occupant. That officer returned and told Auricchio the resident said Auricchio had been “yelling about undergarments.” Auricchio told the officers he never said that, then turned toward the church and said, “Repent of your sins. Turn to Jesus Christ and be saved.”
The second officer then told White to handcuff Auricchio and put him in their patrol, but that “this is not an arrest.” Auricchio sat for 15 to 20 minutes in the back of the hot and stuffy car with the cuffs digging into his wrists, the suit alleges. The officers took him to the DeWitt police station, where they placed him in a holding cell for an hour.
The officers then gave Auricchio an appearance ticket saying he violated the town’s noise ordinance.
Within a month, the charge was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. The case was dismissed six months later, according to Auricchio’s lawyer and brother, Michael Auricchio.
Neither of the Auricchios would comment. DeWitt Police Chief Eugene Conway did not return a phone message. Nor did DeWitt Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko or the town attorney.
The zoning ordinance, enacted in 1975, prohibits any annoying sound that causes “public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm or disturbs the public’s peace, comfort or tranquility.”
The law violated Auricchio’s right to free speech and religion by inhibiting him from expressing his religious message, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare DeWitt’s noise ordinance unconstitutional and to order the town to stop using it to restrict constitutionally protected speech. The suit also asks the court to award unspecific damages.
--John O’Brien can be reached at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.