Date
October 30, 2006
Contact
Alfredo Kuba
(650) 965-8705
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner Blvd
San Rafael
CA 94901
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
Federal Judge Rules In Favor of Animal Activist in Six Flags Marine World Case
Latest Ruling States Vallejo Police Officers Named in Suit Do Not Have Qualified Immunity
Vallejo, Calif.—A federal judge ruled in favor of animal activist Alfredo Kuba in an ongoing legal battle surrounding Six Flag Marine World’s “free speech policy” and the arrest of demonstrators in front of Marine World. U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb ruled on Monday, October 23, 2006 that the Vallejo Police officers who arrested Kuba in March 2004 do not have qualified immunity because it was not reasonable for the officers to believe that Mr. Kuba was violating the law in light of Mr. Kuba’s clearly established right to protest.
Six Flags Marine World and Vallejo police officers Bautista, Schroeder, Wilcox, and Salinas are at the center of a civil law suit filed in Federal Court by Kuba, founder of Silicon Valley In Defense of Animals (SVIDA), who was assaulted, battered, falsely arrested and imprisoned while on public property, attempting to exercise his constitutional right of free speech.
According to the ruling, qualified immunity protects “government officials performing discretionary functions . . . from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitution rights of which a reasonable person should have known.” Although the defendants argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity because they were complying with the law by accepting a citizen’s arrest, Judge Shubb asserts in the ruling, “A police officer, however, is not entitled to hide behind a citizen’s arrest in place of making a determination of whether probable cause exists.”
Kuba added the city of Vallejo and Vallejo police as defendants in the lawsuit because, according to Kuba, the city of Vallejo owns the park and used its police to violate activists’ rights with threats, intimidation, coercion, false arrests, false imprisonment and violence against them.
Kuba alleges the city of Vallejo police and Six Flags Marine World employees have conspired to keep peaceful, law abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional rights of free speech for years at the publicly owned park, for no other reason than their disagreement with the activists’ views and opinions.
“Hopefully, the Vallejo Police Department will stop arresting demonstrators at the bequest of Six Flags, Inc., now that a federal judge ruled that no reasonable officer would believe that a peaceful protestor standing outside of Marine World is violating any law,” says Corey Evans, an attorney at Evans & Page, the law office that represents Mr. Kuba.
Activists are protesting the park because of the “appalling and inhumane” records pertaining to the animals held captive at the park. Six Flags Marine World has been cited and fined for violations of animal care standards issued under the Animal Welfare Act - a federal statute governing the treatment of all animals that are exhibited for commercial purpose.
For more information, including the court documents, click here.