A Willits News photographer filed suit in state court to contest his arrest for newsgathering activities in a Highway bypass construction zone near the town of Willits, California. Stephen E. Eberhard was preparing to take photos of protesters chained to construction equipment and carrying signs protesting the construction, but after he announced his intent to a California Highway Patrol officer, he was put into handcuffs and taken to the county jail. (The Willits News, April 11, 2014, by Linda Williams)
Eberhard said the CHP and Caltrans falsely described him as “part of a protest contingent” and violated his First Amendment rights by wrongly jailing him. He contended that the conduct of the agencies “would chill a person of ordinary fitness from continuing to engage in their constitutionally protected activities.” According to Barbara Wallace for the Courthouse News Service, April 14, 2014, “Eberhard seeks statutory, compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, false arrest, false imprisonment, violation of the Civil Rights/Bane Act, unnecessary delay in processing his arrest and releasing him, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”