WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania man is suing the police officer who cited him for cursing at a Walmart employee last year, saying his right to free speech was violated.
The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice reports (https://bit.ly/2sw0o01 ) that 67-year-old James Kudrako was convicted of using obscene language, but the ruling was overturned on appeal. He filed suit against a Wilkes-Barre Township police officer last week.
Kudrako acknowledges that he repeatedly used the F-word in the dispute with the employee and police, but his lawyer says courts have ruled that provisions prohibiting obscenity apply only to sexually explicit language. A prosecutor argued that the First Amendment has limits and using swearwords in public could cause “inconvenience, annoyance and alarm.”
Kudrako is suing for unspecified damages. He says the court proceedings cost him $4,500.
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