TRI In The News
His Day in Court: Federal Judge OKs Detained Man's Lawsuit Against Feds
From One News Now
A decorated U.S. Marine arrested by federal and local authorities for anti-government postings on Facebook will have his day in court.
Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead tells OneNewsNow that Brandon Raub posted controversial song lyrics and political opinions on Facebook, then found FBI, Secret Service agents and local police swarming his Virginia home on August 16, 2012.
Whitehead found out, called the police station and got a response.
“They said, ‘Oh, he's committed no crime. We just don't like him. We're concerned about his Facebook posts.’ He was eventually put in a mental hospital,” Whitehead recalls. “We sued and got him out.”
Whitehead says Rutherford has sued the federal government, claiming it violated Raub’s First Amendment right to free speech and his Fourth Amendment right to unreasonable search and seizure.
The federal government has asked to have the Rutherford’s lawsuit dismissed, but a federal judge ruled August 2 that he sees constitutional questions that need to be answered. So the case will go to federal court.
A story about the lawsuit by the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Raub was released seven days after he was arrested, when a circuit court judge ruled that the paperwork ordering his detainment was “faulty.”
The same story reports that U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson is allowing Rutherford to demand what information federal and local authorities knew about their client before he was detained for a mental evaluation.
The newspaper story noted:
Much of the information about Raub’s alleged mental condition was developed after his arrest and emergency mental assessment, but Hudson notes in the opinion that “there is no indication that any defendant was aware of the specific contents of (emails and statements Raub was making) before Raub’s arrest."
Whitehead also alleges his client was thrown into a fence by a police officer, and his back was lacerated.
“He asked to have the wounds cleaned, but they threw a shirt on his back and it actually stuck to the blood on his back,” says Whitehead.
