Two Trenton residents filed a lawsuit against Princeton Police for prohibiting them from handing flyers and issuing them a traffic ticket.
PRINCETON - Two Trenton residents are claiming their rights were violated during an incident last year when police stopped them from handing out flyers and issued them an "unconstitutional" traffic ticket, according to a lawsuit filed by two
family members in October.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jeannie Powell and her son Rosemon Pilot in Mercer County Superior Court last week against Princeton Borough, the Princeton Police Department, Corporal Marla Montague, Officer Michael Shubert and Chief Nicholas Sutter.
In the lawsuit, Powell and Pilot detailed an interaction they had with Montague and Shubert a year ago.
The mother and son claimed they were in Princeton on Election Day in 2014, hanging campaign literature for U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman on residents' doors, the lawsuit said.
Shubert came up and told the mother and son that they couldn't hand out campaign material without a permit for soliciting - something Powell and Pilot claim is both wrong and a violation of their first amendment rights.
The officer then asked for their licenses and, without asking for the current registration of the car they were driving, gave Powell a ticket for suspended registration, the lawsuit stated. Montague was with Shubert when he issued the ticket.
Powell and Pilot said their car was registered and that the ticket was for a car Powell used to own - 15 years before the incident. The ticket Shubert issued was dismissed the same year but the "retaliatory" nature of the ticket left its mark, according to the suit.
"(Shubert) clearly wanted (Powell and Pilot) to cease and desist their First Amendment activities and were willing to misapply basic motor vehicle laws to accomplish their unconstitutional and unlawful goals," the lawsuit stated.
The mother and son also named the borough, the police department and Chief Sutter in the lawsuit, claiming they should have known when hiring Shubert that he was, "unable or unwilling to respect and enforce the constitutional rights of the borough's citizens."
Sutter was not available for comment Friday and Marc Dashield, a representative for the town, said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit Friday afternoon.
Patrick Whelan, an attorney representing Powell and Pilot could not immediately be reached for comment.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.
