MASEL SUES COPS IN KANSAS CITY

Five years ago, Ben Masel was hauled off a train and jailed in Kansas
City, Mo., for telling two young passengers they did not have to
consent to a police search.

The police in 2001 called it obstruction. This month Masel, through
his attorney Jeff Scott Olson, is calling it a violation of his
constitutional rights and is making it a federal case.

The suit, filed June 12 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, seeks
punitive damages against the Kansas City police and demands a jury
trial.

According to the suit, on June 14, 2001, Masel was traveling by train
from Albuquerque, N.M., to Chicago. During a scheduled half-hour stop
in Kansas City, four plainclothes Kansas City police officers boarded
the train, walked past Masel and approached two young men. They said
they wanted to search them.

Masel stood up and, from about 12 feet away, addressed the young men,
telling them that the searches were voluntary, and they had a right to
refuse to be searched.

Officer Deb Sumpter, named as the defendant in the civil action, "told
Mr. Masel to get back in his seat and shut up," the suit recounts.
"Mr. Masel responded by saying that he was not going to interfere or
come any closer, but that he wanted to stay close enough to witness
what went on."

According to the suit, Masel asked the officers whether they had
probable cause to search the men or whether it was just an exercise in
racial profiling, since one of the men was African-American and the
other appeared to be Hispanic.

The African-American man refused to be searched and was then arrested
for obstructing an officer, the suit says. Masel was also arrested for
obstruction, handcuffed, taken to a police station, and required to
post $250 cash bond.

Masel's suit demands punitive damages to deter the police from
violating free speech rights, and says he deserves to be compensated
for his trouble, which included having to return to Missouri twice for
court appearances at which no one showed up to prosecute.

According the lawsuit, a municipal judge dismissed the obstruction
charges for lack of prosecution.