Boulder Colorado: Seth Brigham restraining Order hearing moved to mid June
The city of Boulder vs Seth Brigham restraining order hearing scheduled for Tuesday May 15 has now been moved to mid June. The city psychologist is in therapy until then and cannot be available. The city has submitted depositions from council members including Macon Cowles. Cowles has made reference to an AK 47 and it was not clear if cowles intended to shoot Brigham with an assault weapon.
The city has also gone through of 25 years of Brighams writings and excerpted quotes from Brighams poetry, articles and fiction. Legal experts tell Boulder Channel 1 news that the city would spend $25,000 to $50,000 just collecting depositions. They could spend an additional $50,000 preparing form the Hearing. They city will spend $100,000 before it evens gets to court.
Brigham’s attorney David Lane will virgorously defend Seth. They have decided to move ahead with a law suit against the city. This will cost Boulder an additional $100,000 to defend. Their likelihood of winning according to constitutional expert is zero and the city could stand to lose 1,000,000 to 5,000, 000 million dollars in this kind of suit.
Since the city is financially broke this money will have to come out the city 25,000,000 emergency fund.
Both the restraining order hearing and law suit by Brigham has opened the door for other first amendment suits against the city and could produce a spate of them.
The city has a history of human rights violations with Brigham and other free speech advocates: namely the Public access TV producers group where Brigham got his start of challenging the city .
Seth Brigham has been a columnist for Boulder Channel 1 and has participated in other investigations of the city including a 2006 congressional inquiry conducted by the US congress.
Brigham said late Monday May 14th that he was not going to back off. He said he would abide by the temporary restraining order, but that it was the city and not him who was in trouble.
Meanwhile , a ground swell of support seems to be rising. Former city of boulder Human Rights chair rob Smoke plans a protest tomorrow night at city council. Boulder weekly has a cover story coming out on this situation on Thursday. Westword has been writing about it daily. the Daily Camera seems to have sided with Brigham too.
Boulder channel 1 News has covered Brigham’s travails since 2005.
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