The Jack-Booted Thug of the Week...

...is Special Agent Craig W. Roegner, a member of the OG's of jack-booted thuggery themselves, the BATFE.

On April 19, 2004, a woman named Karen Kilpatrick was driving around Pensacola, Florida in her van, which had various statements such as "Remember the Children of Waco" and "Boo ATF" written on some of the windows. Agent Roegner saw Kilpatrick's van, apparently took some sort of offense, and contacted the Pensacola Police Department to make contact with her. The local cops pulled Kilpatrick over without any probable cause and held her until Roegner showed up.

Roegner, according to a court filing by Kilpatrick, arrived at the scene and searched her car and her person without her consent, removing her handgun (which she had a permit to carry) from her purse and unloading it. He subsequently "advised" her to remove the grafitti from her car "in an allegedly hostile and intimidating manner" (that's hard to believe, isn't it?). Ms. Kilpatrick states that she was not able to leave the scene of the traffic stop for over an hour (police records support this assertion), after which her handgun was returned to her and she was permitted to leave without any charges or citations, possibly because of the following circumstance:

"A camerawoman from a local news station arrived at the scene"

You know how those martinets detest having their little power-plays caught on video.

Ms. Kilpatrick has now enlisted the ACLU's help in suing Agent Roegner and the ATF for violating her First and Fourth Amendment rights and for false imprisonment. The agency (and through them, Roegner) filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the case. The judge denied the government's motion, however, and the case justifiably will proceed to trial, barring other pleas from the Feds.

Some choice tidbits from the ruling (All titles and emphases mine):

Violation of Kilpatrick's Fourth Amendment Rights

"Of course, Defendant asserts that Plaintiff consented to the search, but because
Plaintiff denies this and Defendants make no effort to show that they otherwise had probable cause for the search, the Court must conclude that there was no legal basis for the search."

Qualified Immunity for Agent Roegner

"Defendant, relying as he does on the assertion that Plaintiff consented
to the search, does not seriously contend that probable cause existed, and in any event no officer could reasonably conclude that such the pointless search performed in this case could be justified under the circumstances."

Violation of Kilpatrick's First Amendment Rights

"Under these circumstances, Roegner’s admonishment to Plaintiff to remove the writing from her van implies that her exercise of free speech provided the impetus for the stop."

Kilpatrick's False Imprisonment

"Under Plaintiff’s version of the facts, the Court cannot find that there was no intent to confine and is therefore unable to grant summary judgment as to her claim of false imprisonment."


In other words, the BATFE's plea to get out of any responsibility whatsoever for their agent's actions was answered with a big fat "NO" by the judge. In the immortal words of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective,

"Loooohooooo-suhhherrrrrr"

Maybe some personal financial losses will convince these fellows to stop their wholesale trampling of peoples' rights. After all, a judgment against the government only means that you and I are paying for the aftermath of their abuses.



(h/t to White Horseradish at the Forum for the link)