Lawrence receives second Federal Lawsuit for alleged Freedom of Speech violations within days of first lawsuit

Completely unrelated to the federal lawsuit for alleged First Amendment violations that were filed on Sunday, November 12 by Dr. Justin Spiehs, the government of Lawrence, Kansas has had a second lawsuit, also for alleged First Amendment violations, filed against it just three days later on Wednesday, November 15.

This 12-page lawsuit lists three plaintiffs: Phillip Michael Eravi, Chansi Long, and Lawrence Accountability, LLC.

Eravi is an advocate for government transparency and has regularly been critical of the Lawrence government on his YouTube channel, Lawrence Accountability. According to the lawsuit, Lawrence Accountability went from being a YouTube channel started on May 14, 2021 to being organized into a single member limited liability company on February 6 of this year.

Long is a former journalist for the Lawrence Times, a local news media outlet. Both Eravi and Long have reported numerous times on the homeless camp in Lawrence. On March 21, 2023, when they heard about a homeless person dying in the camp, the two arrived to report. The lawsuit states that both Eravi and Long “began documenting the conditions at the camp, the services provided by the City and how the homeless residents were coping.”

The city told Long she could not be in the homeless encampment and would end up leaving “under duress.”

The lawsuit also stated that “shortly thereafter, Sergeant Robinson advised Michael that he ‘was being trespassed’ from the homeless encampment upon orders from Thornton to do so.”

Cicely Thornton is the City’s Homeless Programs Project Specialist.

Advised by Sergeant Robinson to leave the homeless encampment under threat of being arrested for trespassing and that his enjoinment from entering the homeless encampment was “permanent, until it is lifted by Cicely Thornton.”

Eravi also left the encampment “under duress.”

A couple days later on March 23, Michael showed back up at the homeless encampment for clarification of the enjoinment. That day, at 3:51 p.m., Long was no longer being enjoined by the City from entering the homeless encampment, but Eravi still was.

A few more days later on March 27, Michael entered the homeless encampment where he was issued a municipals summons for trespassing by Officer Skylar Richardson. However, the City would dismiss the trespass action without prejudice on May 17, 2023.

In this case, there are two claims being made. The first is the 1983 violation of First Amendment rights in which all three plaintiff’s had the right to speak, the right to listen, the right to photograph and record, and the right to associate and assemble with other members of the City of Lawrence infringed upon.

The other claim is the 1983 abuse of process, which is a complaint that is specific to plaintiff Eravi, alone. With this complaint, Eravi is alleging that the City, Thornton, and Officer Richardson not only knew it was improper to report him as trespassing on public property but also “acted to have Michael issued judicial process, the summons, for trespassing to harass and/or cause hardship to Michael to prevent Michael from reporting to the public about the homeless camp and as retaliation for reporting Michael had done regarding City.”

With this lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ have made a demand for a jury trial in Topeka, Kansas.

Because this is a freedom of speech case, and again, it’s at the federal level, this is a huge deal and The Kansas Constitutional will be following it closely.