A group of First Amendment attorneys reached a unique and powerful settlement with the city of Eastpointe after its then-mayor shouted at residents and refused to let them speak during a public meeting in September 2022.
As part of the lawsuit settlement, the city agreed to designate Sept. 6, the day that Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens shouted down residents, as “First Amendment Day.”
On Tuesday, the council also voted to apologize to the residents — Mary Hall-Rayford, Karen Beltz, Karen Mouradjian, and Cindy Federle — and entered into a consent decree prohibiting the city from enforcing unconstitutional limitations on the public criticizing elected officials.
Each of the plaintiffs also received $17,910 in addition to attorneys’ fees.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in November 2022, alleging the mayor violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of four residents who tried to criticize Owens at a public meeting.
“The First Amendment protects every American’s right to criticize government officials,” FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick tells Metro Times. “With this settlement, Eastpointers can have confidence their voices will be heard and local governments can be left with no doubt there are serious consequences for violating the First Amendment.”
The first-term mayor, who was later convicted of fraudulently applying for a $10,000 COVID-19 grant, prevented residents from speaking during the September 2022 meeting, insisting they had no right to criticize her. As the meeting descended into chaos, with Owens berating a resident for explaining the First Amendment, the council’s four other elected members walked out of the meeting and didn’t return.
It wasn’t the first time Owens prevented residents from criticizing her during the council’s public comment period. According to the lawsuit, Owens frequently used her authority “to suppress dissent and criticism by interrupting and shouting down members of the public who criticize her or raise subjects she finds personally embarrassing.”
Owens, the city’s youngest and first Black mayor, ran for reelection last year but didn’t collect enough votes during the primary election to advance to the November general election.
Former Councilman Michael Klinefelt is now the mayor of Eastpointe.
Fitzpatrick says the settlement is a victory for free speech rights everywhere in America.
“Regular Americans should feel comfortable going to their local government or school board meeting and make their views heard,” Fitzpatrick says. “This is what American democracy is about. There are some countries where you can be put in jail for criticizing a public official or asking the wrong question. Luckily that is not the case in the United States of America, and the U.S. Constitution makes sure that is not the case.”
At the September 2022 meeting, residents were questioning Owens’s actions after she alleged that Councilman Harvey Curley, who is in his 80s, assaulted her by yelling and putting his hands in her face during the open ceremony for Cruisin’ Gratiot in June 2022. Owens was trying to speak at the event, but Curley was opposed, explaining that he didn’t want to politicize the event since it was operated by a nonprofit.
The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office dismissed the case, and the Macomb County Circuit Court denied Owens’s request for a personal protective order.
Hall-Rayford, a community activist, school board member, and former chaplain, was the first to speak at the September meeting, but she didn’t get far.
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Owens said as soon as Hall-Rayford began to speak. “We’re going to stop the council meeting because I’m not going to let you speak on something that has to do with police.”
City attorney Richard S. Albright informed Owens that she didn’t have the right to prevent a resident from speaking.
As part of the lawsuit in December 2022, the city agreed to prohibit Owens from interrupting or shutting down speakers during public comment periods.
