not guilty now what!?

[marque]

I was charged in the State of West Virginia, for destruction of property. The incident in a nut shell is this; I had been invited to play paintball at an old abandoned structure. A police officer invited me. He said we had permission to play there, I didn't question that. I too am a Police Officer from another location. Four of us Officers had been invited by this particular officer to play at this building. The security guard let us in. 26 people in all played on two separate occassions. Building is a former mental institution of the civil war era. Supposedly of historical credentials, deplorable condition, animal feces of every kind, broken windows etc. evidently the county commissioner discovered we had played there. He contacted the sheriff and caused an investigation to be conducted. this county commissioner is not the owner of the building. the media got hold of the story and drove it completely out of sorts. It was headlines for nearly a year. Prosecution coercied nearly all but one of the civilians to plead no contest by threatening "more than a fine" if they should ask for a trial. The four of us did ask for a Jury trial and were aquitted. during the investigation we were told by the sheriff that he was under political pressure and he didnt think we had done anything wrong, but he was going to go ahead and get warrants for us anyway and "hold them over our heads" until we paid restitution. whats more the person responsible for the building never filed a complaint. but was named as the complainant in the report. it appears the commissioner got the ball to rolling on this thing and then used it to recapture his elected position and of course the sheriff rode in on his coat tails. He had his cheif deputy sign the complaint. The cheif deputy testified in court that if we had worked at Kentucky Fried chicken this would have never have happened. the prosecutor had the assistant try the case. They win he wins they loose. He blames the assistant and still wins.
my question> Do we have some recourse legally against the county and the county commissioner and the sheriff? What about the news media? I'd like to sue them all but is that feasable? incidentally the media some months after our trial reported that we had pleaded no contest to the charges. Not True! this was in light of the one civilian who was also aquitted after a magistrate hearing. We have had our faces and names all over the papers and TV just becuase we were police officers. The media always mentioned our names but only once mentioned the others involved and that was when they read from a list. Our names had asteriks by them. Do I have a case? or not?

[Edited by marque on 01-01-2001 at 10:28 PM]

 

[HomeGuru]

That's one large nut.

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Hard to sue the media because you will have to prove malice as well as other things. If you were acquitted (i think), you can attempt to sue for malicious prosecution. false arrest, abuse of process. You get the idea. BUt you really need an attorney for this.

Try http://www.attorneypages.com or call your state bar and ask for lawyer referral.

 

[marque]

spoke w/ atty

I did speak with an attorney. I was advised that the case would be difficult because the circuit judge is so close to the sheriff and prosecutor that we would be hard pressed to get decisions in our favor, plus the media hype would be stirred up again. I was also told change of venue in civil cases are difficult. We did get a change of venue for the criminal process. What do you think the chances are with a change of venue far from this area...possibly to keep the media out of it?

 

[lukewall]

Don't ~Sue~ Give the story to Hollywood...