A Vermont man, Gregory Bombard, recently received $175,000 in a settlement after being arrested in 2018 for flashing a middle finger and cursing at a state police trooper. Bombard argued that his First Amendment rights were violated by the arresting officer, Jay Riggen. Dashcam footage showed Riggen pulling Bombard over twice in St. Albans and accusing him of giving him the middle finger, which led to Bombard’s arrest and two counts of disorderly conduct charges that were later dismissed.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021, highlighted that the police circulated Bombard’s mug shot to local news outlets after his arrest and even towed his car. Last Christmas, Bombard received another citation for disorderly conduct in connection with the 2018 incident after the dashcam footage was circulated, but the case was declined by a local prosecutor. Riggen retired from the Vermont State Police, and the state police did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement.
Cases involving gestures like raising a middle finger have sparked debates around free expression and law enforcement. In 2019, a federal appeals court ruled that the middle finger gesture is a form of free speech. Jay Diaz, a lawyer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) who represented Bombard, emphasized that officers cannot retaliate or arrest individuals based on personal ego.
Bombard received $100,000 in the settlement, with $75,000 paid to his lawyers at FIRE and the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. Diaz mentioned that his client was initially hesitant to sue but decided to do so after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 to expose police misconduct in his state. While Bombard was pleased with the outcome, he still felt the humiliation from the incident, showing that such experiences can have lasting impacts on individuals.