DENVER – The City of Woodland Park will have to pay a man $65,000 after he was blocked by the city and the city’s police department on Facebook.
The Aug. 3 settlement also states the city will have to remove sections from its social media policy that allow staff to remove posts they deem profane or vulgar and otherwise “inappropriate.”
Delbert Sgaggio was blocked from the Facebook page of former Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young “because he criticized a raid by Woodland Park police officers,” according to Sgaggios’ Attorney, Andy McNulty.
Sgaggio posted a video critical of the raid on the former chief’s Facebook page and the comment was removed. He then criticized the removal of his video and his comments were again removed from the page. He was then blocked from commenting on both the Facebook pages of the Woodland Police Department and the City of Woodland Park, his attorney said.
“This case sends a message to every public official in the country: respect the free speech rights of your constituents online or pay the price,” said Andy McNulty of Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP. “Woodland Park and its officials are acting like their counterparts in Russia, China, and North Korea that censor their citizens online. Luckily, in this country, we have the First Amendment and brave citizens like Delbert Sgaggio to protect us from oppressive government officials like Chief De Young otherwise, clearly, he would act just like Vladimir Putin without any repercussions.”
McNulty claimed this was the “largest settlement ever reached in a case stemming from a Facebook blocking by a public official.”