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Couple Sues East Hampton Village Police Over Arrest at 2012 Romney Visit

By
T.E. McMorrow

In a $5 million lawsuit against the East Hampton Village Police Department, a Wainscott couple claim they were tortured and humiliated in 2012 after being arrested for protesting during a fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at Ron Perelman's estate on Georgica Pond.

The two men, who are married, claim that their sexual orientation was part of the reason for their alleged mistreatment. They charge that their constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and their right to equal protection under the law were violated.

Simon Kinsella and David Fink, who filed their suit in the United States District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday, have also named East Hampton Village, Police Chief Gerard Larsen, Sgt. Jeffrey Erickson, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Capt. Michael Tracey, four unnamed officers, and Officer Eban Ball.

The two say in their complaint that they were flying a rainbow flag in their sailboat, the Trumpeter, on the afternoon of July 8, 2012, on Georgica Pond. They were planning to display a sign that read "Freedom to Marry for All Americans." According to the complaint, they were approached by a motorboat manned by Sergeant Erickson, who, they allege, told them they were not allowed to sail in the pond. They said that the sergeant did not identify himself as an officer.

Chief Larsen, who was out of his office on Thursday, said in a July 12, 2012, article in The Star that the two men had crossed a police line on the pond being patrolled by one boat. That line, the chief said, was drawn up by Secret Service agents, who are in charge of guarding the president and serious candidates for the office, which Mr. Romney was at the time.

In the lawsuit, it is alleged that the Trumpeter was rammed by the motorboat operated by Sergeant Erickson, after which the sergeant then took control of their boat, which they allege was badly damaged.

They claim that after the boat was rammed, Mr. Fink, who was wading to shore, was shoved and held underwater by four unnamed officers, who stepped on his back, for "an unreasonable period of time." Mr. Fink was "pummeled, manhandled, beaten," the complaint reads, "and publicly humiliated, and tortured repeatedly" by the four officers.

All this, they say, was visible to the 100 or so guests at the fund-raiser.

When he spoke about the arrests in 2012, Chief Larsen painted a very different picture of events than that portrayed in the lawsuit, saying that Mr. Fink, when confronted by law enforcement, attempted to flee by swimming to shore and then refused to get out of the water, "where he allegedy waded while screaming obscenities," according to The Star.

After being arrested, the lawsuit says, Mr. Kinsella was handcuffed to a chair at police headquarters, while Mr. Fink was handcuffed to a pole. Mr. Fink and Mr. Kinsella claim that the latter was denied his medication, which he is required to take daily for an unnamed condition, and that requests for medical attention and water by Mr. Fink were ignored. It charges that when Mr. Fink, who has cardiovascular difficulties, finally received treatment, his blood pressure was over 200.

The two men were both charged with the same three counts, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, and resisting arrest, charges that were dismissed in early 2013, the complaint says.

Mr. Fink and Mr. Kinsella are being represented by Frederick K. Brewington of Hempstead. The suit has been assigned to Judge Arthur D. Spatt and Magistrate Judge Steven L. Locke.

 

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