Anti-oil activist Chris Miller has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Hermosa Beach, seeking compensation for damages suffered in connection with the city’s response to an election-night gathering last March.
According to an e-mail from Miller’s attorney Morgan Ricketts, the suit was filed Tuesday afternoon. The complaint names as defendants City Manager Tom Bakaly, Police Chief Sharon Papa, Officer George Brunn, the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau, and Ken Hartley. Hartley was the head of the chamber at the time of last March’s election, but left several months ago and is now running for City Council.
The complaint alleges seven different causes of action, including violation of civil rights. In addition to compensation for legal costs and damages suffered, Miller is seeking at least $475,000 in punitive damages.
The claims stem from the evening of March 3, when Miller and others were celebrating the defeat of Measure O at the Standing Room on Hermosa Avenue. Measure O would have allowed drilling for oil in Hermosa’s tidelands. A Hermosa Beach police officer writing a ticket nearby claimed to have recognized Miller in the crowd and to have heard her leading the crowd in chanting obscenities about the police.
The city later hired an independent investigator to assess what took place that evening. Based on the results of that report, the city issued an apology to others in the crowd at the Standing Room, indicating there was not enough evidence to link them to shouting obscenities. But the report stood by the officer’s original assertions regarding Miller.
In previous interviews, Miller has denied shouting obscenities, but declined to say exactly what she said on the advice of her attorney. Miller and her attorney have called the independent investigator’s report biased and methodologically flawed.
Approximately three weeks after the incident, Chief Papa sent a letter to Hartley regarding the officer’s observations. Miller was subsequently removed from the chamber’s board.
Miller previously filed a notice of claim, a prerequisite for suing municipalities in California. In the notice, Miller alleged that the city’s response caused her “extreme humiliation” and deprived her of business opportunities.
In an interview Tuesday, Miller said that a negotiating team from the city consisting of city attorney Michael Jenkins and council members Peter Tucker and Hany Fangary had, in an attempt to settle the suit out of court, offered her a contract of unspecified value to write a book about the history of Hermosa Beach. Miller has already written two books about Hermosa, and declined the offer.
Tucker, reached by phone, said he could not comment on any aspect of the pending litigation. ER
