Mayor Greg Ballard's administration continues its unrelenting assault on lawful gun owners. Believe it or not, my office just received notice that the City is demanding that my client reimburse the City for "costs" it had in defending the Grady Scott gun matter.
Let's recap the facts of the case. The Indianapolis Police Department (prior to the IMPD coming into existence) came into Mr. Scott's house, tore the house up and seized two guns Mr. Scott legally possessed. It was later discovered that officers realized they had the wrong address on the search warrant. But IPD refused to return Mr. Scott's guns, instead demanding that Mr. Scott first undergo fingerprint testing. Scott refused pointing out quite correctly that fingerprinting wasn't an original requirement of his possession. (Nonetheless, he had already been fingerprinted when he bought the guns.)
Even though notified of Mr. Scott's intention to file a lawsuit, the City went ahead and destroyed his guns anyway, a fact the City failed to disclose until a lawsuit had been filed. Late last year the Federal District Court dismissed Mr. Scott's lawsuit on the basis that the 2nd Amendment had not yet been applied to the City and it was too late to amend the complaint to include a due process claim. (In its filings, the City had completely misrepresented to the Court that Scott had not made a due process claim.) Mr. Scott has asked for reconsideration by the court on the basis that in fact the Complaint had already contained a due process claim, and that the mislabeling of that claim was not a basis for dismissal.
Today the City filed a "Bill of Costs" demanding that Mr. Scott fork over $854.17 for expenses associated with Scott's efforts to get his legally-owned guns back that were wrongly destroyed by the City. Unbelievable. Is there any limit this administration has when it comes to its hostility to legal gun owners?
Let's recap the facts of the case. The Indianapolis Police Department (prior to the IMPD coming into existence) came into Mr. Scott's house, tore the house up and seized two guns Mr. Scott legally possessed. It was later discovered that officers realized they had the wrong address on the search warrant. But IPD refused to return Mr. Scott's guns, instead demanding that Mr. Scott first undergo fingerprint testing. Scott refused pointing out quite correctly that fingerprinting wasn't an original requirement of his possession. (Nonetheless, he had already been fingerprinted when he bought the guns.)
Even though notified of Mr. Scott's intention to file a lawsuit, the City went ahead and destroyed his guns anyway, a fact the City failed to disclose until a lawsuit had been filed. Late last year the Federal District Court dismissed Mr. Scott's lawsuit on the basis that the 2nd Amendment had not yet been applied to the City and it was too late to amend the complaint to include a due process claim. (In its filings, the City had completely misrepresented to the Court that Scott had not made a due process claim.) Mr. Scott has asked for reconsideration by the court on the basis that in fact the Complaint had already contained a due process claim, and that the mislabeling of that claim was not a basis for dismissal.
Today the City filed a "Bill of Costs" demanding that Mr. Scott fork over $854.17 for expenses associated with Scott's efforts to get his legally-owned guns back that were wrongly destroyed by the City. Unbelievable. Is there any limit this administration has when it comes to its hostility to legal gun owners?
3 comments:
After reviwing the Bill of Costs I am curious as to the per page cost or whatever metric is used to justified $854.17 for the recreation of a transcript.
The Bill of Costs doesn't reflect the cost of the transcript which is attached as an exhibit. (I didn't attach that.) The transcript cost is about $300 less. No explanation is offered for the difference. It probably won't matter because the City is too late to file for costs anyway. Still the chutzpuh of this administration when it comes to antagonizing gun rights activists is quite remarkable.
It appears that Grady Scott is being persecuted by the City of Indianapolis, for being a proud gun owner. That makes me very sad, and I appreciate being informed.
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