Justices decline to hear case of Ohio man who created fake police site

CLEVELAND — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the appeal of a Parma man who sued the city’s police department after officers arrested him for creating a fake police Facebook page that pilloried the department.

The high court did not give a reason why it made the decision to decline the case of Anthony Novak, who was charged in 2016 and later acquitted of crimes stemming from the Facebook page.

Novak sued the city after his acquittal, arguing the city trampled on his First Amend- ment rights to free speech. But the district and appeals courts sided with Parma, saying that qualified immunity shielded the city from civil liability.

Qualified immunity allows government officials, including police officers, to avoid being sued for violating a person’s rights while per- forming their jobs, so long as they do so in the scope of their duties.

The Supreme Court’s decision will allow the lower courts’ decisions to stand.

Novak, in a statement sent from his attorneys, said: “The government shouldn’t be able to arrest you for making a joke at its expense.

“I’m disappointed the Supreme Court won’t con- sider my case both because I won’t be able to hold the officers accountable for their violation of my rights, but also because I worry about what will happen to others who poke fun at the powerful,” Novak’s statement said.

The case in recent months garnered national attention, particularly after parody websites — the left-leaning The Onion and right-leaning The Babylon Bee — and others filed briefs in support of Novak’s case that mixed humor with serious legal arguments.

Novak’s attorneys, Patrick Jaicomo of the Institute for Justice and Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra, criticized the decision for its far-reaching effect on parody and free speech.

Jaicomo said the ruling essentially means qualified immunity overrides First Amendment rights in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Anthony’s Facebook page was the type of government parody that the founders intended to protect through the First Amendment,” Jaicomo said in a statement. “That everyday people can see the inside of a jail cell for their jokes on Facebook is yet another reason why qualified immunity must come to an end.”

Parma police arrested Novak in 2016 shortly after he created a fake police Facebook page that closely mirrored the look of Parma police’s official page.

The page, featuring posts skewering the department, was active for less than a day and received less than 100 followers. About 10 people called 911 to report the page. Parma police a few days later arrested Novak and seized his laptop and cellphone. He spent four days in jail and was later acquitted at trial of a fourth-degree felony charge of disrupting public services.