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Man Removed From Meeting Files False-Arrest Lawsuit

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TBO.com

Published: December 10, 2008

TAMPA - A Tampa man is suing two police officers, claiming that he was falsely arrested and battered after he was escorted out of a public meeting four years ago, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in circuit court.

Terry Neal was put into a Tampa police patrol car "with little air flow" and "became dizzy and disoriented" and dehydrated, according to the complaint filed by Neal's attorney, Matthew Farmer.

Tampa police Officer Scott Guffey told fellow Officer Kristoffer Babino that Neal was HIV positive, had hepatitis C and has "a violent mental illness," which is not true, Farmer writes in the complaint.

Neal was escorted from a Tampa City Council meeting on Dec. 9, 2004. A council member ruled Neal out of order during the public comment portion of the meeting and asked a plainclothes officer to remove him, the lawsuit states.

The State Attorney's Office did not pursue a disturbing public assembly charge against Neal, but filed a misdemeanor trespass charge, Farmer writes in the complaint.

Along with Officers Guffey and Babino, the City of Tampa is named in the lawsuit. Neal is suing for damages of more than $15,000 and seeks a jury trial.

Farmer said Tuesday that the parties named in the lawsuit have not yet been served and declined to comment further.

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