Gary Burgess, city reach agreement to settle suit
By Sarah Freishtat, Anderson Independent Mail, S.C. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Burgess was charged in
Burgess is a former
Attorneys for Burgess and the city declined to discuss specifics about the agreement because they signed confidentiality clauses, but Burgess's attorney, Fletcher Smith, said the terms agreed upon were "very substantial."
Burgess first filed the lawsuit in 2010. It was dismissed, then reinstated in 2013.
He said in the lawsuit that he was improperly arrested because there was no discussion of exchanging money. In the lawsuit, Burgess denied discussing sex with an undercover male police officer, but said even if he had that discussion, there was nothing illegal about such a discussion with another willing adult.
Burgess said in the lawsuit he was targeted on the basis of a perceived sexual orientation.
"It was a setup from the word 'go,' " Smith said Tuesday.
In 2009, according to the lawsuit, an undercover police officer approached Burgess in the park. Burgess rubbed his left leg, and the officer rubbed his leg back, according to the lawsuit. They then "kind of made eye contact," according to the lawsuit.
The officer followed Burgess up a hill to a picnic table and they began making small talk about the weather and not having to work that day, according to the lawsuit.
The officer then asked "what type of trouble" Burgess would like to get in, according to the lawsuit.
After the arrest, Burgess' educator license was temporarily suspended by the state
In the lawsuit, Burgess said the arrested harmed him financially, defamed him, and caused him emotional distress and "intense mental anguish and anxiety." He asked for punitive damages and compensation for attorney's fees, as well as for his arrest to be found unconstitutional.
He also sued the state
The city's insurance company will pay the settlement with
In 2012, the city reached a settlement with another man who was charged in 2009 with solicitation in a bathroom at
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